Friends & Lovers Trilogy (40 page)

Rich closed the gap between them, bringing
his hand up to brush the hair from her face and leaving it there to
cradle her cheek. “You okay?”

Roni closed her eyes and turned her face to
kiss him gently on the palm. She opened her eyes and stepped back,
putting some space between them.

“
I’m okay. Let’s focus on
the Grand Opening today. You’ve been working so hard and I know
it’s going to be a great success.”

Rich looked at her, then nodded, “If that’s
what you want, but let me know if you need anything, okay?”

Roni nodded back and he turned to leave,
pausing when he reached the door.

“
We
will
talk
about what happened though.”

“
I know,” Roni responded,
then turned to finish getting ready.

As he walked through the building, he saw
the Art room was set up, the music room had recorders and
xylophones placed along the table, and Alex was warming up in the
Karate studio.

“
You ready?” Rich asked
Alex, popping his head in briefly.

When she nodded to him, he gave her a thumbs
up and kept going down the hall. Jason and the other boxing coaches
were warming up and using the equipment. Jason nodded to him and he
nodded back, then went to complete his walk through and head back
out front to open the doors.

Within an hour the center was alive with the
sounds of laughter and the excited chatter of children. It was
better than Rich could have ever imagined.

By the time Colin, Kent and Nicole arrived,
he had perma-grin.

“
Wow, it looks like a great
turn-out,” Nicole gushed. She gave Rich a quick hug, then said she
was going to see if Bree needed any help.

Rich smiled after her, then turned to his
friends. “I can’t believe it.”

“
I can,” Colin responded.
“This place is just what this town needed.”

“
Yeah, man,” Kent agreed.
“I can’t wait to get my gym membership. In fact, I’ll go back and
see if Jason and the guys need a hand with anything.”

Colin said he would catch up with Kent after
he checked on his fiancé. Once they were gone, Rich went to his
office to grab a water, before doing his rounds again.

He’d just opened the water and taken a sip
when nervous giggles had him turning towards the door. Twin girls
wearing pink leotards and pigtails stood watching him.

“
Hello, ladies,” Rich said
with a wink, causing them turn to each other and giggle. “What can
I do for ya?”

“
Hi, Mr. Rich,” the girl on
the left said.

Her sister followed it up with, “Can you
show us where the dance class is?”

“
It would be my pleasure,”
he responded, placing the water on the desk so he could take each
of them by the hand. “Let me be your escort,” he said dramatically,
as he led them towards the dance studio.

When they reached the studio, the girls were
so excited they practically vibrated.

Roni was teaching a group of kids how to do
a plié. He watched as she leaned down to whisper to a little girl
who was having difficulties. The little girl smiled happily when
she executed the simple move, and Roni’s obvious joy caused his
heart to flip in his chest.

He was falling in love with her. She was not
only physically beautiful, but had a beautiful heart. The way she
was with her brother and their friends, showed how selfless she
was. He loved that she didn’t take shit from anyone, including him,
and that she always had a comeback. Seeing her dance and the way
she interacted with the kids, just introduced him to more aspects
of her, and so far, he was lovin’ all of them. She was the total
package.

Roni looked up and started towards him and
the girls. Rich felt frozen in place as he tried to register what
his heart was feeling.

“
You guys here for a
lesson?” She asked, smiling at the twins.

They both nodded quickly and let go of his
hands yelling, “Thank you, Mr. Rich,” as they ran into the room
towards Roni. She gave him a small smile, then took the girls and
got them situated with the rest of the class.

The rest of his day went by quickly. The
bulk of it was spent making sure that everyone on staff had what
they needed, and his guests were having a good time. He did get a
chance to get in the ring with some of the teens who were
interested in boxing, which made the day even brighter. It really
proved to him that he’d made the right decision.

By the time the Grand Opening was finished,
he and the staff were ready to drop. They’d taught countless
classes and had been on their feet for over eight hours, but it had
been totally worth it.

