Raoul gives me one last suspicious look before the sparring kids catch his attention again and he jogs off to reprimand them. I’m left standing beside a sweaty Ronnie, embarrassed, grateful, and awkward.

“Is it, like, an online dating thing?” Ronnie asks after a second, brushing imaginary dust off his shorts.

“Oh. No. Actually it’s more of a wrong-number situation. We got to talking and kind of hit it off.”

“You’re kidding.” His eyes sparkle, and I suddenly realize that I’ve never really looked Ronnie full in the face before. He’s got tawny skin like his dad, and lots of black curly hair tied into a knot on the top of his head. He’s nice-looking when he’s not staring at the floor. “That’s so . . . cute.”

“Oh. Yeah. I guess it’s cute. For now or whatever. We don’t really have a future or anything. I’m not gonna tell him who I really am.”

“Oh.” Ronnie looks disappointed. “Well, you never know, I guess.”

Silence descends, and I try to figure out a way to non-awkwardly extricate myself from this conversation and this gym.

“I’m glad . . . either way, though,” Ronnie says after a minute. “That you brought that up to my dad.”

“Oh. Why?”

“Well, now he’ll think you’re involved with someone and he’ll stop trying to get me to propose marriage to you with every spare minute he has.”

“Oh, God.” I immediately cover the bottom half of my face with one hand. I don’t want him to see the half bemused, half mortified expression I’m sure I’m wearing.

“I can see from your reaction that he’s been pushing this on you, too?”

I let the hand drop and glance up at Ronnie. “Well, he’s not exactly subtle.”

“I’m sorry if it made you uncomfortable. I kept telling him, Dad, she’s the only female member you have, you can’t keep trying to set us up.”

“I’m just glad that it’s . . .”

“Over?” he supplies with a little half-smile on his face. “Don’t worry. I just started dating somebody, too. It’s, um, really new. And I really wasn’t sure it was going to work out. But yeah.” He gets a sheepish look on his face. “It’s, uh, working out. Once I bring them home to meet him, I’m pretty sure Dad won’t bother you again.”

“Oh. Well, congrats on that.” I give him an awkward wave. “I’m gonna head out.”

“Just one more thing.”

I turn back to look at him. “Yeah?”