I nodded. That sounded like a lot of fun, actually.
I was also a little bit relieved that he didn’t call me out on my stupid question.
I deserved it.
“The gym was always something that I wanted to do,” he said, filling the silence while I inwardly berated myself.
I’d always wanted to own a gym, too. But when I’d brought it up to my family, they’d convinced me otherwise. Apparently, gyms were hard to take off, and hard to keep going once they got established.
I’d always wanted to do something fitness related.
I wanted to own a gym. Be a trainer. Help people get fit.
Help people make their lives better.
Help them live longer.
Help them… live.
I knew that people were happy in all shapes and sizes, but I also wanted to make sure that they lived their best happy life. That meant being healthy.
And sadly, being healthy came with eating right and making sure that your heart was active. That you got your muscles moving for thirty minutes every day. That you put forth the effort, even when you didn’t want to.
And when the gym thing didn’t work out for me, I’d done the next best thing that I thought I might be able to hack to keep people healthy and living their best life: nursing.
Only, that didn’t quite work out the way I’d wanted it to, either.
Sadly, before any more could be said, the bay door came into view, and I realized that I’d gone on my first ‘dark’ run since my attack.
I felt… energized.
At least until I entered the door and found Maria, the cheating twat, and a woman standing there with their arms crossed, staring at the two of us.
“Find a new project, Taos?” Maria cooed.
I wanted to punch her in the throat for calling me a ‘project’ but I chose to take the higher road and walk to the side of the room where I’d placed my stuff right at the entry and shed my top layers.
That left me in my crop top, my short shorts, and my brand-new CrossFit shoes that the saleslady assured me were ‘really hard to find’ because they’d ‘just been released.’
When I came back it was to find Taos talking to some elderly gentleman that looked like he should’ve started this working out thing when his knees moved right.
“So I heard about you.”
I looked over to find Maria standing there with the same woman she was with earlier. She looked vaguely familiar, and I didn’t know why.
“Oh?” I asked.
She nodded. “I heard that you used to work at the hospital.”
The woman beside her flushed at the words, and it was then that I realized how I knew her. She’d been a nurse at the hospital when I’d worked there. Only, she’d been on a different floor.
“I did,” I confirmed.
“I also heard that you almost killed someone,” she pushed.
I narrowed my eyes. “I did.”
Maria looked taken aback at the honesty in my words. “A nurse loaded a syringe, then had to leave in an emergency. I administered that syringe with medication to the patient when I should have checked his chart. I didn’t. That’s on me.”
The woman standing next to Maria hissed in a breath that sounded like she was surprised.
As if she hadn’t quite known all the details.
Technically, I should’ve never administered that medication. Though it was something that happened quite a bit. A nurse would have something go wrong with another patient. And since the other patient was more critical, they’d give the other patient over to another nurse so it wouldn’t be too ‘hard’ on them with that added patient.
Everyone did it.
Everyone would continue to do it.
But I should’ve used my own brain and made sure.
Yet I didn’t.
And I would forever live with that.
“All of you need to gather around and grab a PVC pipe!” Taos called, saving me from talking any more to Maria, the woman that I knew for some reason hated me.
I didn’t know why.
I mean, other than the obvious of catching me looking at her ex.
Whatever the reason for her automatic hatred of me, I chose to let that flow past me, too.
I didn’t have the time, or the inclination, to deal with drama.
I didn’t do drama.
Drama was for high school.
I was an adult now.
“What we’re going to do is called pass-throughs,” Taos said when I arrived with my PVC pipe.
He then showed us how he straightened his arms and then passed the pipe over his head to the back, stretching and warming up shoulder muscles as he did, without bending his elbows.
I followed his movements, making sure to do exactly like he did, and realized rather quickly that this hurt a whole lot worse than it looked like it should.
Five minutes later, I was working on what was called a ‘snatch.’
It was when you got the bar from around shin level, straight up over your head.
And I was absolute shit at it.
When I was my fittest, I never did any barbell work.
I always did machine weights, which didn’t have any technical movements.
It also didn’t help that Maria picked up on it like a fish to water.
I wanted to shove my new CrossFit shoes into her vagina.
Except I didn’t want to ruin my brand-new shoes.
My luck, she probably had acid instead of regular vagina fluids.
I’d probably have to amputate…
“No, like this,” Taos corrected.
He then came right up beside me, bent down as if he was about to pick the bar up, and then dropped his butt.
I frowned and followed suit, finding a completely different lifting platform when I did it like he showed me.
“Now, up. Knock your hat off with the bar,” he ordered.
I didn’t point out that I wasn’t wearing a hat.
Instead, I did what he suggested, feeling the bar move to where it needed to, bumping against my hips, before the bar sailed over my head.
I squeaked in surprise when I did it exactly how it was meant to be done.
“Great,” he smiled.
I felt my heart skip a beat.
