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  Training, Daddy

  An Inner Harbor Series

  A Fiona Davenport Kindle Worlds

  by

  M.C. Cerny

  Prologue

  Jax

  “Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today…” The priest continues to speak officiating my best friend’s wedding. Totally weird that she’s marrying some doctor dude to save her best friend. I don’t hold any romantic feelings toward Piper, never have, but that doesn’t stop me from watching the woman with her daughter in the front pew. The smaller one dips and I almost stand up to make sure everything is alright when I hear a giggle that calms me. Two blonde heads bobbing, one happily throws rose petals to the floor.

  Diana Valentine – my own blonde version of Wonder Woman, a warrior, and a fragile ice queen straight out of a Disney fairytale coos to her daughter and tells her to behave making me smile. I watch her delicate palms push the hair back from her daughter’s face; a shock of pink colors the blonde hair.

  I settle back into my seat of the hospital church pew wondering how my life led to being here. How we all got to being here. For years I fantasized about her from a distance, suffering in silence because Piper was the wedge between us. I respected our friendship. I respected the hands off vibe, and by the time I would have been ready to ask her out despite Piper’s interference, it was too late. I was too late. A husband too late. I’m not upset in the least that she’s moved on with her life, if anything, I’ve heard it’s been rough, and that makes me sad. Sad that no one filled me in, except in drips and drabs with only Piper looking out for her. I could have been there if given the chance.

  Didn’t matter that Diana was perfect from her golden locks to her rosebud mouth, she was off limits.

  Didn’t matter that whenever Piper launched into a story about her, I hung onto every word like a love sick fool, because I knew it was never going to happen.

  It doesn’t matter now when Piper’s sister, Johanna barges into the ceremony late causing a ruckus and we all turn to look, my eyes meet Diana’s and I feel a spark between us. The connection fizzles with her daughter clapping and laughing loudly and Diana retreating far away into her role as mother.

  It doesn’t matter when the priest says the groom can kiss the bride and I watch Diana rub a single tear from her cheek kissing her daughter on the head lovingly.

  She simply doesn’t see me.

  For the first time in my life, I don’t even register being worth a second glance, and I have to say it sucks.

  So, I do what I’m good at. I think about work and how I’ll be covering for my partner Piper while she’s on her honeymoon with her doctor dude. I think about how we need to hire a new guy to work the front desk for new memberships, and a new cleaning crew to make sure the locker room is spotless. I think about counting my macros and carbs for my lifting competition. I congratulate my best friend on her nuptials and I walk out wondering how I’m so forgettable when all I can think about is her.

  One

  Diana

  “Piper, you are out of your ever loving mind!” I hiss under my breath at my best friend. She doesn’t look the least bit guilty as we watch my four year old daughter run around the park all smiles and pink cheeks. A boy close to her age and a girl slightly older play alongside her climbing the steps to a large slide. It’s a relief to see her bounding with energy while it terrifies me at the same time. I take a deep breath and remind myself that she’s okay.

  I’m okay.

  We’re both okay.

  Her short white blond curls have started to grow in and bounce around her angelic face as if the last two years never happened. My heart melts watching her. If you had asked me where we would be months earlier I never thought it would be here enjoying the sunshine carefree. I don’t think I’ll ever feel carefree.

  A mother’s burden, right?

  Maisy might not remember these times with the same pang as she gets older, but I’ll remember them always like the shock of bright white hair that sprouted from the back of my own blond head filtering into my ponytail. I haven’t had time to color it yet and I wonder if pink would take in the strands. The silver streak reminds me of all the struggles we’ve faced. Just like the C-section scar on my abdomen, my body is testament to surviving. Honestly, I don’t mind the hair, though I’m grateful it didn’t appear in the front of my face.

  “What? Milo and I are the best suited to babysit Maisy.” Piper crosses her arms which barely cover her newly blossomed chest and swollen belly. Piper looks like she swallowed a basketball, an adorably perfect round ball that juts out from her equally adorable perky breasts. Even pregnant, Piper has the perfect body and not a single stretch mark which my own tiger stripes of motherhood envy.

  “What? You don’t trust us?” She glares.

  I pat her arm. I don’t share my internal struggle.

  “Honey, of course I do.” Piper might have the perfect body, but she was batshit crazy with hormones from Milo’s baby taking over her body during this symbiosis.

  “You hesitated.” Right there was the crazy coming out in full force. I wasn’t willing to jeopardize our lifelong friendship with her hormonal mood swings, which is why I kept a spare Snickers bar in my purse for her in case of an emergency.

  I fish to the bottom of my purse and hand her the chocolate bar.

  “Eat this. Satisfy whatever embryo has taken over my best friend’s rational mind.”

  Piper tears the package open moaning on the first full bite. “Milo says the baby is close to a grapefruit in size. This has peanuts, but I don’t give a fu-crap.” She mumbles between mouthfuls of chocolate, nougat, and caramel. I roll my eyes at the almost curse word.

  I swear she’s having twins. Every time they go for the ultrasound the technician can’t get a clear picture. It doesn’t help that neither Milo nor Piper want to know the sex. I would have been crazy not knowing what to expect after nine long months.

