Page 60 of Keep On Loving You
“Hey there!” Kat was greeted by Kane, almost immediately. “I heard about your bike crash.” He looked at her wrist. “All better?”
Kat held up her arm and wiggled her wrist. “Good as new.”
“Glad to hear it.” He flashed his handsome smile at her. “Then there’s no reason for you not to join us for our weekly trail rides. Rumor has it you’re not working nearly as much these days.”
Kat shook her head. Kane had been trying to get her out on the weekly bike rides for years, but there had never been enough time in her schedule with the shop and…well, the shop. The ride with Andy where she hurt herself had been the first time she’d been on her bike in ages and besides the whole injury thing, it had been fun.
For all kinds of reasons.
“We’ll see. I’ll try to make it.” She knew she was blushing a little, and she didn’t want to give Kane the wrong idea. Not when he’d been flirting mercilessly with her for years. So she cleared her throat and smoothly changed the subject. “But that’s not why I’m here today. I was hoping you could help me out with some camping gear.”
“That was one hell of a workout today, man.”
Andy looked to his left to see Symon, dripping in sweat, lean against the wall next to him and drop his head back.
“You didn’t have to join in.” Andy couldn’t help but laugh at his friend. He handed him a bottle of water and shook his head. “Youarethe coach, right? You don’t have to do the athlete workouts.”
“The fuck I don’t.” Symon stood and stared at him. “I’ve only been retired for a few months…I’m not washed up yet.”
Andy finished tucking his things back in his duffel and pulled the strap over his shoulder. “You are far from washed up, my friend. You killed it out there.” Together, they started walking through the training facility where the Canadian ski team now trained. And Andy officially worked.
A detail he still hadn’t shared with Kat, but the secret was getting harder and harder to keep. Especially with the training camp in Switzerland coming up soon. Andy hated lying to her and the longer it went on, the harder it got to come clean.
But he wasn’t stupid. If he didn’t tell her, she was going to find out another way. And he knew her well enough to know she’d be pissed if it didn’t come from him.
“How’s the house hunt coming?”
Symon’s question pulled him from his thoughts and reminded him of an entirely different issue. Not only did he need to tell Kat about the job and the fact that he wasn’t leaving Trickle Creek anytime soon, but he also needed to tell her that he was house-hunting.
Which meant he would be moving out of her place.
And wasn’t that the real reason he hadn’t said anything?
If it wasn’t the whole thing, it was definitely part of it. A big part.
More than anything, Andy didn’t want to do something that would jeopardize what he had going on with Kat. Quite the opposite. Andy never wanted it to end.
And maybe that was the very reason itshouldend.
He was getting too close to her in a way that was notfamilialat all. No matter what lies he told himself.
It was getting far too easy to pretend that he could ever have a chance at anything real with Kat.
“You know what?” He turned to Symon. “I’ve been putting it on the back burner, but I think I should probably make time to look at some of the properties Jess keeps sending me.”
“Oh yeah?” They walked out into the bright sunlight of the summer day and each of them slid their sunglasses on. “Time to get out of Kat’s place? I was beginning to wonder how long you were going to stay there.”
Andy was grateful for the sunglasses hiding his eyes. He turned away, toward his car. “To be honest, I hadn’t thought much about it.” It was a lie. He thought about it all the time. “There’s been a lot going on and since I’m helping her out and…”
“That’s pretty cool of you.” They reached their parked cars, and Symon popped the back of his SUV open. “I know that Charli really appreciates you stepping in the way you have.”
Andy tried not to feel guilty about why exactly he’dstepped in.
“With the new baby, plus the flower shop and me working more, I know Charli wishes she could be there for Kat more than she is. It weighs on her.”
Andy could believe that. Charli was the caretaker of the family, for sure. Even if there was nothing she could personally do for Kat in this situation, it wouldn’t stop Charli from worrying about it.
“I’m happy to help,” he said without looking at his friend. “But truthfully, there’s not much I can do to help right now. Kat’s taking an art class, and she’s actually getting really good. Not that I’m surprised. I think she’s just naturally—what?” He turned to see Symon had taken his sunglasses off and was giving him a very suspicious look before sliding them back onto his face.
