“Reeba is on the DHHS committee that approved the grant, Lily.”
I bit my tongue to keep from telling Reeba what I thought of her revenge. But Reeba was too important to anger now.
“We had no idea it would be administered this way. I’ve never seen such a two-bit operation,” Reeba said.
I swallowed past the brick in my throat. “As you know, the budget was very limited and we couldn’t afford a lot of equipment.”
“You managed to buy T-shirts with your logo on it. Some people might call that self-promotion,” said Reeba.
I didn’t bother to explain where the T-shirts had come from. Addie Adler was already a joke around the county. I didn’t want to hear what Reeba had to say about Addie’s misdirected enthusiasm.
“I know this isn’t the most orthodox fitness center. But people are starting to like this gym.”
“That sign-up sheet really shows it,” Reeba said with a smug smile.
“There are more people joining our walking group each week.” It was a lie.
Marie sighed and looked down at her clipboard. “I have a bill here for a damaged toilet.”
“One of my walkers had to use the restroom on the walk.”
Marie flipped to another page on her clipboard. “What about this report of landscape damage?”
Landscape damage? I scoured my memory, wondering what she meant. “Are you talking about a broken tree limb? One of my walking moms was trying to put back a bird’s nest that had fallen . . .” It sounded ridiculous even to my own ears. I let the excuse hang in the air without finishing the story.
Marie closed her eyes and let out a long sigh. When she opened them, she fixed me with her gaze. “Lily, I am sorry. This just isn’t acceptable.”
“I can remove the equipment that isn’t professional grade.” My legs were beginning to shake.
“That’s not the problem.”
“I will personally walk with each group and make sure that they don’t stray—”
“That’s not the answer,” Reeba interrupted. “Even if we hadn’t seen the video of you falling off the treadmill on Just Lose It, we would come to the conclusion that you aren’t the right person for this job. Your leadership and judgment are sorely lacking.”
Marie tried to soften it. “The grant committee feels we need to make a change.”
My knee could no longer hold me. I stepped backward and collapsed onto the coffin behind me. “Please don’t.”
Marie held up a sheet of paper. “As of today, the fitness program for the east side of the county will merge with the west side of the county. We are closing this facility and sending everyone to Harrisburg.”
“But that’s too far. It’s hard enough to get people to come to a local gym. If they have to drive a half hour, they will never work out.”
Reeba put her hands on her hips. “Maybe with a decent gym we’ll get more participants.”
No, they wouldn’t. The last thing the people of Truhart and the neighboring area wanted was to work out in Harrisburg. The grudge between the two towns was so strong there might as well be a mountain between them. Rocky had lost five pounds in the last two weeks. Using the excuse that he was my assistant wasn’t going to work in Harrisburg. Would the walkers have to walk in Harrisburg? Their friends were here. They loved to walk together and gossip.
This was happening so fast, I didn’t know how people would accept the change. “Can you give us some time? Maybe let me keep the gym open for a few hours a week. That way I can transition my participants to Harrisburg slowly. I can bring their records with me on the days I work in Harrisburg. Or I can even make duplicates.”
Marie’s face was red. “I’m sorry, I’m not making myself clear, Lily. We are relieving you of your job.”
This couldn’t be happening.
I blinked rapidly. Letting it sink in. Of course that’s what she was talking about. The closing of my makeshift gym wasn’t because of the equipment, or the mishaps that the walkers had faced. It was about me.
“The grant was approved for two fitness trainers. Wouldn’t it be easier if I helped Aubrey get to know everyone here? I can assist her and introduce her to Truhart’s participants.”
“Oh, we already have your replacement,” Reeba said with a smile. For the first time I noticed that she had pointy eyeteeth. Blood sucker.
“Who?”
“Andrew.” The triumph on her face was obvious. “He minored in physical education.”
Marie clutched the clipboard to her chest and looked at me with something akin to sympathy.
