Shifting Gears: The Complete Series (Sports Bad Boy Romance) (62 page)

“I will. You too,” he said. I stood by the
lake and watched him leave. When he got back to the little lot he got into a
small yellow sports car. It must be his Sensei’s or someone else who was
helping them. I stood there until he drove away. I felt bad for him and for
Marie and for Victor…but I felt bad for myself as well.

PULSE
#3

CHAPTER
ONE

Today would make a week since Paul took
off to parts unknown to “protect” his sister and his nephew. Today would also
make a week since I’d heard from him at all. He hadn’t sent me any clue as to
whether or not he was okay. No texts, no phone calls. No reason to believe he
was even thinking about me at all. Life went on though…and on. I trudged
through the days, fending off more of my mother’s annoying questions while I
had my oatmeal in the morning and as I suffered through dinner with her every
night. She wondered why I wouldn’t just tell her who I was seeing. What was the
big secret? I left the apartment for work every morning just wishing for a few
moments of peace. Why in God’s name it suddenly meant so much to her whether or
not I had a man in my life and who that man was, was beyond me. She was
refraining from bringing up the dealer ex-boyfriend at least since the day that
I yelled at her. I guess I should be thankful for small favors. Why she was
still talking to him was another thing I couldn’t fully comprehend.

This morning was no different than any
other for the past week. I left the house with my head pounding and started to
get into my car. It was such a nice day and I was so wound up that I decided to
walk to work. I had a new client coming in today, but not until nine, so I had
time. Maybe it would clear my head and once I got to work I’d be able to
concentrate and not let all the crap running through my head take over. My new
client’s name was Justin Dover….how ironic was that? Sometimes I wondered if
the cosmos conspired against me for their own personal amusement.

As I took off walking I realized that this
was exactly what I needed. With each stride my mind became clearer, more
determined to stop letting people move in and set up camp there. First it was
Paul and then Mitch and Paul’s sister and now my mother. If I really thought
about it, I had no problems that were my own. I have a good job a great place
to live and if people would seriously just leave me the hell alone…I’d be doing
great. As I walked I tried visualizing myself putting distance between them and
the heavy emotional chain around my neck that they had all become. The sunlight
was warm and inviting and made it easier for me to imagine the promise of a new
day. I promised myself that I would attack this one day without giving
consideration to a mother who could honestly care less about me, an
ex-boyfriend whose name I would love to never hear again and a guy who I was
beginning to think of as my boyfriend who hasn’t found the time to so much as
call me in a week. I wish that I could entomb everything I felt for him behind
a steel wall and throw away the key. It was unlikely that I’d ever see him
again…or hear from him. It was fun for the week or two it lasted…

Shit! There I go again. I started pounding
my feet on the pavement in a rhythm. This was the path to my future. No looking
back. I’m in command of it all…my mind, my body and my soul. I walked a little
faster watching the city change with practically every step. My neighborhood is
strictly working class…not poor but definitely nothing like the affluence I was
seeing now, two blocks over. This neighborhood was an eclectic mixture of old
money houses and upscale markets with smooth glass exteriors and fancy names
that most people can’t even pronounce. They’re the kinds of places where the
atmosphere smells like perfume and sounds like smooth jazz. The staff is
well-groomed and they don’t wear spandex like we do.

Two blocks later I begin passing the
pawn-shops that have been operating since the things they now hock as antiques
were new and where the liquor stores and mom and pop supermarkets elbow each
other for space. As I passed the bowling alley that’s been closed for almost a
decade now I realized that if a person were to only look at the lost souls who
camped in the weedy lot out in back of it the would have no idea what the
weather was like in our city. One man sat next to his tent wearing nothing but
a pair of well-used boxer shorts and another sat about five feet away next to a
cardboard hut wearing a camouflage army jacket, wool beanie and gloves. There
were others, but this was the part of the walk when I reminded myself to speed
up.

I turned right on the next street I came
to and made my way through suburbia. The houses all seem to be poured from the
same molds and the lawns were exactly the same height and shade of green. I
passed them with the gym looming in the distance and let myself wonder briefly
if I would ever be a part of that kind of life…Would I ever live in a nice
house on a nice street and drive a nice car. Would I have dinner every night
with my nice husband and tuck my nice baby into bed at night? Or, was I
destined to be alone, carrying around everyone else’s problems on my shoulders.

I arrived at the end of the street and on
the far side of the gym. I saw Mark getting out of his sleek black Camaro. I
waited out of sight until I saw him disappear inside. I’d asked Jeff and Sam to
take over his sessions. For some reason he had gone from Mr. Polite and
Respectful to a horn dog in a matter of weeks it seemed. Maybe he broke up with
his girlfriend or something…I had no idea. I also had no desire to go out with
him, and even less to have to tell him no every single day. Since Paul hadn’t
been around for a week, he seemed to be getting more determined.

I slipped into the front door and clocked
in. Debbie was at the desk. “Hey girl! You look all fresh and pink-cheeked. Are
you having a good morning?”

I smiled at her and said, “Average at
best. The pink cheeks are from walking here.”

“Oh you should have called me. I would
have picked you up.”

“It’s fine. There’s nothing wrong with my
car. I just felt like walking. I needed to work off some frustration.”

“Sexual…I hope?” I didn’t need to turn
around to know it was Mark’s voice.

Before I had a chance to say anything
Debbie said, “Knock off the sexually harassing comments Mark or I’ll have Sam
show you the door.”

Mark held up his hands, palms up. “Hey
ladies, you know I was just kidding. I’m sorry, Jessie. I thought we were
friends.” I ignored him and Debbie continued to glare until he went back out
onto the floor and continued his workout.

“Thanks,” I told her.

