Keeping the Pieces by Brenda Lowder

Author:Brenda Lowder [Lowder, Brenda]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Bold Wanderer Press
Published: 2020-04-26T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty-Two

D erek was having what he’d call a good day at work.

“That’s it. You’ve got it. Now just ease it up.”

Derek smiled at the grimace on Emma’s face as she lifted the weight bar. He’d gotten her to sign up for a free trial day at Fitness Lifeline which included a complimentary introductory personal training session. She’d wanted to plan for the cabin weekend, and he thought if they were going to do more plotting they could at least do it at the gym where he’d be paid to be there. Emma was game and now that he was seeing what she could do, he wanted to recommend she begin a strength training program. There were no weights on the bars she struggled to lift.

“Am I done?” Emma asked after ten reps. Derek stifled a laugh. “Two more sets of ten.” He counted them off. Her face was shiny with sweat when she laid the weight bar to rest, hands shaking.

“Whew!” She wiped her forehead. “And you do this every day?”

Derek laughed. “I work different muscle groups and switch up weights with cardio, but yeah. I’m in here working out every day.”

Her eyes widened. “Amazing.” She took a long drink from her water bottle. “So are we going to discuss the impending weekend of doom?”

He cocked his head at her. “Doom? I thought you wanted increased access. I thought you were all about the access.” He raised his eyebrows and smirked suggestively.

“I did. I do. But I want it alone with Cam, not with his girlfriend breathing down my neck.”

Derek glanced around at the two men working out next to them. He steered Emma to an ab machine a few feet away and lowered his voice. “With any luck, she’ll be breathing down my neck and not yours, remember?”

“Gotcha.” She reached out a hand and spun the round vinyl-covered cushion around the metal handle. “What do I do on this one?”

“Here, let me show you.” He moved around her and got on the machine, slowly demonstrating the correct form for an ab crunch. After a couple of reps, she said she understood, and they traded places.

Emma started grunting after only three reps. “So what’s the plan? What’s the game? How do we approach this?”

He tilted his head. “You’re asking me? I thought evil planning was your department.”

She blinked and lifted her chin, giving him one of those arch looks of hers. “It’s not evil. And yes, it’s my plan. But I’m also interested in your opinions.”

He crossed his arms and leaned on the machine behind him, smiling. “Are you now?”

She grunted between crunches. “Of course.”

“Well, thank you then.”

She grunted again. “How many more of these?”

“Fifteen. Now focus.”

“You focus.” She gasped for air.

He counted her down. She finished her reps but had lost the will to speak. He handed her the water bottle and waited while she drank.

When she’d caught her breath, he said, “I think we just go with the flow. We pretend to be the loving couple we are and take our cues from them.

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