“Everything okay?” Gio asked as she reached him. “Is he on his way?”

A twinge of disappointment crept back in but she pushed it away remembering Felix’s admission. She shook her head. “No, the airport is snowed in. The earliest he’ll make it is tomorrow but he’s not sure what time.”

“He’ll be here.” Gio gave her an reassuring smile.

Looking at that face, you’d never believe he was a boxer. Even Felix had a scar over one of his eyebrows and one of his cheekbones was slightly higher than the other from having gotten one too many blows to the cheek. Gio could’ve been a model as perfect as his face was.

Bianca turned to Ray, the trainer she knew best so far. “Felix arranged for dinner to be made for us tonight so you guys come on into the main dining room around six for dinner.”

Ray smiled nodding and tipped the brim of his baseball cap at her. She smiled back and turned to the other trainer Ignacio, who she wasn’t as familiar with. “You too, okay?”

After he agreed, she turned back to Gio. “Did you wanna see the rest of the place?”

“Sure.” He waved at the other trainers. “I’ll see you guys back inside.”

They walked out into a third building on the property. This one had a lap pool and cardio equipment. Two treadmills, a few elliptical machines, exercise bike, and televisions all around. “This is probably where you’ll be while he’s out doing his miles on the trails,” Bianca said. “He prefers running the trails to the treadmill so this room gets most of its use from the trainers.”

“Nah,” Gio shook his head. “I’ll be out there with him, too.”

“That’s right. I forgot. You don’t just train, you box, too.”

“Not anymore.” His expression went hard but he turned away from her and stared at the pool.

It suddenly hit her as she tried to make out his abrupt answer and she winced, feeling like a complete idiot. She remembered now hearing about it on the news and then Felix telling her about it, too. A boxing bout in her old neighborhood gone wrong and one was dead. It was shocking enough but when she’d heard it was Gio who’d been the opponent that killed the other guy it was even more of a shock.

That was almost a month ago and she’d since forgotten about it. “I’m uh… I’m sorry. I heard about what happened. I totally forgot… so you’re not boxing anymore?”

“Nope.” He walked over to the pool area.

Bianca followed him. “Is that why you’re here?”

Bianca had met all of Felix’s trainers. Some she knew better than others but Felix hadn’t made any mention of any new ones. Not that he was supposed to tell her everything about his training but seeing Gio had been a pleasant surprise and now this explained why he was here.

CHAPTER 4

The last thing Gio wanted to do was talk or even think about Trinidad. He was also beginning to have a hard time not staring at those big innocent eyes. Even under all the glamorous makeup Bianca wore now, they still reminded him of the feelings he’d begun to develop for her way back in high school so he turned away. Taking in the rest of the workout room, he responded without looking at her. “I’m training now so Felix asked me to join him for the next couple of months.”

“Oh, so you’ll be here for the whole two months?”

“Off and on,” Gio said, still taking in the rest of the room. “I’m only two hours away so if I ever need to make a trip down I may leave for a day or two. But yeah, I’ll be around for the whole two months.”

She showed him the rest of the compound and then they headed back to the main house to thaw out. The fire was already roaring when they got there and it was a good thing because Gio had never been out in such cold weather for that long. The temperature had dropped dramatically from the time they stepped out to the time they stepped back in.

Felix’s hired help was fast at work preparing the dinner they’d have a little later. One of the women set up the dinner table and Gio noticed she only put out two place settings. Bianca must’ve noticed too because she walked over to the table. “We have two others joining us tonight, Amparo.”

Amparo glanced up and smiled but shook her head. “Ray came in already and put something together. He was hungry and didn’t want to wait and Ignacio said he’d take his food to his room later—something about wanting to video chat with his wife and kids while he ate.”

Bianca turned back to Gio. “I guess it’s just you and me for dinner.”

Gio shrugged. After introducing him to Amparo, Felix’s housekeeper, and peeling off all the snow gear, Bianca showed Gio into the TV room with the fireplace.

She clicked the huge plasma TV on and flipped it over to the weather channel. “Oh, big storm coming our way,” she said this with a big satisfied smile, then turned to Gio. “Big storms are good for business. More snow means the ski lifts will be busy and that’s always good for us.”

“Ah,” Gio nodded taking a seat on the brick fireplace. The heat against his back was heavenly. “So a rental shop, uh?”

“Yes,” she nodded. “Well, half souvenir shop, half rental shop.” She sat on the other side of the fireplace, with an expression that could only be described as orgasmic.

Gio felt like a dick for even thinking it but he couldn’t help it. Her eyes had actually rolled back the smile was so big and content. “God, the fireplace feels good, doesn’t it?”