Page 39 of If I Didn’t Have You

I slammed my fist into the pad again, and again. My shoulders ached and my muscles—what little I had— contracted with every hit, but it felt amazing. I had never worked my body like this.

And even though sweat ran down my spine and heat flushed my face, I had never felt so good, so alive before.

Shaking out my hands, I grinned at Sam as he pulled off my glove. “Thank you. That was…amazing.”

“I know. You’re a natural.”

I laughed at that. “I don’t know about a natural, but it did feel good.”

“You should come back here. Blake can teach you more.”

“Oh, I would never⁠—”

“Yes! I can put together a class for you. Ooh, and you can get some friends together. We can do a morning class!”

“Really?” A grin spread across my face, but I didn’t want to get my hopes up. It sounded too good to be true.

“Honestly, I would love it. I’ve been spending too much time on cases and not enough time in the gym. It’ll give me a workout.”

“Well, probably not what you’re used to.”

“Trust me, there’s a lot more to boxing than just throwing punches. We can do little workouts every day, and then throw in some lessons here and there. It’ll be so much fun!”

Her enthusiasm over it was certainly appealing, and it did feel great to do something other than wrestle dough on the counter. “Alright, I accept. I’ll see who I can get to join us. Let me grab my phone. You can help me send out a group text thingy.”

She spread the ropes so I could climb through, then jumped down and held my hand so I didn’t fall on my face. Honestly, just those few punches made me a little shaky. I really wasn’t in very good shape.

I grabbed my phone and pulled up the messages app, but that was as far as I could go. “Now what?”

Chuckling, she took the phone from me. “Here, I’ll get the message going and you can help me add the contacts.”

I watched carefully as she went through the process. It seemed simple enough, and by the time we were done, we had sent messages to nearly all the women in town who I thought might be interested in a class.

“So, what do I need to wear to something like this?”

“Well, you’ll need something you can work out in. So, some shorts or yoga pants. Maybe a tank top and a sports bra?”

I didn’t have anything like that. “Hmm. I suppose a trip to the city is needed.”

“Well, you’re in luck because Miss Rosie and I are free for the day. We can go with you.”

“Perfect, because I have no idea what yoga pants are.”

She laughed, but the reality was that I lived in my own world for so long that things like this were newfangled ideas instead of trends that had been around for years.

But I was done living in my bubble. I was ready to conquer the world.

Well, at least my little town in Montana.

12

BEN

“Clara!” I shouted, wiping the sweat from my brow as I stalked around the house in search of my wife.

She’d been absent more and more recently, leaving after she made my breakfast, and then sneaking into the house in the middle of the day. I never knew where she went, and since tensions were so high between us, I tried not to get in her way or say anything that might push her over the edge. The last thing I wanted was for my meals to stop appearing at the appropriate times.

That can of Dinty Moore Beef Stew had hardly been appealing.