Page 46 of Hope After Loss

He proceeds to rub his soaked hair into my neck.

“Gross, Weston. Put me down,” I cry.

He drops me to my feet, and I grab the towel from his gym bag and wipe my neck. Then, I toss it at him.

“Go take a shower, Neanderthal.”

“I thought you hated the gym?” he asks as he catches the towel and begins to dry himself off.

“I figured it’s time to finally lose the baby weight.”

“What baby weight?”

“I appreciate that, but I know that my ass is twice as big as it used to be.”

His brow furrows as he looks over the length of me. His gaze stops at my behind. “Honey, there’s nothing about your backside that needs improvement. Curves are fucking everything on a woman.”

I can feel the blush creeping up, causing my cheeks to heat.

“Well, I’d like to fit back into my pre-Kaela jeans,” I say.

He nods.

“Does that mean I shouldn’t bring muffins to the office on Monday?” he asks.

I frown. “If I work out, I should be able to eat muffins,” I state.

He grins. “Okay. I’ll stop and get muffins.”

He and Morris continue to their truck, stopping to tickle Kaela as they pass her and Taeli, and we make our way into the building.

“Make sure you get banana nut this time,” I call after them.

I check Kaela in at the gym’s childcare area, and then we leave our things in the locker room before joining the rest of the class in the gymnasium.

The instructor is an energetic twenty-something blonde named Allie with a tiny waist and muscular legs.

She comes over to introduce herself before class starts.

“So, you’re friends with Weston Tuttle?” she asks.

“Yeah, I guess you could say that. I work for him at the hemp farm.”

She eyes me suspiciously.

“Okay, we’re going to start our warm-up by doing a few burpees. Let’s start with twenty-five,” she yells to the group.

“Burpees for a warm-up?” Jena utters under her breath.

“What are burpees?” I ask.

“The devil’s exercise,” Erin answers.

She raises her hand, and Allie points to her.

“Yes?”

“Um, we thought this was a beginner’s class?”