“Hey girl, we’ve got your back. Quit
trying to handle everything all alone.”

“Everything?” Debbie sounded like she knew
something that I hadn’t told her.

“Victoria told me that she noticed you and
Paul were getting close…now Sam said he hasn’t been around at all and he wasn’t
even sure if he’s going to show up for his fight Friday night. I didn’t want to
say anything because you haven’t, but I’ve been worried about you. Men can be
such assholes sometimes. I know you keep your business close to your chest
honey and I don’t mean to pry. I just want to make sure that you’re okay.”

She was right, I hated for people to know
my personal business, but it was nice to have friends who had your back. “I’m
good. But thank you,” I told her. That was enough information. They could guess
about the rest of it if they wanted to.

“Just remember I’m here…we all are, if you
need anything.”

I knew she was more than just nosy. She
was sincere and the people I worked for and with were the kind of people I
needed in my life. I needed to work a little harder on cultivating those
relationships. I thanked her again and went in the back to change my sweaty
tank. After I got the washer fixed I left some clean ones in my locker, just in
case.

By the time I was changed and wearing
fresh deodorant my client, Justin had arrived. Justin’s twenty-four and he’s
been running marathons since he was a kid. The advantage of that is of course
that he knows his body by now and what it can do and what he needs to do to
improve it. The disadvantage is that by the young age of twenty-four, his body
has already gone through hell and back and since he wasn’t ready to retire, it
was headed for more. Luckily for Justin he’s smart and he knows how important
proper training is to keep him from dropping dead in the last stretch of a 30K
run.

“Hi Justin!”

“Hi Jessie, how are you?” Justin was on
the mat stretching. He has one of those long, lean runners body’s. It’s lean
muscle though, when he stretches or tenses, every visible muscle in his body
becomes perfectly defined.

“I’m good. How about you?” He stood up
straight and started stretching out his neck. He was taller than your average
marathon runner. Most of the guys I’ve trained for marathons weren’t much
taller than five seven or eight and weighed one-forty soaking wet. Justin was
close to six feet and I’d be willing to bet he weighed in at one seventy five.
That was okay though because like I said, he knows his body. He knows where he
needs to push and today he was here to work on his quads. In a 30K race he was
going to need more than speed and stamina on a cellular level. He was going to
need a sturdy frame to hold him up.

“Good,” he said, now stretching out in
lunges. “Do you run, Jessie?”

“Just for fun,” I told him. “I’ve never
gone so far as to enter a marathon.”

“You should try it. It’s really a lot of
fun. It gives you this free feeling that you can’t describe, you have to
experience. You have a runner’s body you know?”

“Yeah, I guess,” I didn’t want to discuss
my body with him, even if it was a harmless discussion. “Are you ready to get
started?” I could tell by the look on his face that he got it…I wanted this to
be strictly business.

“I’m ready,” he said.

“So tell me what you’ve been doing for
your quads.”

“Mostly sprints and squats.” I nodded,
that was a good start.

“That’s good, but let me tell you the best
way to train your body. The best way to train is to work through functional
exercise. Do you know what that is?”

“Sort of,” he said.

“Well let me re-iterate it for you,” I
told him with a smile. I’m fresh out of college. I like reciting the book stuff
sometimes. “Functional exercise is any workout that imitates the movements that
you perform every day when you’re at home or work…anywhere, really. When you
climb a flight of stairs or just step up onto your porch at home or step up
into your lifted pick-up…”

“How did you know I have a lifted
pick-up?”

“Had you pegged for the type,” I told him.
“As I was saying…Anytime you do those things you are more or less doing the
same movement you do when you do step-ups here in the gym. Of course the
step-ups are more exaggerated, but they’re the same. Make sense?”

He grinned, “You’re telling me I’m going
to do step-ups, right?”

His smile was infectious. It was big and
toothy and his blue eyes shone when he did it. I felt compelled to smile back.
“Yes Justin, that’s exactly what I’m telling you.” I took him over to where I
had the step bench set up and we started with just the barbell. I had him do a
few reps just to get his form down. “Step up and use that leg in front to
propel yourself up. Bring your back foot up and raise your knee up as high as
you can. Good. Now, while you’re keeping the tension on that front leg, step
that other foot back down. Good. Now we add weight.”

We ran through a few sets of those,
increasing the weight as we went along. Justin didn’t complain at all even
though I knew by the final set or two his legs had to be on fire. When we
finished, I had him walk it off for a bit and get some water. After about ten
minutes of cooling down we moved on to barbell lunges.

“Okay,” I told him, “Same premise but
instead of step-ups, we’ll be doing lunges.”

“We’ll?” he said with a laugh.

“I pay my dues,” I told him with a laugh.
“Okay, same thing, empty barbell first with one foot forward, the other back,
both knees bent. Keep that forward foot parallel to the floor and don’t let
that back knee touch the ground.” On this one as we added weight I could see
him getting tired. I had to remind him a few times to pick his knee up and keep
it off the floor. When he finished I said, “Good, walk it off and get some more
water.”

He did and when he came back he said, “So
Jessie, do you like Need to Breathe?”

I looked at him strangely. I was thinking
“stalker.” How did he know that? I love that band…but how did he know? Was
hanging out with Paul making me paranoid all of a sudden?

“Um…why do you ask?” I said.

He laughed, “Are you always so suspicious?
You look like you just found the shrine of you I keep in my locker.” My eyes
must have gotten bigger because he winked and laughed and said, “I’m kidding,
Jessie. I asked about the band because they’re playing at The Greek Theatre
tonight and I have two tickets.”

“Seriously?”

“Seriously.”

“You have two tickets and the concert’s
tonight and you don’t already have a date to go with? Why not?”