They were coming to the end of their workout, and Six began to stretch. If he didn't, he'd walk like an old woman in the morning. He rested his left hand on the wall, kicked his foot up to his butt, and gripped it with his right hand. His quad groaned in disagreement at the move, but he knew it would thank him within a minute.
"Hi. Are you new to the gym?" A cute woman with bright blue eyes and blond hair piled up in a messy bun on top of her head walked into view. She wore neon leggings that showed off a very defined ass and a sports bra that highlighted her saline-filled assets. Usually one of his favorite combinations, but now she seemed a little … obvious. At least when compared to Louisa. But it took guts to walk up to a guy you didn't know, so he humored her.
"I'm an old friend of the owner. Been out of town for a few years. What about you?"
She pursed her lips, suddenly looking very confused. "The owner has been out of town for a few years?" she asked.
He couldn't imagine Louisa confusing what he'd said. He'd put money on it that she wouldn't have mixed things up. "No, I have," he explained patiently. "I've been overseas. The owner hasn't been anywhere. I'm Six." He offered her his hand, and she shook it.
"Ha ha," she said, as if she got the joke. The one he hadn't made. "You are way older than six."
Six shook his head and looked around for one of the guys. "No, my name is Six, short for Sixton."
"Huh. I'm Poppy which isn't short for anything. I mean, my dad used to call me Popsicle. But then that's actually longer than Poppy, so … "
He couldn't help but laugh, but he thought of Lou. She had her own kind of awkward, but she was engaging and smart. Someone you could go on a hike with and not run out of things to say. If you'd asked him a week ago who he would have preferred to take on a date, Poppy would have won by a mile. But suddenly he found himself attracted to brains and quirk.
"Noah," he said, and waved his friend over. "This is Poppy, which isn't short for anything."
He slapped Noah's back and let him take over.
"What's with you?" Cabe asked, following him to the locker room.
"What do you mean?" Six asked, grabbing his shower bag.
"Poppy with the tight ass. That's what's wrong with you," he laughed, grabbing his own supplies.
How to explain that a totally different kind of woman had grabbed his attention? Once showered, dressed, and packed up, they wandered outside with Noah, who'd arranged a date with Poppy for the following evening. "You sure you don't want to join us? We're meeting up with some of Noah's cop friends," Cabe asked
Six shook his head. "Thanks for the offer but I'm gonna head. See if I can't actually act like an adult and start to unpack all the boxes sitting around my house."
"Okay. Cool. Talk to you tomorrow about the Mexico job, right?"
Working on a Saturday was nothing new. "Sure thing."
All the talk of Mexico gave him an idea for dinner. He walked in the direction of the truck with plans to stop off at a Mexican place he knew in the Gaslamp district first to get some food so he didn't need to bother when he got home. As he crossed the street, he caught sight of a brunette, and did a double take. Lou was walking with an older woman on the opposite side of the street. She was wearing a pale blue sundress and brown ankle boots. The kind that made him think of country songs and stolen kisses behind hay bales, although the way the dress skimmed her body gave him the urge for a little more than simple kisses. He should just let her go about her business, but he wanted to talk to her again, and accidentally running into her was a whole heck less risky than calling her up. Hurrying across the street, he tried to catch them, but as they stepped off the sidewalk to cross the street, the older woman fell down heavily to the ground. A taxi screeched to a halt inches in front of her and Six began to run as the woman tried to scramble back toward the curb, crying out in pain as she put weight onto her ankle.
"Oh, Mom," he heard Louisa say as he jogged closer. She offered her hand to her mom to help her up. "Are you okay, what did you hurt?"
"Here, let me, Lou," he said, anxious to help her mother off the road where an irate taxi driver was already gesticulating to them. Six flipped him the bird and told him to cool his heels. Lou looked at him in shock and he wasn't sure whether it was her mom's fall, his sudden appearance, or the fact that he had just yelled at a cabbie.
But it didn't matter. His heart raced, and it wasn't the adrenaline of the woman's fall.