Page 32 of Body Check
“I don’t drink much alcohol,” Dakota called after Gavin’s retreating back as he followed him toward the bar on the first floor.
Gavin threw a grin over his shoulder. “Who said anything about alcohol?”
Fifteen minutes later, Dakota found himself seated on a small orange velvet loveseat with a fruity, booze-free cocktail in his hand. It had watermelon, strawberry, and fresh mint in it, Dakota knew that much, but the rest was a mystery.
A delicious mystery, however, so he’d take it.
Gavin was, unsurprisingly, drinking something whiskey based. “What?” he said, shrugging when he caught Dakota giving him an unimpressed look. “I stuck to water at dinner.”
“How’s your head?” Dakota shot back.
Gavin laughed, waggling his hand back and forth. He was, unfortunately, extremely attractive when his eyes crinkled like that. “So-so.”
“How are the stretches going?” Dakota asked.
“They’re … going. I haven’t done them three times a day every day, but I’ve done more than I was before. So that’s progress, right?”
“Yes,” Dakota conceded. “It is.”
Gavin appeared to live off an extremely low carb diet, worked insane hours, and was dedicated to weightlifting. It was going to take a little more than a few stretches and Dakota periodically giving him shit about the lack of balance in his life.
Besides, Gavin had towantto do it.
“Honestly, I’m impressed you’re listening to me at all,” Dakota admitted.
Gavin bent his head. “What was that?”
“Hard of hearing?” Dakota teased, leaning a little closer.
Gavin shot him a rueful smile. “No. But this place is loud, even down here. Which I suppose doesn’t make me sound any less old and decrepit.”
“Old maybe. Clearly not decrepit.” Because the body underneath the snug black trousers and black button-down with the sleeves rolled up was very, very firm.
“Thank you,” Gavin said drily.
Built for vanity or not, Dakota had noticed Gavin’s musculature during their yoga session back in Boston and again in the SUV on the ride here. Gavin truly wasn’t built for middle seats in vehicles but it hadn’t escaped Dakota’s notice that Gavin had encroached intohisspace, rather than his twin brother’s.
They obviously had a rocky relationship, but either Gavin was a lot more interested in Dakota than he’d realized, or he was desperately trying to avoid any interaction with Thad. Dakota’s money was on the latter.
“So, you were going to explain your relationship with your brother,” he said aloud.
Gavin sighed, staring down at the drink in his hands. “I’ll try. There’s a lot Ican’tsay, for various reasons, but we … we’ve had a rocky relationship since our late teens. We both got caught up with some people who weren’t—weren’t the most savory types, we’ll put it that way.”
“And he ended up in prison for burglary, right?”
“Yes.” Gavin ruffled a hand through his short hair. “We had a falling-out around then. And things have never been quite the same between us since.”
“But you got him hired with the franchise anyway.”
“Yeah. A bit of an apology on my part, plus the hope I could keep an eye on him and expose him to some better people.”
“How’s that going?”
Gavin shrugged. “I don’t know. It hasn’t completely blown up in my face.”
There was an unspoken ‘yet’ that hung in the air, but Dakota wasn’t sure how to respond, so he merely nodded. “That’s good.”
“It is.”