  “I trust the both of you implicitly, you know that I do.” I wring my hands over and over, but the anxiety doesn’t ease. Milo saved Maisy’s life. He was the catalyst in curing her cancer with his treatment protocol. If anything, I owe him a debt of gratitude. At the least, the life of my next born child, but Piper beat me to it by the looks of her pregnancy glow.

  “You are so going. Besides, I told him you would go and made Milo set it up.” Her pout doesn’t change my mind one bit. She thinks I need to leave the house and meet a man worthy of me. She might be right but I don’t feel right leaving Maisy to pursue something I’m not even sure I want. It’s been a long time since I shared anything with anyone other than my daughter and my best friend.

  A man was an enigma I wasn’t ready to crack.

  “Come on Diana, it’ll be good for you.”

  I hated when Piper got bossy.

  “I am not going out on a date!” I stalk away from Piper pacing back and forth hoping the physical activity will calm me down. It doesn’t, and I look crazy doing it. Now who was jeopardizing our friendship, huh? “Besides, look at you.” I wave my hand around swirling in the direct vicinity of her belly. Her very pregnant belly.

  “Yes, dear heart, what about me.” Piper smiles indulgent and smirking.

  I sigh.


  “I’m worried Maisy’s newfound energy will tire you out. What if Milo has an emergency call and has to rush in to the hospital leaving you all alone.” All the possible scenarios run through my head with a thudding thawp-thwap-thwap of the anxious helicopter parent I’ve sadly become. Cancer will do that, turning something ordinary into the surreal and strange.

  “Yeah, and look at you…” Piper waddles toward me trying to pinch my ass. “Do you have any idea how beautiful you are hanging out in your tower like Rapunzel with all that gorgeous hair.” She leans in, “Mom I’d like to fuu–”

  I jab a finger in her face interrupting her. “Watch your mouth!”

  “Fudge?” She covers the curse with a smile and hands me a dollar from her purse. We started a curse jar when Maisy was a baby. Now that Piper is pregnant she’s probably helped to put away enough for Maisy’s first car.

  “Ugh. You! You need a hobby.” Wagging my finger at her I back up a step. Am I mad? No. Not really, but I should have known that Piper, even eight months pregnant would be a master manipulator even if she was sleeping close to 16 hours a day lately and only rousing to eat and complain. Between her husband sexing her up nonstop and her narcoleptic tendencies, I miscalculated her being too busy for meddling. I should take Milo to task, but I fear my superhero is equally as tired as Piper waiting for this baby or set of babies to arrive. Since they’ve been setting up the nursery I’ve saved some of Maisy’s baby things just in case this one becomes a plus two like my intuition is telling me.

  “Besides incubating a human? Johanna asked me to come supervise the boxes arriving from Arizona.”

  I turn to look at her. “What boxes?” We had a baby shower planned at the house.

  “My parents sending stuff from their trip. Johanna said it’s filled the garage and the dining room this time.” Piper shrugs but I know I’ll have to call her sister to figure a plan B for the shower.

  Wonderful.

  “Momma?” That little voice I love with all my heart tugs on my arm smiling.

  “Yes, baby?” I crouch down holding out my arms and pick up her little body that could still use a little more weight since her remission. She’s warm and snuggly and I’m so grateful for every moment I have with her. A date could wait another ten years if I could have all that time enjoying each developmental milestone with her. I fear she’ll always be fragile looking despite her wanting to run and jump into danger faster than I can catch her.

  “You look mad at Teetee Piper.” She sucks her thumb which I should tell her probably needs a washing after playing on the playground. I reach for the anti-bacterial gel, but realize it’s not in my bag because Piper is holding it in her hands gloating.

  I sigh.

  “I’m not mad at Aunt Piper, pumpkin. I’m just… ah… telling her…” I’m at a loss for words because Piper won’t stop smiling conspiratorially.

  “Yes, pumpkin, your momma was just telling me that you can stay with me and Uncle Milo for a sleepover this week.”

  My daughter squeals and wiggles for me to put her down running over to hug Piper’s leg.

  “Piper.” I growl.

  “Come on, it’ll be fun. Besides, Stephen is a cardiothoracic surgeon.”

  “I don’t even know what that means.” I husk digging through my purse to reorganize it. My medical terminology centered on pediatric cancer, not other parts of the body.

  “It means that he operates on the heart and lungs. He makes a shi-sizable salary.”

  I roll my eyes at Piper who reaches in her bag for another dollar to hand me. I don’t feel bad, Milo’s a doctor, and she can afford it. I also don’t want to go on a date just because a guy has a good paying job. I had a hard enough time relating to men after my ex-husband. I didn’t want to have to worry about meeting this guy at some fancy restaurant feeling out of place.

  Piper nudges me singing, “I have a dress you can borrow.”

  I mutter to myself. This feels like a big set up. I answer her, “Fine. One date.”

  “Yay!” Both Piper and Maisy howl and I’m certain both of them snookered me on purpose.

