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“What do you mean you don’t need it?”
“I’m not doing the marathon. There’s no point.”
Luke blinked at her, like he was trying to decipher the words. “You can’t just...not do the marathon...”
“Yes, I can.” Once again she tried to give him back the training plan.
“After all the work you’ve already put in? Why?”
“Because I realized I’ve been tripping over myself to impress people at work who aren’t interested in being impressed by me. I asked Jack to pull our proposal, and leadership won’t notice whether I run the marathon or not.”
“Is that really what you think this has all been about? You really think you’ve dragged yourself here for the last five months to impress your firm?”
“That’s always been the case.”
“So you see absolutely no benefit to all the obstacles you’ve overcome, all the miles you’ve put in? Not one part of you thinks you should run this race for more than just your firm?” He was clearly frustrated, which was making her frustrated too.
“I know it’s for charity,” Lydia said, rolling her eyes and crumpling the papers in her hand. “This won’t affect the firm’s donation.”
“I’m not talking about the charity here!”
“Then what are we arguing about?”
He stood. “I guess I just expected more from you. I never would have put all this extra time in if I didn’t think you were serious about your goal.”
“Look at it this way, your schedule has just opened up a lot, and now you have more time to work on your business plan.”
“That’s not what I was getting at.”
“Then I don’t get why you care so much! I hired you to help me with the marathon, the marathon is now off the table. So we can just...let it go.”
“And that’s it?”
“Yeah. That’s it. Everything goes back to normal.”
“Normal?” Luke shook his head. “You’re quitting because of Jack. You think you’re sticking it to the firm or reclaiming control or whatever, but you’re not. You’re letting him influence you. Again.”
“I don’t know what your hang-up is with Jack, but you need to get over it. Yesterday—”
“I don’t care about Jack.”
“You’re sure? Because you sound kind of jealous every time his name comes up,” she said without thinking. She wasn’t even sure what she was saying or why she was snapping; she just hadn’t expected Luke to question her decision like this, especially after ignoring her the way he had.
“Well, can you blame me?” he said, surging to the door and closing it as his voice pitched. When he turned back to her, his brow was furrowed, his chest heaving. “I have...feelings for you, Lydia. More than just sometimes-friends, casual-sex kind of feelings. I was trying to make it through to the end of the marathon before I said anything, to make sure I fulfilled my obligations to you as your trainer, but seeing as you think quitting is the answer to all your problems—”
“What?” she breathed as his confession sent her pulse racing. Everything inside her warred, somehow both hot and cold at once, making her shiver. “But we agreed...”
“When did we once follow the rules?” he asked.
“Luke—”
“I thought...maybe...but then I saw you with him.”
Lydia didn’t look at him, she couldn’t. That’s why he’d been so hurt. That’s why he’d practically run down the street, away from her, avoiding her texts, her calls. She hadn’t just bailed on training and wasted his entire day, she’d broken his heart. All for a kiss that meant nothing. Those coils of tension tightened in her chest once again. “Yesterday with Jack wasn’t anything. It was a mistake.”
“Sounds familiar,” Luke said under his breath.
She winced at that. Ashley’s words echoed in her head. She jumped into things, and that hurt people. She didn’t want to do that to Luke, or to herself. “This was supposed to be casual,” she found herself saying. This wasn’t what they were supposed to be talking about today. This was supposed to be about the marathon. “There were never supposed to be these kinds of feelings between us.”