His eyes lingered on my face for a few seconds, kind of like a long time ago they’d done when he’d been inspecting my face, trying to see if there was any damage other than the obvious bruising and swelling.
He’d looked at me with such intensity then as he held me in his arms that it was life changing.
Even now, with him inspecting my face, I could tell that he felt like he knew me.
It was somehow bothering him enough that I knew he would eventually figure it out.
The question was whether I would get the courage to tell him the story.
I hadn’t had the courage to tell anyone since that day.
That day being the worst of my life. That day staying on a constant loop in my dreams. Or nightmares.
“Coach Taos,” came Maria’s sweet, sappy, disingenuous voice. “Would you mind critiquing my form?”
“Your form is perfect, Maria. I taught you how to do it already,” Taos disagreed, rolling his eyes at me.
My lips twitched and I couldn’t help the laughter that bubbled up my throat.
He really didn’t like her.
Duly noted.
“Keep the weight there, and work on form,” he ordered as he started toward another person.
I smiled as I watched his ass in his thin knit shorts move away from me.
That was when I realized that not once had I looked at the front of those shorts.
Likely, my mind had shielded me from the magnificence. That, or it knew that once I’d seen the front, I wouldn’t stop looking.
I had a weakness for men in knit shorts.
I mean, yes, gray sweatpants were really fucking hot on men. But they weren’t the bee’s knees. Knit shorts were. They were th
inner. Showed off more dick surface area and were seriously the best thing since sliced bread.
“Hey, Coach!” Maria called again.
I gritted my teeth and tried another snatch, this time feeling like I might actually be getting it.
“Hey, Coach…” Maria called one more time.
That’s when I saw Taos’ head whip around, and a lethal glare come rolling over his face.
I bit my lip to hold in the snicker, but it didn’t help.
The laughter bubbled out, and Taos’ glare rolled to me.
His face softened at the smile on my lips, and he was just about to say something else when my phone rang.
My head whipped around way faster than Taos’ had when he’d been glaring at Maria, and I dropped the bar unceremoniously to the ground. It bounced wildly to the side and barely missed the person to my left.
I didn’t pay it much mind seeing as it was Maria. She would’ve deserved the beating.
I ran over to my phone as fast as my poor, sore body could manage, staring at the readout.
Mavis.
Mavis: can you come get Vlad? They called me into work, and I’ve already said no too many times.
Me: Sure. Now? Or can I finish my class first?
Mavis: Now? I’m so so sorry. I really am.
I grinned.
Me: I’ll be there in ten. Is he even up yet?
Mavis: No. He was allowing me to sleep in. They are assholes for calling me in on a good day.
I laughed and gathered my things, shoving them unceremoniously into my bag with no rhyme or reason. Nor order, apparently. I wouldn’t find those wrist wraps at all when I next needed them.
“Everything okay?”
The sound of Taos’ voice behind me had shivers dancing down my spine.
“Yep.” I smiled. “My sister just needs to go to work, and I have to go watch my nephew.”
Taos’ frown deepened as he helped me pick up and shoulder my bag.
I gave him a grateful smile and headed for the door.
He came with me, walking me to my car.
A profound sense of thankfulness rolled through me.
I hadn’t realized that even the walk to the car had stressed me out earlier until now, with him walking at my side.
Only when I was in my car and completely driving off did he go inside.
I didn’t stop watching him until I almost ran into a parked car.
CHAPTER 5
Life is short. Smile while you still have teeth.
-Taos to Madden
TAOS
I hadn’t expected to see her again that day.
In fact, I’d more than expected not to see her again for two days because that was when the next bootcamp was scheduled.
But there I was, walking through Target heading for the supplement aisle, when I heard her voice.
I couldn’t stop myself from walking toward it, either.
I found her on the aisle for dog food, struggling to get the fifty-five-pound bag into the cart while also not sending the cart sailing.
“Need help?”
At the sound of my voice, Fran slammed her hand down on her chest and nearly busted her ass as she backpedaled to get away from me.
I instantly felt horrible.
“Sorry if I scared you,” I apologized. “I heard you talking and came to see you.”
I probably shouldn’t have admitted that.
It might’ve made her uncomfortable.
Except, the grin she sent me upon seeing my face made me feel somewhat relieved that the desire to see her was definitely mutual.
“It’s no problem,” she admitted. “I’m just a jumpy person.”
I hated that for her.
Usually jumpy equaled hurt in some way to cause a person to be jumpy.
Which, in Fran’s case, was true.
She was definitely a jumpy person, as per what obviously happened this morning with her freeze up at the front door when she heard me tell them to go run.
“Do you need help?” I asked curiously, jerking my chin in the direction of the dog food.
She smiled. “I would love some help, actually. I have to pick up this bag and two more. As well as some cat food.”
I nodded. “For your dog?”
I helped her get the first bag into place before she answered.
