The Rapunzel Trap by Kathy Lynn Emerson

Author:Kathy Lynn Emerson [Emerson, Kathy Lynn]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Contemporary Romance
Publisher: Belgrave House
Published: 1995-04-15T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Seven

Hope gritted her teeth.

As Saturday morning sunlight poured through the sliding glass doors, she tried in vain to steady her right leg, which was suspended two feet off the floor in front of her. A overly cheerful taped voice chanted, “Hold, two, three, and down.”

Released, her foot plunged to the carpeted floor with all the grace of a falling rock.

Hope winced. What on earth had possessed her to participate with Maureen and her friend Amie on their gym project? She could have let them work out to her collection of exercise tapes without making this ridiculous attempt to keep up with them.

The answer wasn’t hard to find. It had something to do with not having seen either Coop or Maureen for six whole days. Hope bad suffered disconcerting bouts of loneliness all week long, and a spurt of bad weather at midweek had made matters worse. She’d planned on making a daily trek on skis to the treeline and back and had only managed to do so on Monday, Tuesday and Friday. On Friday she’d come very close to a panic attack when she was halfway back to the house. She didn’t look forward to the next attempt. She was afraid of failure. She didn’t want to go back to her old way of coping with the phobia.

She’d told Coop once that she didn’t suffer from cabin fever. Now she wasn’t so sure. In addition, for some reason, she was overcompensating today. Without meaning to, she’d started playing a twisted version of supermom.

Sweat made her hair hang in damp clumps that stuck to her neck and face. Now that she’d stopped holding everything in and up, Hope felt as if each little-used muscle was sagging, producing unflattering rolls of fat around her middle. She knew she wasn’t really out of shape. And the loose fit of her sea green jogging suit would have hidden a multitude of sins in any case. Just now, however, believing it was difficult.

It was being here next to these two kids, kids with perfectly flat tummies and backsides. Hope admitted to jealousy, plain and simple. She could still remember how, at their age, she’d longed for a woman’s figure. Now she wished she could be as young and energetic as they were again.

And as innocent.

The voice on the audiocassette drew breath and pushed relentlessly ahead. “Exercise number five is the same motion backward. Ready? With the music.

“Not ready!” Hope jabbed the STOP button. “Enough is enough!”

Maureen and Amie looked puzzled. Neither one of them was the least bit winded, even after working their way through parts of four videos and two audio workouts, each led by a different fitness guru.

“These people are sadistic torturers,” Hope gasped. “We have to take a break.”

Running in place had left her breathless, and the two dozen squat thrusts had come close to spraining both wrists and both ankles. Hope knew she was in great shape when it came to skiing and skating and snowshoeing, but after the past couple of routines, she had to have a breather.

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