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Authors: Karina Sharp

Fighting for Arielle (10 page)

BOOK: Fighting for Arielle
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“Till next
time,” I smile reassuringly.  “Goodbye, Arielle-
Arrr,
like a pirate.”

Giggling, but not quite as warmly as before, she allows her smile to fall.
 


Hasta luego
, McCrary!”

As she takes her leave from my office and my presence, I can’t deny the fact that she also takes a piece of me with her.

Chapter
10

 

 

Arielle


H
ow did your meeting with the JAG go?” Macy asks as she walks in the door, perky as always.  

I feel bad that I didn’t text her about it yesterday, but I was so shocked and surprised and happy and sad and a bunch of emotions that I couldn’t precisely decipher.
 The fact that my dream man is the JAG officer handling my case and that he now has a real name, only makes my feelings more confusing.  

Macy puts her gym bag down and sits next to me, sipping her soy latte.
 

I grin at her like a fool, despite tryin
g to play down my excitement.  “You will never guess what happened.”

Scrunching her eyes closed as if trying to be a fortune teller, she says, “Ummm...  Walking out of the office yesterday, you met a super wealthy model who offered to buy you your own private island
, and you’re taking me with you.”

I laugh heartily
and am impressed by some of her accuracy.  I make a buzzer noise and say, “So close, but no cigar.  He was just moderately wealthy, and I’m not taking you with me.”

“That would just be cruel,” she pouts.

I lean toward her to let her know what I am about to say is kind of a big deal.  “My JAG officer, who wasn’t really supposed to be the one handling my case, but I guess my freak out made him take pity on me and is now handling it, is the same guy from the burlesque show AND from the club that night.”

Her mouth drops open and her eyebrows raise in surprise.
 “Mick is your JAG guy?  Mick- the guy that is totally hot and only seems to have eyes for you- really, really stupid gorgeous eyes?  THAT Mick?”

I gesture my hands wildly because when
I hear it aloud, I myself can hardly believe it.  “I know; it’s crazy!  And even crazier is that he has a real name.  His name is actually McCrary.”

Macy wrinkles her brow and nose.
 “Is that his first name or his last name?”

“It’s actually his middle name.”
 

Macy look
s really confused now.  

“Yeah, I don’t really know either, but I guess he doesn’t use his first name at all, so he’s Lieutenant Commander J. McCrary Ashby.”
 I say his name with pride in my voice whilst holding my chin a little higher.

Shaking her head, Macy says, “Oh wow...
  I didn’t expect that at all.”

I know exactly how she feels.
 I couldn’t make this up if I tried.  “Me either,” I agree with her.

“So, I guess the jig is up on the whole Marta thing, huh?”
 Macy looks over to me with her mischievous grin that I’ve grown to know well.

I shrug my shoulders.
 “Yeah...just a little bit.”

I tell Macy the whole story about my bursting into tears in the JAG office, McCrary meeting with me instead, his recognizing my tattoo
, his asking me tons of questions, and his guessing the song I was singing.  

“Your tattoo helped to give you away?
 Well, if your parents were ever against tattoos, you can tell them that yours could possibly have been your key to true love.” Macy brings her hands together under her chin and bats her eyelashes.

I laugh, but say dryly, “Something t
ells me they still won’t be one hundred percent on board with the permanent body art.”

 

O
ur day continues uneventfully as usual, and we get through all of our workouts.  Needing a bit of a distraction from all of the craziness that has unfolded over the past few days, I am actually looking forward to Buffet Hour.  Normally, I walk through the gym with Macy, watch her gab while I kind of ride on her coat tails, gawking at men, but today, I feel a little more confident and can feel myself walking just that much taller today.  I am pretty proud of myself for taking some initiative and control over my life.  I’m also still floating on cloud nine from memories of my dancing with McCrary and subsequent gain of the knowledge that his name is actually McCrary.  It was a bit liberating to give him my real name and hear him address me with it.  He never shortened it like my friends and family do either, which made me feel somewhat special.

I see James, the front desk attendant, talking to someone, but I can’t tell exactly who from the other side of the gym where I stand.
 Upon closer inspection, I am pretty positive I know that torso and that it belongs to none other than our infamous Mr. Yummy.  Boldly, I decide to get a closer look, and maybe even introduce myself, but not so boldly because I use James as an excuse to get closer.  

I plan to ask James a random question about...I don’t know...towels?
 I choose to work out the kinks later and head over to him without much more thought.  

Stepping cheerfully up to him, I say, “Hey James!” which I know was super smooth and original.
 “What are you up to?”

I can’t manage to look up at the hottie because James is looking at me confused, and I am now feeling a little self-
conscious.  I realize that maybe my plan was not as great as I initially, for lack of a better word, planned.  

James begins to answer, but before he can get out more than “Hey,” a velvety smooth voice overpowers James’.
 

“Arielle?”
 

The way my name is said is as if it’s being sung by a c
horus, and just by saying my name, I immediately know that voice.  I look up to see McCrary, aka Mick, aka Mr. Yummy, and I can’t help but smile.  

“Hey you!
 What are you doing here?”  

He smiles sweetly in return and opens his mouth to respond, but my big mouth continues.
 

“Well, obviously this is the gym
, and you work out in gyms... I mean, I didn’t...  Ummm...  How do you know my friend James here?”

I can see that he’s searching my face for clues as to my true intentions in coming over to James, and his lips press together in amusement
when I’m sure he figures me out.  

“I happened to j
ust meet your friend here.  I was helping him un-rack some heavy weights that someone else rudely left on the leg press.”