“No, someone else’s. Remember, I told you that I run errands? I do the things people don’t have time for, or they aren’t willing, to do. This is an errand for a mechanic shop in town. I do this every other week. Pick it all up from his place of choice, run it over to him, and he pays me for it,” she explained.
I got the next two bags for her as well and then jerked my head toward the cat food. “Which bag?”
The baby in the cart chose that moment to throw the phone he was chewing on, and I lurched forward and caught it before it could hit the ground.
I grimaced at the slobber that coated my fingers.
“Oh, shit,” Fran cursed. “I knew I shouldn’t have given that to you, Vladimir!”
My brows rose at that name.
“Vladimir?” I asked. “For real?”
Fran rolled her eyes. “The day that Mavis went into labor, she was watching Hotel Transylvania. There’s a Mavis on there, and she thought it was really cool. So she named her son Vladimir. I call him Imp. Or Vladimir when he’s in trouble.”
“Imp?” I asked curiously.
“Imp. As in Vladimir the Impaler. Imp for short.” She grinned wickedly.
“That’s bad.” I shook my head. “Cat food?”
She pointed at the cat food, which also happened to be the biggest bag Target made.
After getting it in the cart, I said, “What else do you do?”
She knew what I meant as she whirled the cart around so that the baby was facing us and she was pushing it down the aisle.
I fell into step with her as she explained.
“I do a lot of everything. That prescription you can’t ever manage to pick up? I’ll do that. Someone back into your car, and you need to take it to the shop? I’ll do that, wait around for it, or just take it and leave it and find my own way home. I did that last week, actually. Waited there for two hours before the guys said they’d need more time, then I had to walk home because my sister was at work.” She paused. “Thank God it was during the daytime. I don’t think I could make it during the dark.”
Before I could ask her why she was so afraid of the dark, the kid in the cart decided that he needed to start digging into Fran’s purse that was sitting beside him. He came out with a fistful of tampons.
“Imp, no!” she cried, grabbing them from him.
But, funny enough, the kid had a grip of steel and held on for all he was worth. By the time she finally wrestled them out of his hand, one was out of its wrapper, one was bent almost completely in half, and the other was on the ground hitting me on one foot.
I bent down and retrieved it, all the while chuckling softly.
“Your nephew is cute,” I told her.
She grinned at me. “He really is. Like, on a scale of one to ten, he’s a ten. For sure.”
I agreed. Kid was adorable.
Normally I didn’t find kids cute. Honestly, they were all pretty ugly to me until they were about two or three, when they finally developed a decent amount of hair. But Vlad was actually adorably cute, and he had a headful of blond curls. So that might’ve been the reason why.
“I guess the curls and the navy-blue eyes run in the family,” I surmised as she finally made it past all the animal products and into the food section.
“Oh, yeah,” she confirmed. “I think every single baby in our family, from the beginning of time, had blond hair and navy-blue eyes. Even those that marry in can’t break the gene seal. My dad had brown hair and brown eyes. Still, we won.”
I wanted to ask her more about her family, but I could tell by looking at her closed-off expression at the mention of her father that she chose not to willingly stay
on that topic.
“I came here for fruit,” I said. “I’m out.”
She gestured toward the plethora of fruit on display.
“Pick your poison,” she teased.
I did, then ended up wandering around Target with her and buying a few more things I didn’t need. Mainly knit shorts that I’d been meaning to grab, but hadn’t had the chance to yet.
By the time we made it to the front of the store, I was more than ready to leave, but didn’t want to stop talking to her.
After a few stints in Iraq, one in Afghanistan, and a few tours that I couldn’t even talk about, paired with my years as a police officer, I saw threats everywhere. Literally, everywhere. Even the little old lady that could barely push her cart through the store.
Someone that could barely lift her own arm, let alone a gun.
But still, places that had a lot of people were very stressful for me.
But Fran made it bearable.
She likely had no idea that she did, either.
“I need three separate tickets,” she said to the cashier and started to unload things.
That’s when Vlad decided to let himself be heard.
And what he wanted us to know was that he was very, very tired of being in that cart.
Fran stopped what she was doing and picked him up, only for him to launch himself my way the moment he was close enough to me.
I caught him around the upper body while Fran was desperately trying to hold on to his slippery bottom half.
“Shit,” Fran breathed at the same time I said, “I got him.”
She looked at her nephew disapprovingly, then shook her head and looked at me. “You okay holding him?”
I nodded. “I am.”
Five minutes later, we checked out and left, me pushing the cart and holding the baby, while Fran searched in her bag for her keys.
Her face was bright red when she looked up at me next.
“Want to come have lunch with us?” she blurted.
Of fucking course I did.
Even though I tried not to go out and eat because eating out meant eating bad in my book. Because I couldn’t seem to resist the sweet tea or the cookie at the end of the meal. No matter where I went, or how bad or good the sweet tea was.
I tilted my head. “Where?”
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