Not one single bit.
“Fuck.” Jas shook his head. “That fuckin’ sucks.”
He looked at me sympathetically.
I rolled my eyes and turned when a familiar voice filled the room.
Maria’s. My ex-wife.
The woman who, no matter how hard I tried, never wanted to do CrossFit. She’d said it would ‘bulk her up’ and she ‘refused to look like a man.’
Well, apparently, she didn’t care anymore.
Evidently, she liked to make my life a living hell no matter what.
“That was why he didn’t tell me anymore info,” I grumbled. “Because he knew I’d find out she was going to be in this class, and then refuse to teach it.”
“She’s not really supposed to be in the one you’re teaching after today, if that helps,” Sophia admitted. “This is only the first introductory class. The one where you learn the basics, the gym, and then do a short WOD—workout of the day—and go home.”
I rolled my eyes.
The gym door opened again, and a woman’s voice instantly had me turning toward her.
“Oh, aren’t you just adorable?”
Her voice was whispered, almost hesitant, as she bent down and petted the gym cat, Rogue.
Rogue, loving the attention that he hadn’t gotten from any of the other new bootcamp members, twirled around her leg.
Her shapely leg that was encased in a tight pair of black leggings that made her ass look phenomenal.
The cat rubbed hair all over them, and she didn’t even seem to care.
Mavis, Madden’s gym crush, walked in right behind her, and then stuck her knee out to attempt to knock over the new girl. The new girl caught herself before she could tumble forward and then tossed a glare at Mavis.
My eyes took in the two women, and it wasn’t hard to see the resemblance.
This was the girl that Mavis had begged Madden to do the bootcamp for.
I hadn’t heard the exact ‘why’ of her wanting it, but I knew that Madden would do absolutely anything for Mavis due to his crush on her.
“Why did she want you to start this class?” I quietly asked Madden who had come over to my side, watching Mavis interact with the new girl.
Mavis bent over and caught up two foam rollers, then tossed one at her sister like a javelin.
The girl caught it and grinned.
“I wondered how long it would take you to ask me that.” Madden smirked. But that smirk faded. “From what I understand, something really bad happened to Francine. To the point where she was scared to work out anywhere. Mavis finally talked her into working out here, but she wanted to wait until there was another bootcamp. And Mavis didn’t have the heart to tell her that there wouldn’t be any more because we didn’t like them very much. That was why she begged.”
I sighed.
“Shit,” I grumbled. “Now I feel bad for giving you shit.”
Madden grinned. “She’s a cute little thing, isn’t she?”
She was.
The girl, Francine, wasn’t much taller than five-foot-three-ish. If not smaller.
She had a high ponytail on the top of her head, with white-blonde-colored ringlets cascading down around her face, down her back, and over her shoulders.
She had a navy-blue headband on that matched her eyes, and the cutest little nose that I’d ever seen.
She wasn’t what I would consider ‘in shape.’ Though, saying that, I knew that if she stuck with this, it wouldn’t take her very long to get there. Looking at her, however, I could see muscle definition in her legs that spoke of once being in very good shape.
The six-week bootcamp might very well do a lot for her.
Though, I quite liked the small little roll that I could see poking over her tight leggings. A roll that was exposed by the crop top that she wore, revealing the cute little thing.
“That she is,” I said as I let my eyes roam over her body.
Then she turned fully, leaving Rogue the gym kitty behind, and made eye contact with me.
I felt like I’d been punched in the gut.
I’d felt that one other time before, when I was saving a woman from an assault a couple years ago. Just like back then, now I felt my heartbeat starting to pick up speed, and I had the almost violent urge to stomp over there and demand she be mine.
That, or tell her to hug me because she looked like she could really use one.
“Calm it down a notch, bro,” Madden whisper-hissed from beside me. “You’re giving her the ‘cop’ stare.’”
I blinked, trying to rein it in.
I couldn’t help it, though. Once a cop, always a cop.
I saw threats where there weren’t any. I looked at every single person that walked in my door, sizing them up, wondering if I could take them down and protect myself as well as everyone with me.
Francine, however, looked like she needed my protection.
She looked like she’d welcome it, too.
If she found out she could trust me, that was.
I blinked and tried to shove that protectiveness I could feel toward her down into that cage that I tried to keep it in, shoving it deep and locking it up tight so I wouldn’t run her off.
Then I gave her my back and started to roll the whiteboard toward the middle of the room where I was going to use it today.
All in all, eighteen people had shown up for the bootcamp, nineteen if you counted Mavis who was going to work out with her sister and not go to the regular class that was about to happen on the opposite side of the gym.
Once the clock struck six in the evening, I reluctantly uncrossed my arms, tried in vain to look approachable, and said, “Hello, class. Happy Monday. Everyone excited to be here?”
There was a shit ton of grumbling coming from the class, but only one in particular that I was interested in.
The woman that Mavis crowded closer to.
“I am Coach Brady. I’ll be instructing your six-week bootcamp,” I announced to them all. “Why don’t we start right here and work our way around the circle, introducing ourselves and what we do.”
I, of course, chose Mavis first.
She smiled. “I’m actually a veteran CrossFitter, if there even is such a thing. I’ve been here for a year and a half. I came to accompany my sister, Francine.”
Francine smiled and waved at the class.
“You can call me Fran.”
CHAPTER 2
Maybe if we tell people that the brain is an app, people will start using it.
-Text from Fran to Mavis
FRAN
“Did you know one of the worst workouts in CrossFit is named Fran?” the sexy man, our coach, asked me.
And when I say sexy, I felt like even that word didn’t give the man standing in front of me enough justice.
Even him saying I was named after an awful workout wasn’t enough to keep me from staring at him.
Something I’d been doing ever since I’d noticed he was there.
Jesus, he was severely breathtaking.
“I did not.” I shook my head. “I have to admit, I was kind of unwilling to try CrossFit until recently. I don’t want to look like a bodybuilder.”
The man’s lips twitched, but he didn’t smile. He did have amusement in his eyes, however.
“You won’t,” he promised. “Bodybuilders have to eat and bulk up to get to their growth. I highly doubt you’d like ingesting five thousand calories a day and lifting weights for six hours. Plus, you don’t have enough testosterone flowing through your veins.”