Page 10 of Try Hard
She laughed. In all the time since I’d last seen her, she didn’t seem to have changed much. Still large as life with a laugh you couldn’t help but pay attention to.
“That’s a great laugh,” Margot said, stopping in front of the two of us and saying the words I wouldn’t.
Margot was a woman in her mid-forties who’d gotten roped into the plane watching thing by her ex-boyfriend. She’d been surprised to find she loved it, and the group loved her, so, when they’d broken up, she’d kept the group and he’d given up on it entirely. And she’d spent my first forty-five minutes here telling me all the dirty details about said ex and the breakdown of their relationship.
“Thank you,” Eve said genuinely. “I really love your hat.”
Margot glowed. “Calvin made it,” she said, gesturing to the blonde man who was rubbing his hands together for warmth beside my dad. “He’s so talented with a pair of needles.”
“Are we talking medical or knitting?” Eve asked with a laugh.
Margot giggled like she was being flirted with, and I couldn’t tell whether she had a crush on Eve or she was simply flattered by a celebrity chatting with her.
Of course, it wasn’t particularly difficult to see why someone might have a crush on Eve—she’d stopped playing rugby, but she clearly still worked out. Even through the ski pants she was wearing, her thigh muscles were painfully obvious. And, of course, there was her warm, bubbly personality. People liked that. A lot. They always had.
Margot held out a pair of hand warmers. “Do you ladies need some of these? I have extras.”
Eve looked like all her Christmasses had come at once. “Margot, you’re a lifesaver. I haven’t been able to feel my feet properly for about fifteen minutes.”
“You’re joking, right?” I asked, more sharply than I intended.
Margot didn’t even seem to notice me, still too swept away by Eve, but Eve looked at me with soft eyes I didn’t deserve.
“Yes, I’m joking,” she said solemnly. “My feet are a little cold, but I can still feel them.”
I felt my insides burning in embarrassment at how I’d overreacted. Of course she would have said something if her circulation was genuinely struggling. She’d been a professional athlete with access to some of the world’s best doctors. There was no way she’d mess around with her feet like that.
“Well,” Margot said, inserting herself between us, “take these and put them in your shoes. They’ll warm you right up. And, if you feel like you need to get the blood flowing a little more, I’d be happy to take a lovely walk with you.”
Flirting. She definitely thought Eve was flirting.
Maybe she was. I didn’t know Eve from… Ha. Adam. I had no idea if she was single or married or in an open relationship or attracted to Margot, and it was really none of my business. Even with all of the attention she’d received over the years, Eve had kept her dating life impressively private.
Should I have backed away to give them a minute? Probably. I didn’t move, though.
Eve smiled and patted Margot’s shoulder in thanks. “I’ll keep the offer in mind, and, in the meantime, thanks for these. I can already feel them warming me up.”
Margot giggled again. “You haven’t even activated them, silly.”
“I know. Just the anticipation of warmth is enough to get me going.”
I shot Eve a look. That was one hell of a conversational choice with a woman who was clearly quite taken with her. She simply smiled back at me like nothing untoward had happened. I didn’t think she was that clueless, though. The Eve I’d known in school was sharp, attentive. She wouldn’t have missed the undercurrent of the conversation.
Was that a sign she wanted me to leave them to it? It didn’t look like it, not with the way she was smiling at me, but who was to say, really?
“Oh, well,” Margot said, blushing and stumbling over her words. “I’m glad I could be of service.”
“And I truly appreciate it,” Eve replied, looking both so smug and so sincere at the same time that it was difficult to read her.
“Yes. You, erm, well, you let me know if you need a… buddy for a walk.”
“Will do.”
Margot walked away, seeming more than a little dazed. I watched with narrowed eyes until she was out of earshot. “You did that on purpose,” I accused as Eve held one knee in the air, stripping her boot off to place a hand warmer inside.
“Did what?” she asked, her voice the picture of innocence.
“You know what.”
