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She came around to the front of her car. “I’m looking for a friend.”
He nodded toward Lucy. “Unless you’re looking for one of us, you have the wrong house.”
“She’s here. I know she is.”
Their visitor’s stocky build reminded Lucy that Temple had enemies. What if this woman were a disgruntled former client? Or a Fat Island television viewer turned stalker?
Panda kept himself firmly planted between the visitor and the door.
“It took me weeks to find her,” the woman said stubbornly. “I’m not going away.”
He moved slowly down the steps. “This is private property.”
He hadn’t raised his voice, but that didn’t make him any less intimidating. She backed against the car, more desperate than threatening. “I have to see her.”
“You need to go now.”
“Just tell her I’m here. Please. Tell her Max is here.”
Max? Lucy stared. This was Max?
But Panda didn’t seem surprised by the woman’s revelation. Was he wearing his professional poker face or had he known all along that the person Temple pined for was a woman?
Of course he’d known. Someone as thorough as Panda wouldn’t let a detail like that escape him.
The woman turned toward the house and shouted, “Temple! Temple, it’s Max! Don’t do this. Come out and talk to me!”
Her pain was so visceral Lucy felt it in her own heart. Surely Temple would hear her and come out. But no sound came from the house, no movement. The door stayed shut. Lucy couldn’t stand it. She cut around the side and entered through the back.
She found Temple upstairs in her bedroom standing off to the side of the front window where she could watch the driveway without being spotted. “Why did she have to come here?” She sounded both fierce and broken. “I hate her.”
Everything Lucy hadn’t understood was now clear. “No, you don’t. You love her.”
A lock of Temple’s hair came out of her clip as she spun around, every muscle of her overexercised body taut. “What do you know about anything?”
“I know this has been tearing you apart all summer.”
“It’ll get better. It’s simply a matter of time.”
“Why did you break up?”
Temple’s nostrils flared. “Don’t be naïve. Do you think I want the world to know that I—I fell in love with another woman?”
“You’ll hardly be the first celebrity trainer to come out of the closet. I doubt it’ll ruin your career.”
“It’ll ruin me.”
“How? I don’t understand.”
“This is not what I want to be.”
“A lesbian?”
Temple flinched.
Lucy threw up her hands. “Jeez, Temple, welcome to the twenty-first century. People fall in love.”
“Easy for you to say. You fell in love with a man.”