Although he was tired, Rich walked around
and helped everyone clean up. He set up a time for them to meet and
discuss what worked and what hadn’t.

He was standing at the front, saying goodbye
to everyone as they left for the night, when Alex walked up.

“
Thanks again for doing a
great job today,” he told her.

“
It was fun,” she said.
“And I think a good number of the kids that tried the class will be
contacting you to sign up.”

“
Great,” Rich replied. Then
he remembered Jason and decided to do some recon for his friend.
“So, you got a hot date tonight?”

Alex looked a bit puzzled and replied,
“Nope. I’m perpetually single.”

“
Perpetually?” Rich asked
with a chuckle.

Before Alex could respond, Roni cleared her
throat behind them. Rich looked up and wondered at the look on her
face.

“
Everything okay?” He
asked.

“
Yup,” Roni responded. “I
just need to get going.”

Alex smiled unsurely at her, before turning
back to Rich and saying, “Well, thanks again, Boss. I’ll see you
tomorrow.”

Rich said goodbye, then turned to Roni as
Alex walked outside.

“
You’re leaving?” He asked,
disappointed that she wasn’t planning to stay so they could
talk.

“
Yeah,” Roni responded, not
quite meeting his eyes. “It was a long day.”

“
I was hoping you’d want to
grab some dinner, and talk,” Rich said, a little displeased by how
needy he sounded.

“
Not tonight,” Roni
replied. “We’ll talk later.”

“
Alright, but you can
always give me a call later, if you change your mind.”

“
Okay. Goodnight,” she said
as she walked out.

Rich watched her leave, as Jason came up
behind him.

“
Awesome turn-out tonight,
Bro,” Jason said, putting his fist out to pound Rich’s.

“
It was better than I’d
ever imagined,” Rich admitted.

“
I’ll be back early to get
some training in before we open.”

“
Sounds good, I’ll warm up
with you,” Rich said. “Oh, hey… Alex is single.”

Jason stopped and turned to his friend, his
eyebrow raised. “Oh, yeah?”

“
Yup,” Rich answered with a
grin. “Told me so herself.”

Jason returned his grin and said, “’Night,”
before walking out the door.

He locked up and did one last walk through,
stopping in the kitchen to grab the cupcake that Briana had saved
for him. He took it with him to his room, where he settled back on
the bed and let the day’s events replay in his mind.

He already had quite a few families’ sign up
for classes and they’d sold a good number of items in the resale
store. Eventually his thoughts turned back to Roni and the way
she’d reacted the night before. He couldn’t help but wonder what
was going on with her. He hoped she’d call so they could talk about
it.

She never did.

Chapter Eighteen

Roni had a raging headache. She really hoped
the aspirin would kick in quickly. She was on her way to the
center. She knew she couldn’t keep putting Rich off; she needed to
talk to him. She’d done a lot of thinking last night, and she
realized that she couldn’t continue to have a relationship with
Rich. Not even a casual one. Because it didn’t seem to be as casual
as it had started out to be.

Last night, when she’d heard Rich talking to
Alex, she’d been slapped in the face by jealousy. Roni knew what it
was like to be cheated on; she couldn’t help but think of how Hank
had slept with anyone that had given him the slightest
invitation.

She didn’t think that Rich was actually
hitting on Alex, she believed him when he told her that he wouldn’t
cheat on her, but she didn’t relish the feelings of jealousy. It
brought back memories of the person she used to be.

Rich flirted with girls without even
thinking about it, it was just his nature. She’d realized that even
more after she’d met his parents. It’s like he’d been brought up
that way. She’d thought she was used to it.

But when she’d seen the cute little Karate
instructor responding to Rich that she was single, she’d been
overcome by the green-eyed monster.

She didn’t like it. She and Rich were just
having a fling, emotions shouldn’t be involved. And the fact that
they seemed to be, meant she needed to take a step back.

