No Rep (Madd CrossFit #1) - Lani Lynn Vale Page 0,53

upset sister.

“I’ll watch out for her,” I promised.

Mavis narrowed her eyes. “You better.”

“I’ll never leave her alone,” I promised.

“You better not.” She crossed her arms.

“When I need to do something, I’ll call you. Or Madden. Or someone. I promise. She’ll never be alone,” I repeated myself.

Mavis sighed. “Don’t call Madden.”

My lips quirked up. “Why?”

Mavis sighed again. “Because I don’t think I want to be around him at all right now. And if my sister is around him, I’ll be forced to be.”

I didn’t bother arguing with her.

In fact, instead of doing any of that, I went to Fran’s bedroom, surprised to find her emptying out her drawers.

“Coming for the long haul?” I teased.

Fran looked at me and flushed. “I just… I have a lot of workout clothes. And I’ll need workout clothes, and regular clothes, and pajamas, and I don’t know how long that I’ll have to be there so…”

“It’s okay,” I teased. “I was just kidding.” I paused. “If you want to go ahead and move in permanently, you could.”

She looked at me in surprise. “Really?”

I opened my mouth to deny it, but then realized that despite my joking nature, I really wouldn’t mind her moving in with me.

“I definitely wouldn’t mind having you there,” I told her honestly. “Then I wouldn’t have to say goodbye to you every night because you’re too scared that I’m going to get tired of you.”

She opened her mouth and then closed it. “I-I just don’t want… I don’t want to overstay my welcome.”

My lips quirked at one corner. “If I thought that you’d overstay your welcome, I wouldn’t have asked you to stay,” I told her honestly. “Baby, I’m a pretty open and honest man. If I feel like you need to know something, I’ll tell you. If something is bothering me, I’ll tell you. If you’re doing something that’s getting on my nerves, I’ll definitely tell you.”

Her lips quirked.

“And if I need some time alone, I can just go to the gym. Or go to my office which you’ve yet to follow me to. Or, I’ll just plain ol’ tell you I need a break,” I informed her. “But the same goes for you. If you need a break, tell me. I’ll give you a break. If you want me to go fuck off, tell me. I’ll go fuck off. That’s the point of communication.”

Fran rolled her eyes.

“And while we’re on the subject of being honest, I know who your grandmother is. Everyone knows who your grandmother is, because she’s a fuckin’ bitch. Trust me when I say the name Pope is very symbolic around here. There’s no way that I wasn’t going to know who you were related to.”

She snickered. “I’ll bet your grandmother is way nicer than mine.”

I smiled then. “There’s no fuckin’ doubt in my mind that she is.”

• • •

“I want you to meet her,” I said as I helped her bring her things into my house.

After driving around for the last half an hour, making sure we kicked all the reporters that thought to follow us, we finally arrived at my home.

Not that it would be a secret for long.

It wasn’t unknown with the town that Fran and I were seeing each other.

I was sure, rather quickly, news would spread that she was staying at my place.

There was no way that I could keep it a secret with my nosy neighbors.

“Are you sure that it’s not too soon?” she asked quietly.

I grinned. “Sleep on it. And if it bothers you because it’s too soon, how about you think about the fact that there’s a serial killer out there? You can say that you’re staying until this motherfucker is caught. For now, I have other, more enjoyable topics.”

She frowned. “What?”

I ripped my shirt off over my head, then went to start on the jeans.

Her eyes went down to where I was slowly popping each individual button out of its slot, and she licked her lips.

“I’ve missed you these last few weeks,” I mused as I got to the end. “You’ve been avoiding me.”

Her eyes flicked up to mine.

“I…” She paused.

“Have been avoiding me,” I repeated. “You’re dodging my calls. You can only meet me for a short amount of time. Is it because I picked the case back up?”

Her eyes were pulled from the V that made up the muscles to my pelvic region to my eyes.

Her eyes said it all.

She was scared.

And not because of what happened today. But scared in general. Maybe of this feeling