“Oh…”
 

I’m finding
myself getting tongue-tied a lot lately.  Not knowing exactly what to say next, I joke, “Boy, they just let anyone in here, don’t they?  Where are the standards, James?”

“H
uh?”  James asks, still unsure of what I’m doing.  

I urge him to play along with my eyes.
 

“Oh, well that’s why we we
re taking the weights off.  If I find out who did it, I will report them.”

Realizing he didn’t get my joke or my subtle hints with my eyes, I figure
it’s up to me see this charade through and drive it home.  

“I wasn’t talking about that.
 I was talking about your new friend here.  I didn’t realize that we let his kind in such an exclusive place.”  I sweep my hands in front of me, gesturing around the room as if this hot, dirty, unairconditioned gym is some elitist facility.  

McCrary looks down at me and asks, “You work here, right?”

With the look he not so subtly gives me, I see that he’s trying to decide how best to approach his prior knowledge of my current occupation. 

James looks ever-confused and
now a little annoyed.  He looks over to McCrary and says, “Weren’t you just asking about her and whether she was working today?”

My eyes da
rt between the two of them.  While I wonder what must be going on in McCrary’s head, I do a little happy dance inside of mine because James just revealed to me that McCrary was expecting me and even looking for me. 

“She’s the only person who works here who is, how did you say it?  ‘Petite, curvy, perky, and really cute?’” James continues.

  Dancing on the inside or not, I decide to ignore James and follow McCrary’s lead.

“Yuppers.”
 I place my hands on my hips and make my best Wonder Woman pose.  “I happen to be a Navy Fitness Specialist, which means I get to kick butt and take names of active duty guys who can’t pass the physical fitness test.”

McCrary laughs a hearty belly laugh and says, “I bet you do.
 You do seem awfully fierce.”

“I totally do!
 And I have to put up with the bad attitudes of guys who are extremely unwilling to exercise under my watch!” I throw my hands up in exasperation.

McCrary leans i
nto my ear and says in a low, sexy tone, “I’m sure some of them are far more willing than you realize.”

“Mr. McCrary, you ought to slow your roll.” I playfully warn, talking back into his ear.
 “You don’t want to get on my bad side.  I’m small, but I’m scrappy.”

James continues to look
perplexed and walks away babbling something about going back to the desk.  

I hardly notice that James is gone because I am completely taken in by McCrary.
 Not only is he all luscious lips and dark, shadowy eyes, but his perfectly sun-kissed torso is on display, and I just want to let my hands wander all over it.  If that isn’t enough, the zeal I experience when he is around is so great, I think he could put his arms around me this instant, and I could die a very happy girl.  

As is normal for me to make jokes when I feel awkward, I ask, “Do you ever wear a shirt?” trying to play down my worshipping his physical acumen with my eyes.

“I believe I had one on in our meeting yesterday, and at the club on Saturday.”  McCrary places his index finger to his temple as if in deep thought.  “Although I can’t exactly recall, I am confident that I had one on when I met you at the burlesque show too.”

I roll my eyes at him and shoot back before I can think it through, “Yeah, but you never seem to have one on when you’re in here.”

McCrary flashes me a wicked look that makes me wish we were anywhere but in public so I can see what sort of wicked things to which that look is a precursor.  

“You’re saying you’ve seen me in here before?
 You seem to have just implied that not only have you seen me more than once in here, but that you’ve also taken notice.”

I try to back-track and play down the information I just gave him, which is that I’ve seen him and stared at him shirtle
ss and sweaty at least once before.  “Something like that…  Yes, I’ve seen you in here before, but you weren’t you.”  

McCrary narrows his eyes waiting for me to continue.
 

“That is, I didn’t realize you were you.”

“But you noticed me?” He positions his shoulders squarely to mine.

I balk at the preposterous notion that anyone could walk by him in this same state and not stop and stare.
 

“Why is that even a question?
 Of course I took notice.  Who wouldn’t?  You’re beyond gorgeous.  And that’s just your body.” 

Halting at the realization that I just admitted even more than I think I should have, I drop my voice with my chin.
 “As if you didn’t know that already…”

I think he wants to say more, but he presses his lips into a firm line and softens his eyes.
 

I do what I think I should and put this conversation on mute.
 “I should get back to the trainers’ office.  It’s time for me to go home.  So, I guess I will see you around?”

His lips turn up into his swoon-
worthy smile, and he says, “I guess so.”  

I reluctantly turn away from him and begin to walk to the gym office
, when from behind me he says, “It was a pleasure as always,
Arrr
-ielle.”

Not turning around, but grinning wildly on the inside, I wave my right arm above my head to say goodbye and float off into the gym office for the second time
since I started working here.

 

***

 

M
cCrary was right, I see him around the gym all of the time.  In fact, I think I see him around just about every day, which is far more often than it used to be.  We banter back and forth, and our conversations are beginning to truly be the highlight of my days.  Regardless of how exhausted I feel after leading the four daily workouts, he always manages to drudge up some life and energy in me, at least for the few minutes I talk to him.  

Macy has also gotten used to our routine.
 She knows that I no longer make the rounds with her through the gym because I just go straight to talking to McCrary.  Sometimes, she joins our conversations, other times she rolls her eyes and makes childish comments about how we should just “do it already.”

One day, someone gives me one of the worst pickup lines ever, and I’ve heard my fair share of terrible ones.
 Macy and I make a game out of coming up with or reciting horrible pickup lines.  

“Do you have a tail?
 Because I thought all foxes had tails.  Blech!” Macy sticks out her tongue and mimes sticking her hand down her throat and gagging.

BOOK: Fighting for Arielle
6.92Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
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