She’d like to kiss Aiden…

“Hi, Dad – whoa! Spiffy!” Lex stared at her father, standing at the open door to Uncle Howard’s apartment. “Going out to dinner?”

Dad flushed. “No, no. I’m doing laundry.”

“Oh. Well, can I come in?”

“Uh… sure.” He stepped aside so she could walk in, carrying paper shopping bags.

He shifted his weight from one leg to the other. “Uncle Howard’s out bowling tonight.”

“Yeah, I know.” She dropped the bags to the floor and bent to rub her knee. Man, it ached.

“You doing okay?”

“I got my brace off a couple weeks ago, but stairs are still killing me. Especially when I’m carrying something.” She opened one of the bags. “I found some of Mom’s stuff in my boxes. I wanted to know – ”

The doorbell rang. Lex moved to the door.

“No, wait, Lexie – ”

“Mary?” In a pretty pink dress, Mary stood on the doorstep. It was weird not to see her in gym clothes. “What are you doing here?” At Dad’s place. With Dad home, but not Uncle Howard.

Then it dawned on Lex.

Mary realized it at the same time. Her gaze shifted to the living room behind Lex. “You didn’t tell her?” Her irate voice shot over Lex’s shoulder like a bullet.

“Mary…” Her father’s voice sounded softer than Lex had heard it in a long time. But also more frightened than she’d heard it in a long time.

“Baka! I can’t believe you didn’t tell her.” Mary pushed her way into the apartment and stood toe to toe with Dad.

The late evening sun glinted into the living room, illuminating her father looking a little shriveled next to Mary’s strong, highly annoyed frame.

A smile tugged at Lex’s mouth.

Her dad cleared his throat. “Mary – ”

“Martin, you give her no respect. She’s your daughter. You know better than that.”

An unexpected tightness clenched behind Lex’s eyes. How strange.

She sounded too much like Mom, but in a voice so different.

“Now, M – ”

“The girls are always the last to know! Like she’s an afterthought.”

Wait a minute. “Dad!” Lex stabbed a finger at him. “You told Richard and you didn’t tell me?”

“Well – ”

“Dad, I can’t believe you!”

Mary waved a finger in his face. “She’s the one who took care of you for years, but you bothered to tell her brother and not her? Shame on you.”

“I was going to – ”

“I came over last week and you never said a word about dating anybody!” Lex’s voice roared in the little room.

“Lexie, I was going to tell you. Mary, this is Lex – ”

“We’ve met!” they both snapped at the same time.

Suddenly, Lex wanted both to laugh and cry.

Mary turned and approached Lex. “I’m sorry. When we met at the gym, I thought you already knew.”

Lex thought back to their first conversation. “No, Aiden had been talking about how faithful you were in coming to the gym every week, so I thought you were talking about him.”

“Aiden? Oh, he’s such a sweetheart. Unlike some men I know.” Her voice hardened. “Did you and your dad want some time -?”

“No, go out to dinner.” Lex opened the door. “I need to be alone.”

“Lex…” Her dad’s eyes peered at her with worry. Concern. Sorrow. Regret.

“I’m fine. Really. I just need some time. I’ll talk to you about it later.” She shut the door behind them.

“No, you’re going too fast.” Aiden snagged another exercise ball and joined her on the mat. He lay on his back and placed his feet on top of the ball. “Copy me.”

He lifted his body up off the floor in a bridging exercise, keeping his shoulders to the ground. She followed him. He lowered excruciatingly slowly. Her hamstrings burned.

“Good.” He set the pace for her entire first set of fifteen. She gulped for air when they finished, but he hadn’t even broken a sweat.

Too soon, he got into position again. “Ready?”

She got into position and nodded.

“One.”

“Hey.” Lex noticed Aiden had lifted one foot from the ball and extended it out, performing the exercise single-legged. He’d also moved the ball out farther.

“If I have to set your pace for you, I may as well get a little workout in.”

She ignored the jibe. “I want to try that.” She extended her good leg and tried a rep. Lex couldn’t even get her butt off the ground.

“Oomph! My bad leg isn’t strong enough.” She switched legs.

Oh, man! Lex barely got three inches of air before her back struck the mat again. She rubbed her aching hamstring.

Aiden did another rep single-legged. “It’s more advanced.”

Advanced? It was Superman-level.

“Come on, both feet on the ball. Keep up with me.”

She kept up with him – sort of. She had a tendency to drop back down faster than he did. He glared sideways at her. “Slower. Don’t cheat.”

Any second now, her hamstrings were going to twang out of her thighs like snapped guitar strings.

Lex liked just watching him – effortless, strong. Like when he’d pushed her on that run. A pleasant tingling spiraled in her stomach. She was such a sucker for an athlete. She forgot that Aiden excelled in sports other than volleyball – she kept seeing him like that first night at Nikkei, awkward and wild on the court.

He’s cute.

But he’s not a believer.

She struggled to finish the set. As she lay panting, she watched him do a few extra reps.

Look, but don’t touch. And don’t let him know you’re feeling this way.

It was all her back’s fault.

Lex had been feeling achy, so she yelled at the girls more than usual. After the girls had left, Vince pulled her aside before she walked out of the gym with her bag. “You were hard on them again today.”

She knew it but didn’t want to admit it. She shook off his hand. When would he get the hint and stop touching her? “Playoffs are only a few weeks away.”

“No, this is different. This isn’t playoffs. This is something to do with you.”

“What are you, my shrink?”

“I’m your assistant coach, and you’re not coaching them well.”

“What do you mean?”

“What are your real motivations for pushing them? Is this about them? Or about you?”

“I have no clue what you’re getting at.”

“Look, I know that your mom used to coach these girls’ mothers. I know why you formed this club team.”

“You only think you know.” Coming from Vince’s mouth, it seemed like such a sad, pathetic thing for her to do – something in honor of her mother.

“Getting the girls to win isn’t going to bring your mother back.”

“What? That’s ridiculous.”

“It seems like that’s what you’re trying to do.”

Lex rolled her eyes. “You are way off the mark, Vince. I’ve been having back problems, and it’s making me crabby. Should I admit that I’m PMSing too?”

“Now you’re making excuses to validate your denial.”

With a gust of frustration, Lex marched toward her car. “Goodnight, Vince.”

She had driven almost half a mile away when she realized she’d left her purse under the bleacher seat. She turned the car around, ignoring that alarming sputtering from the engine.

Vince’s accusations horrified her. Bring her mother back? Now that was just morbid.

Except… did a part of her sort of think that way? Did a part of her want to be here for these girls because her mother had been forced to abandon her old volleyball team, to abandon Lex years ago?

Mom had cancer. It wasn’t her fault.

But Lex had still felt abandoned. And she drove these girls and sacrificed for them because she didn’t want to abandon them either.

Oh, come on. This was stupid. Lex would not fall into some psychoanalysis pit. She was too complicated to compartmentalize like this.

She pulled into the parking lot. Another car had pulled next to Vince’s. It looked like Jennifer’s truck. No, it couldn’t be. Jennifer didn’t even know Vince. Lex got out and headed toward the gym.