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Constance leaped a second time, this time bringing her feet up as quickly as she could. She got the J-hook so fast she hung there a moment, stunned.
“Go on!” Duke circled around her. “Don’t burn out! Go!”
Holding the rope tight, Constance leaned back, brought her legs up and hooked her feet again. She remembered Rhett’s command—stand up—and fully extended her body. She looked up at the tape and found herself only one tiny step away from being able to tap it.
“Don’t let go now!” somebody yelled.
Out of the corner of her eye, Constance saw Katrina fail her snatch. She’d pulled too early and couldn’t get under it. In fact, Katrina had failed a lot of her snatches and that had kept her behind.Focus, Constance told herself.That woman is not your problem.
Dredging up every last ounce of blood and sweat Constance had left in her, her arms screaming, she bent her knees, secured her feet—this time not much higher than where they’d been before—and stood up on the rope. She reached, and her fingertips just barely tapped the tape. Her heart surged, and in her excitement, she slid more than she rappelled her way back to the floor. At the bottom, she landed on her feet, but quickly sank to her butt, then flat on her back. Eyes closed, heart pounding, Constance remembered back to her first day. She’d lain on the floor then, too, after doing her rope climb. But back then, she’d done the scaled version, and was the last to finish.
Her eyes opened as soon as the pain started to recede, just in time to watch Katrina jump on the rope, climb it in about fifteen seconds, and drop to the ground.
Katrina, covered in a sheen of sweat, looked lithe and supple and made the rope climb look easy. Constance lay there, unable to move, and grateful for the people that weren’t done yet so that she had more time to recoup before she had to clean up her equipment.
By the time Rhett turned down the music and told everyone they’d done “not horrible,” Constance could stand. Everyone was giving high fives. Katrina, face stony, accepted the high fives that came her way but offered none of her own. She was intent on cleaning up her barbell as quickly as possible.
“Nice work,” Constance offered. “Your rope climb was beautiful. I hope I get mine that quick someday.” She held up her hand.
“Thanks.” Katrina gave her palm a swipe that barely counted as a touch. Then she grabbed her water bottle and walked away.
“Red!” Duke stormed up to her, like he was angry, but then stopped, wrapped his arms beneath her backside and lifted her up. “Heard it was your first rope climb! Good job!” He bounced her against his sweaty chest, then set her back on her feet.
“Second rope climb,” Rhett’s voice corrected as he strode out from behind her. “And nobody wants to touch your sweaty body, Duke.”
Duke smoothed back his hair. “Don’t be jealous, Santos. I’ll pick you up, too. Soon as you do something awesome. Which is never.”
Rhett gave the smile he did only with his eyes. He shoved Duke in the chest, then turned to Constance. “How was the run?”
“I honestly don’t remember it.” Constance wanted to laugh and cry, all at the same time. Only now, with her adrenaline dying down, did everything that had happened this afternoon sink in.
“I’ll take that as a good thing. I knew you could do it.”
“Makes one of us.” Constance laughed at herself, but let it die off when she saw that Rhett wasn’t joining in her humor.
“You knew you could do it, too. That’s how you got it done. Same as that rope climb.” Rhett’s jaw tightened. He had about two days’ worth of dark growth on his face and his hair was getting a little long in the back, so was starting to curl up around his neck and ears. His gray T-shirt was just tight enough across the chest and shoulders to show how big his muscles were, even fully clothed. His sleeve was shoved up just the tiniest bit, and Constance could see the hooves of the stallion tattoo.
“I think you pissed off your girlfriend.” Constance nodded in the direction of the open bay, where Katrina exited with a great show.
Rhett followed her gaze, then shrugged. “She’s not my girlfriend.”
“I don’t think she was happy about you changing up the workout,” Constance pushed, even though she probably should’ve let it drop.
Rhett eyed her in silence for a moment before he said, “I don’t think she’ll be back.”
“Oh, that’s a shame.”
“Is it?”
Constance remembered everything Callahan had told her today. Rhett’s energy was changing by the second, like a storm coming suddenly to sea. “First time I’ve run in a long time,” she said, not wanting to talk any more about Katrina. “I still don’t think I want to make it regular, but I’m glad I ran today.”
“Warm weather is here.” He nodded toward the open bay, where Katrina had made her huffing exit. “We run a lot after winter’s over. Sometimes into the woods and back.”
Constance eyed the leafy green trees across the street. This was the first time she’d noticed that Greenview Park butted up to the gym. Greenview Park was where she used to run with Josh. Greenview Park was where he gave up on her. “Trail running used to be my thing. Once upon a time. Not sure how my mile would fare these days.”
Rhett stared down at her, silent, his eyes unreadable. A few people walked past and said goodbye or slapped him on the shoulder. He responded to all, but then turned back to Constance and looked down at her again.
“I’ll run with you.” His eyes softened. “I’ll run with you different places outside. On Sundays, when we’re closed. Get your legs back. If you want.”
Constance bit down on her lower lip. That was not at all what she had expected him to say. She’d expected him to shrug and tell her to man up. She had tremors and butterflies and no way to tell which was which or what they meant. “Okay. But you have to let me help you, too.”
He narrowed his eyes. “I don’t need any help.”
“Yeah, you said that,” Constance pressed. She wasn’t going to let him put up his facade this time. “We’ll swap. You run with me, I’ll massage you.” She nodded at his leg. “That limp is bad again, and it’s not even cold. And you look tired, even though you hide it. You’re not sleeping well at night. And even though we’ve never talked about Humphrey, I think you were having a panic attack. These are all things I can help with.”
A long silence passed. Duke went by and yelled goodbye to them both. Neither one of them broke their shared gaze, even when they both muttered, “Bye, Duke.”
Finally, Rhett stuck out his hand. “Okay. Deal.”