“But I thought you said he was in pain. He has a broken finger. How can he be a fitness trainer if he can’t . . .” I stopped myself. Reeba was staring at my knee.
“Yes?” she said sweetly. “You were saying something about working with an injury?”
I pressed my lips together. There was nothing more to say.
I knew deep down I deserved this. I hadn’t been able to control the situation from day one. I had let people do things their way. The T-shirts, the equipment, even helping Rocky. Instead of commanding the kind of change and leadership Truhart needed, I had caved.
“Just to be fair, your paycheck will extend to the end of the week, Lily,” Marie said. “We will also contribute half the cost of your return trip to L.A.” Magnanimous of her. I could probably afford to go as far as Wichita now.
My eyes traveled over the room, wondering what the Triple C’s were going to do with it if there was no gym anymore. I thought about life going on in Truhart without me. An empty bedroom in the Callahans’ house. No one at the window at midnight.
I pictured Edge saying goodbye. Would he make our goodbye lighthearted? Joke that he was going to miss my singing or my awkward brace?
The fitness class would arrive soon. I didn’t want anyone to witness the breakdown that I was about to have. Marie’s eyes darted from Reeba to me. “I’ll see you out and put this sign up on the door.” She pulled a folded paper from the bottom of her clipboard.
I rose to my feet and felt like I had just put on an extra hundred pounds. I gathered my gym bag from the coffin and pulled out the paperwork and records of my participants. I left them stacked neatly on the wooden surface. Some people had notes and health histories from their doctors. I had carefully included my own notes as to their fitness plan and nutrition needs in each file.
“These are the records and paperwork for each participant on this side of the county. Please make sure to give them to Aubrey.” My voice cracked. I zipped my bag shut and walked toward the door. I almost forgot. “Here is the key.” I held out my hand. “Please give it back to the Triple C’s when you see them.”
Marie nodded and took it from me. She looked almost as sad as I felt. “Look, Lily, I am really sorry about this.”
“No. I understand.” Why was I comforting her? She was more spineless than me. I clamped my lips shut before I said anything else I would regret.
She extended her hand and I offered her my numb handshake.
Reeba didn’t bother. “Aubrey and Andrew are waiting in the car.”
Of course they were. Like hyenas, they were waiting for the killing so they could pounce on the dead meat.
Out on the sidewalk, I looked over Marie’s shoulder at the sign she was placing on the window. CLOSED BY THE DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH
AND HUMAN SERVICES. RESIDENTS OF HARRISON COUNTY PARTICIPATING IN THE FIT4YOU GRANT MUST USE THE HARRISBURG GYM.
Thankfully it said nothing about the fact that the fitness trainer had just been fired. I might be able to escape town before anyone realized the truth. Not that pride mattered. I had no more pride to preserve. What I couldn’t handle was the disappointment.
I turned away from the community center and bumped into a wall. One with two hard knockers.
Aubrey.
Next to her stood a sneering Andrew, his hand encased in a sling.
Aubrey’s two hawkish eyebrows rose to meet her hairline. “Tough break, Shue.”
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I averted my eyes and moved around them. She made a clucking sound that followed me.
I could lash out at Aubrey and Andrew. Say something nasty that might put a chink in their cold, hard skin. But that would make me look even more pathetic.
The sooner I left, the sooner I could return to my mother’s couch and ramen. I would surround myself with massive amounts of tissues and let myself cry until next winter.
I ignored the sound of Reeba Sweeney’s Lexus starting nearby. She pulled away from the curb and sent me a little wave out her back mirror as she whizzed by me. The tears that had threatened to fall throughout my conversation didn’t come. Instead I was left with strange deadness inside that made my ears ring. For some reason this failure felt worse than any of my other recent defeats. It didn’t make sense. A torn ACL, a lost job, a televised public shaming . . . This should have been the least of the bunch. But it felt like I had just lost the grand prize.
I headed away from town, walking toward the lake road. Not Reply Lake, but her sister, Echo Lake.
I needed to be alone.
