Page 35 of Every Time We Touch

“During that first training session with you, I just flirted because you’d been kicking my ass and I needed a break.”

“You think I usually allow flirting during sessions?” There’s that voice again. A few years ago, it could drive me completely wild.

“You flirted back because you liked me?” I bat my lashes. Although I’m still unsure about what point Marcy is trying to make exactly. It’s not as if we made it as a couple, despite that initial attraction. There was also nothing standing in the way of us getting together. I was just her client, but there’s no professional ethics code for personal trainers, not even the extra tough ones like Marcy Baptiste.

“What I’m saying is that we both felt that spark,” Marcy says. “How long has it been since you felt that?”

“Since then, but you weren’t dating my dad.”

“I’d never date your dad, so there’s that.”

“Or my mom.” This conversation is getting more ridiculous by the minute.

“Can you imagine?” Marcy chuckles. “Mimi hated me with a vengeance for whisking Nora from her bed at five a.m. I remember the first time she slept over at Nora’s. I gave her the silent death stare at breakfast.” Marcy laughs the kind of hearty laugh you could never tell she has in her just by looking at her. When Marcy and I were dating, this story became the stuff of legends at my mother’s brunch table.

“I know you,” Marcy says. “Better than most.”

“Please, Marcy, don’t plant this seed in my head.”

“I don’t think there’s a lot of planting left for me to do.” She looks me in the eye. “But if it’s permission from another human being you need, I’m giving it to you.”

“It’s not yours to give.”

“Yeah, well, you can hardly ask Heather for her blessing to get in touch with Clancy.”

“Argh,” I groan. “I should tell Heather.”

“Don’t tell Heather,” Marcy says. “Don’t do that. I know what you two are like and you will only take her word as gospel.” She shakes her head. “Eric’s her dad, too, and she can’t look at it from an outsider perspective like I can.”

“Are you really telling me to text Clancy?” My turn to shake my head. “I simply can’t do that.” I’m not sure I could even move my thumb across my phone to accomplish this… utter madness.

“Of course you can.” She holds out her hand. “Because I will help you do it.”

“I’m not giving you my phone.”

“I matched with this woman so you could confront her about being on the app. You used me, so you owe me.”

“That’s all water under the bridge now.” It’s also what started all this.

“It’s either that or we swipe the app until you find someone to match with.” Marcy gives me another one of her looks. “Take it from your bestie. You need to get some, girl.” She chuckles low in her throat. “Those tango lessons have left you damn horny.”

“W-what the⁠—”

“Oh, I know when you’re horny, Jen. Don’t even try to argue about that with me.”

That kind of kiss would leave the coldest stone horny. “Don’t bully me into something I don’t want to do,” I say, my words very much contradicting how I feel inside.

Marcy doesn’t even respond. She wiggles the fingers of her outstretched hand.

“Don’t take it so seriously,” she says. “You can always ask for forgiveness after.”

“I’ll do it myself.” Because, of course, I want to. I just said it out loud and, with that, admitted it to myself. Maybe the real reason I said it was so that Marcy could do what Marcy does: be persuasive.

I take my phone out of my purse.

Chapter 18

Clancy