She needed them to maintain a good
relationship, since they were going to be working together.

Roni felt a pain in her heart at the thought
of telling Rich they needed to stall their relationship. She was
surprised to realize that she was going to miss being able to touch
him and be with him.

She checked his room first, but it was
empty. She smiled at the site of his unmade bed and his clothes
piled into a ball in the corner. He was such a guy.

That just reaffirmed that she was getting
too involved, she thought, she should not think his messiness was
endearing.

Roni shut Rich’s door and made her way
towards the back. She figured he was either in the fitness center
or the boxing gym.

She heard them before she saw them, the
grunts of guys and the sound of flesh hitting something. When she
rounded the corner, the site before her stopped her in her
tracks.

They were both shirtless, with boxing shoes
and trunks on.

Jason had the boxing mitts on. His toned
body glistened with sweat. His dark hair and strategically placed
tattoos made a striking picture, but Roni only had eyes for
Rich.

His muscles rippled underneath his naturally
tanned skin with each punch he threw. He anticipated Jason’s
movements and met the mitts with his gloves, his hits fluid. The
noises that he made seemed to resonate in the pit of her belly
causing heat to pool there.

“
They’re something, aren’t
they?” Alex said as she came up behind her, causing Roni to
jump.

“
Oh, my gosh,” Roni said
bringing her hand to her mouth. “You scared me.”

“
Sorry,” Alex said,
stopping next to Roni to watch the guys who were oblivious to their
audience. “I thought you heard me walk up.”

Roni just shook her head, then turned to the
other woman with her hand extended.

“
I don’t think we’ve
officially met, I’m Roni.”

“
I know… You’re the boss’s
girl,” Alex said with a smile as they shook hands. “I’ve seen you
around, but I guess we’ve just never had the opportunity to talk
before.”

“
Oh, I’m not Rich’s girl,”
Roni denied with a shake of her head.

Alex just smiled at her and shrugged her
shoulders. “I think he would say differently.”

They stood quietly for a moment, enjoying
the sight before them. When the guys took a break and Jason put his
head back to squirt water in his mouth and over his head before
running a towel down his chest, Roni heard Alex’s intake of breath
and looked over at her face.

Roni smiled at her look of longing. Alex
turned and blushed when she realized she’d been caught. She
shrugged again and said, “I can’t help it, he’s pretty
amazing.”

Roni nodded her agreement, “And he’s a
really nice guy. You should go for it.”

“
Oh… no,” Alex said with a
small smile. “He’d never go for a girl like me. I work for the
mayor and do Karate in my spare time. Not exactly his type, I’m
sure.”

Roni was surprised at the other woman’s
evaluation of herself, but Rich noticed them before she could take
their conversation any further. He nodded and gave her the
one-minute sign.

Alex turned to leave and said, “Well, I’m
going to go check the messages and see if I’ve gotten any more
sign-ups. I’m hoping to get my first class going by the end of the
week.”

“
Okay,” Roni responded with
a smile. Then she turned and called out, “Hey, Alex. We should hang
out sometime.”

Alex smiled broadly and said, “Yeah, I’d
like that.”

Roni waved at Jason and turned to Rich who
was walking up to her with a towel slung around his neck. She
couldn’t help but notice how perfectly toned his abs were, and she
loved the cut of his muscles as they disappeared below his
trunks.

Shit, she needed to focus.

“
Hey, sunshine,” Rich said
with a beautiful smile before he leaned in and kissed her softly.
Careful not to get any sweat on her.

“
Hey,” she responded,
regretting the fact that she was about to lose the ability to kiss
him softly.

As they walked towards his room he asked,
“Did you have a good night last night?”

“
Pretty much,” Roni said.
“I went to sleep soon after I got home. I was pretty
tired.”

“
Yeah, it was a great
day.”

Roni hated to wipe the smile off of his
face. She started to feel hot and sweaty all over, her hands
dampening with the thought of hurting him.