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Rhett watched carefully. He was pretty sure he felt Duke’s spinal erectors bump under his fingertips before his butt or hamstrings. He made Duke repeat the movement three times. “Yeah,” he finally concluded. “Back’s firing first on this side, too.”
“Duke, I’m going to squash your glutes,” Stanzi said. She pressed her hands over his generous butt cheek, like kneading bread dough. “I’m bringing the origin and insertion of the muscles close together.”
“That’s her fancy way of saying she’s rubbing your butt, dude.” Doug chuckled, his big arms crossed and his chest shaking as he laughed.
Stanzi broke a little smile and shook her head as she worked Duke’s other side.
“I’m next,” Benita piped in.
“Now I’m going to smack your ass,” Stanzi said, “to be blunt.”
“I’m all yours.” Duke closed his eyes, like he was relaxed enough to sleep through the whole process.
Stanzi wasn’t kidding. She slapped Duke’s rear, one side after the other, for about twenty seconds each cheek. When she was done, and the laughter had died down, she ran her test again. “Rhett,” she said, “check Duke’s left side. Close your eyes this time and go by feel.”
“I’ll be damned,” Rhett said, once he ran the test twice, both with and without eyes open. “His butt fired first this time.”
Stanzi gave a proud little smile. “Yes, it did. All right, Duke. You can get up.”
He rose to his feet and looked down at her. “Is my face as red as my ass?”
“It’s a little pink in the cheeks,” she said. “Seriously, though, I want you to work on activating your glutes every day. It can be as simple as squeezing your butt and holding for ten seconds, five times, a few times a day. Then do one cheek at a time. Glute bridges are good. You guys do those here?”
Rhett nodded. “Oh, yeah. We do those.”
“Do them slowly,” she told Duke. “Raise up slow and squeeze tight at the top.”
“Thank you, ma’am.” Duke’s ruddy cheeks calmed down, going from reddish to pink as he offered a sheepish smile.
“Hey, you guys helped me all morning. Least I can do is return the favor.” Stanzi turned to Rhett. “Now you can check any of your clients, if you’re unsure what’s firing first.”
“Yeah, Rhett.” Duke gave his shoulder a shove. “Where you been hiding her?” He turned to Stanzi. “He ought to pay you.”
“You just got Duke’s butt all ready to guard POTUS, free of charge,” Benita added.
The group laughed.
Rhett gave her a thumbs-up. “Jump into Zoe’s workout. It’s just a short bodyweight metcon. We want to get your conditioning back up to speed.” Rhett knew everybody had their flavor, but nothing irritated him more than lifters who had no engine and skinnies who had no strength. Balance was always the key.
“Guess I got a little weight to lose.” Stanzi smoothed her hands over her hips, stretching the Larry Bird shirt down to the top of her thighs, as though trying to hide her body.
Rhett resisted the urge to pull it up again. “Don’t talk to me about the scale. That’s just a number. You keep working hard here and your body will change, all for the better. We’re looking for your body to be as strong as your spirit. Got me?”
Surprise widened her bright blue eyes. Her lips parted, but nothing came out.
Rhett lowered his voice and leaned down closer. “Just say yes.”
The waver around her lips threatened a smile, but didn’t prove up. Just when he thought she might obey, Stanzi bit down on her lower lip, turned and walked off toward the circle of people gathered around Zoe.
If she’d had enough hair, she would’ve tossed it.
By the time the workout was over, and Constance was covered in sweat from head to toe, Rhett had started another class. He was in a far corner of the gym, with about a dozen women, ranging in age and size. The only constant was the language—Rhett was teaching the class in Spanish. Constance didn’t understand all of the words, but she got the gist, mostly through body language. He had them all in a circle, with light kettlebells between their feet. She watched for a little while, mostly hidden by the cubbies where people stashed their stuff while they worked out. Rhett’s voice was strong without being brash, encouraging but forceful, and seemed to motivate the women without putting them off. A few of them hung on his every word, their body language obvious in how they felt about Coach Rhett. It was clear that he was a native speaker of both English and Spanish, his ease in either language like he’d spoken both since he was a babbling infant.
If she didn’t have clients booked, Constance would’ve considered going back in for a third workout, just to listen to Rhett coach in Spanish.
She laughed at herself, and made to slip out unnoticed, but just as she turned away, Rhett looked over and caught her watching. He held up his hand in a wave. Constance waved back, then headed out into the cool air.
On the drive home, she looked into the bright blue sky and drew a breath deep into her belly. She called Sunny, even though she didn’t normally talk on the phone while driving. “I just finished at the gym.”