What was going to happen to the gym I had grown so proud of? The rollers made from padded PVC pipes. The water bottles stacked against the wall. Like Santa Claus and the sleigh, would everything just gather dust until next year? Never mind the other thing I was going to miss. Not a thing. A man. The thought of saying goodbye to Edge was like rubbing salt in an open wound.
I was going to miss the way my heart skipped a beat when I heard the sound of rock and roll coming from a pickup truck.
A silly man with a beard, and a makeshift gym.
When had I turned into such a fool?
Somewhere between my life in L.A., with the state-of-the-art gym equipment, and my life here, I had completely lost my perspective. Not to mention my heart.
* * *
I passed the three-mile mark I had so recently mapped out on the lake road. It was the point where my fittest walkers turned around and headed back to the community center gym. I shifted my bag and felt a familiar ache in my knee. I welcomed it. It was a nice contrast to the feeling of detachment that had settled over the rest of me.
The beautiful spring day and the faint promise of summer was nothing but an ironic joke to me now. When the weather finally did turn in Truhart, I would be back in L.A. getting ready for the long, hot part of the year. Everyone would hide inside their air-conditioned homes and wait for the heat to break. Water would be rationed and lawns would turn brown. It was more unbearable than a Michigan winter.
The faint sound of an engine behind me prompted me to move over to the newly sprouted grass on the shoulder. The pickup truck slowed down next me. The sound of the engine was as familiar as the man who drove it.
“Lily. Stop.”
I shook my head and kept going. I couldn’t stop. If I did, the numbness might disappear. And that meant I wouldn’t be able to keep myself moving. I wasn’t on crutches anymore. At least I had one thing going for me.
A truck door slammed and footsteps pounded behind me. He caught up with me before I had taken half a dozen steps away from the truck.
“Lily.”
I couldn’t find my voice, my throat was so tight from bottling up my emotions.
Edge reached out and grabbed my elbow. “Hey, stop. Lily, I heard what happened. We’re going to fix this. The Triple C’s are talking to Marie right now.”
I pulled away and shook my head. “Please don’t try—” Of all the times for that numbness to wear off . . .
“This is bullshit.” Edge’s angry outburst was so uncharacteristic that I forgot my own misery. His nostrils flared and his eyes caught the afternoon sunlight, making them gleam like ice in a blazing sun. I couldn’t stand to see his usual smile turn to this.
“It’s all right. I should have guessed this would happen.”
“No, it’s not all right. Aubrey is trying to get back at me. She hates Truhart. So does Reeba Sweeney, for that matter.”
“Even if she did, it doesn’t change all the crazy things I’ve let happen since I came to Truhart.”
“The arm-wrestling match was just a Friday-night norm for Lori’s. The whole thing was blown out of proportion.”
“What about the fitness class that broke through a loose board in the gym last week when they tried to do the running man? And the nutrition group that made Twinkies-flavored granola bars? That was ridiculous.”
“I thought they were great. I offered to sell them at the Dairy Cow.”
I stomped my good foot. He didn’t understand. I had lost control. The fitness program was a joke. “They were right. Things are bad, Edge. The Walkie Talkies do more garage-sale shopping than walking. They should have called themselves the Shopper Stoppers.”
“I can’t believe you are joking about something so important.” Was this really him talking? How strange that we were suddenly playing opposite roles.
“I’m just pointing out that this whole thing has been less than orthodox. And I let it get out of control.”
His eyes narrowed. “Are you giving up?”
“No. There is nothing to give up. I am done. Fired.” I switched my duffel bag to the other hand and stepped around Edge. “Time to pack up.”
“Not yet. We have to fight this.”
“Fight the gym closing. That is important. The grant is over for me. I’ve lost. But that doesn’t mean that Truhart needs to lose. They need to keep challenging themselves to get fit. Keep fighting.”
“You’re right!’ Edge grabbed my bag out of my grasp and marched to the truck.
“Wait! Give that back.” I chased after him in a half run, half hobble.