  “I’ll let Milo know and we can set it up later this week.”

  “Oh joy.” I feign excitement and Piper digs her cute pregnant elbow in me. It’s a good thing she’s due to have the baby any day now. She needed a distraction like I needed… well I didn’t know what I needed.

  This had better not be the date from hell…

  Two

  Jax

  I sort through mail that’s easily over a week old and put them in piles of least to most important by date. Owning a gym and doing the books is not exactly what I had in mind when I decided to open this business with Piper. A married and pregnant Piper, that if I’m honest with myself has left me shorthanded. Not that I blame her one hundred percent. I could hire additional help, I should hire help, but keeping busy keeps my mind off other things.

  She isn’t planning to come in today because she has a doctor’s appointment so I’m safe from having to run down the block to the drug store or Wholefoods so I can pick up whatever it is that she needs to eat right this second. I pity Milo because he lives with her, but he’s not the only one sympathy eating with her. I’ve got a lifting competition soon and if I don’t scale back on joining her for Taco Tuesday or frozen yogurt Thursdays on a Monday I wasn’t going to qualify at all.

  My blood sugar is low, I’m cranky and I’m craving carbs. See, simple explanation.

  The phone rings and I pick up.

  “Hello.”

  “Bro!” It’s my brother Will and I’m happy to hear from him. He owns the second gym location we have in Austin, Texas.

  “How goes it, Will.”

  “Never better. I figure we should start to pull quarterly reports for both gyms and compare numbers.” Will talks shop and my mind drifts. Right, because I didn’t hire a book-keeper and I told Piper I could handle this. As much time as I spent organizing my desk it looks like a storm came through and did me no favors.

  “You flying here or me there?” Baltimore is home, but I do love a good Tex-Mex restaurant when I’m visiting Will.

  “I heard there’s a 5k race in town.” He’s far too excited to run over three miles on city streets. I’ll stick to weights, thank you very much.

  Because I know he can’t see me, I roll my eyes asking, “Of course. You plan on running it?”

  Will laughs like this is a stupid question.

  “Winning it.”

  That’s my brother, Will Holden, star record holder in high school cross country for best mid-distances. He might be older, and leaner, but I could take him down, considering I was also a record holder of my own for wrestling.

  “We’ll have to get dinner then.”

  “I’m going to hold you to it, hey, take me to that seafood place on the pier.”

  Will continues to bullshit and I feel like he’s holding back so I ask, “Anything else going on?”

  “No. Met a girl though.” Ah, a girl. “It started out as me coaching her, but I think it could turn into more.”

  “More?” I goad him. And everyone accused me of having a type.

  “Yeah, more.” He says with a chuckle.

  “You good with that?”

  “Of course. What about you?”

  “No girl here. Just Piper driving me nuts waiting for the baby to arrive.” My fingers click my pen giving me something to do.

  “I miss her here in Austin. She was a great with our clients. Hard to replace.”

  “That’s Pip for you.”

  “You think I could convince her to come back?” Will inquires and I shut that shit down real quick.

  “Hell no. She’s married and having the doctor’s baby.”

  “You’re greedy man.” Will pounces on the idea that I refuse to give up Piper here at this location. We’ve worked hard to build up the business sandwiched between other commercial gyms and finally have our foothold here, despite my unwillingness to delegate other wo
rk.

  A bald head pops into my office, “Boss, a lady here to see you.”

  “Will, I gotta go, Igor needs me out front.” We say good-bye and I head into the main floor of gym with my clipboard of a to-do list to find out what’s going on.

  I stop and stare at the woman facing away from me. Short and curvy in all the right places. She’s wearing a fitted suit that makes her ass bubble and her calves pop in the high heel shoes she’s wearing. Doesn’t help that her sexy stockings have a solid black line seam going up the back to disappear under her skirt. It’s a teasing show being a respectable length and my dick chooses that moment to respond eagerly.

  Clearing my throat, she turns around. A shy smile on her face and I’m surprised to see my dream come true standing in front of me. I press the clipboard over my sweatpants. No need to advertise I’m an asshole with a raging hard on.

  “Diana, what are you doing here?” I’m confused. Happy, but still feel the itch on the back of my neck that has me glancing around to see if Piper has snuck in with her. She’s never once come to the gym except to the free yoga open houses. I know because I checked the roster and because Piper talked about it non-stop. If that woman had any idea what this woman did to my libido, she’d hang me by my ball sack. The one time I offered to extend Diana a free membership Piper growled that she’d already taken care of it which probably explains why yoga classes are scheduled when I’m already with clients because I don’t see her here often.

  “I, uh.” Her face blushes bright red making her look like she’d been running all morning. I reach for the fridge by the front desk and grab a cold water to offer her, but she turns me down. Apparently that’s story of my life with this girl.

  “What is it? Is it Pip? The baby?” I grab her arm and practically manhandle her back to my office putting her on the small sofa in here.

  “No, oh my god no. It’s just that I want to throw her a surprise shower before the baby comes and I wanted to know if we could do it here.” She’s wringing her hands as if I’d say no. I could never tell her no.