He opened the door of the truck and threw it behind the seat. Then he turned to me and lifted me off my feet.
“Put me down!”
“Not until you come back to the gym and listen to what the Triple C’s and I have to say to Marie.”
He dumped me in the passenger seat and slammed the door. I could have jumped out, walked back to the Callahans’ without my bag, and caught the next bus to the airport. But I didn’t. Something about the intensity in Edge’s voice made me stay. I wanted him to make everything better. Even though I doubted he could.
“Aubrey has already taken over my job. I don’t see how anything anyone says is going to matter. This is a bad idea,” I warned him.
He made a U-turn and headed back toward town. “You know what a bad idea is?”
I crossed my arms.
He continued. “A bad idea is losing you. You’re the best thing that has happened to Truhart and to m—” He stopped himself. I smiled despite my low spirits. “Another bad idea is moving the gym out of Truhart to Harrisburg. No one will come. Having Andrew Vanderbeek lead the Walkie Talkies is the worst. One look at Andrew and they’ll turn into stress eaters.”
I couldn’t argue with his logic.
* * *
We pulled up in front of the community center and I wimped out. “You go in.”
Edge sighed and unhooked his seat belt. He leaned over and planted his lips on mine. He tasted like chocolate and mint.
When he finished, he leaned back with a satisfied smile on his face. “Come inside.”
I blinked. There must be a good reason why I should stay in the truck. But my mind wasn’t working. How did he do that to me?
When Edge opened my door and held out his hand, there was no other option. I would have followed him into the fires of teddy-bear hell at this point. I placed my hand in his and let him lead me to the door of the gym.
I heard the sound of angry voices before we stepped inside. Marva O’Shea was pointing her finger at Aubrey and yelling something about Halloween costumes and pawn-shop dealers.
“Is that your left hand that is in a sling, Vanderbeek? Aren’t you right-handed?” Edge’s voice was biting.
Andrew clutched his sling to his chest. “The table fell on my pinky.”
Edge snorted and pulled me to the center of the room. But I held back, re
luctant to face Aubrey and Andrew again.
“You are all just a bunch of losers. You can’t even equip your own gym,” Andrew said with a sneer.
“We don’t need a fancy gym,” Corinne said.
“No gym? How in the world do you think you can get your town in shape?”
“We use creative ways!” said Addie Adler.
“Creative? Are you going to tell me that coffin is a weight bench and that Santa’s butt is a balancing ball?”
Marva stomped her feet. “You’re just trying to—”
Elizabeth Lively stepped between Aubrey and the group of angry ladies. “Look, everybody. Let’s calm down.”
Aubrey threw up her hands. “Calm down? I’m being attacked by a fat lady who can’t keep her garters up.”
Everyone looked toward Addie Adler’s ankles, where a thing that must be a garter drooped below her knee.
Not to be outdone, Addie stepped out of her shoe and pulled off her garter with more deftness than I had ever thought possible for a woman her age. “This may be a garter to you, but to me it is an exercise band!”
Marva nodded. “That’s the creative part of our workout.”
Elizabeth focused on Marie. “Just because it isn’t pretty doesn’t mean it won’t work. And I would like to point out that Andrew and Aubrey’s attitude toward their future clients is completely unprofessional. How are you going to work with people you make fun of?”
She had a great point. Even Marie had been taken aback by the way Aubrey made fun of Aunt Addie.
Edge let go of my hand and moved into the center of the room next to Elizabeth. “Did you get specific orders from the grant committee to shut down the gym, or was that just pressure from Reeba Sweeney and Aubrey?”
Marie looked down at her paperwork. “The instructions were that I should visit the site and evaluate its effectiveness based on the criteria set forth by the grant.”
“And what were those criteria?”
“The participants should show progress in all of the following areas: knowledge of health and nutrition, reduction in overall BMI, and improved strength and agility.”
“What makes you think we aren’t making progress?” Edge asked.
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