AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Luke was on his third set, pushing hard through the final reps, when Kane asked, “You meeting Hayden here?”
Luke focused. Three more. Up fast, down slow, with Kane’s big hands hovering just under the bar, but no worries. If your arms weren’t shaking, it wasn’t hard enough, that was all. When he’d finished and Kane had slotted the bar again, Luke sat up, wiped his head with a towel, and asked, “What?”
“Because he just went past,” Kane said. “Shove off. I need to do mine.”
Luke stood up, but said, “He can’t have done.”
“Why not?” Kane asked. “Looked fit enough to me. Vic goes here, too. She doesn’t like it, but she goes. Does some sort of weird class that’s ballet, but not, and uses the elliptical machine and maybe the recumbent bike. Very slowly. Heaps of people work out even though they hate it. Odd, but there you are, people can be odd. Odd that they don’t like it, or odd that they do it anyway, whichever. Now, Nyree … I don’t think she’s ever met a barbell. Seems to suit Marko OK, though, and he’s a pretty fit fella.”
Luke wasn’t listening. He was at the door, looking down the passage. A couple of women in spandex, holding water bottles, but no Hayden.
Of course it wouldn’t be Hayden. He had concussion. He went back into the weight room, full of the clank of iron and the grunts of men who thought making noise meant everybody would be impressed.
Kane asked, “You spotting me, bro?”
“In a minute,” Luke said. “Why did you think it was him?”
“Because it was him.”
“You’ve seen him twice.”
“Yeh, so I know what he looks like. Why, isn’t he meant to be here?”
“No,” Luke said. “He’s not.”
Kane had sat up on the bench, finally, because Luke wasn’t coming back. A fella who’d been grunting loudly nearby for no discernible reason hovered as if to say, “You planning on getting on with it anytime soon, mate?” Possibly he didn’t like the thought of asking that of the two of them, though, because he went over to the squat rack instead.
“Bro,” Kane said, ignoring him, “I’m not saying I’m good at relationships, because I’m rubbish, but I’m pretty sure you’re not supposed to be jealous. Controlling is a thing. A bad thing, especially if you’re that much bigger and stronger. You could ask Vic. She has opinions about the subject. Prosecutor, you know.”
“I’m not—” Luke stopped, because Hayden hadn’t shared with anyone about the TBI, which meant he wouldn’t want Luke to. “Never mind. Right. I’ll spot you for this, and then I’m going to wrap it up.”
It was all he could do to do it, and then to spend the time to rack the heavy weights again. Kane said, “Want to go for a coffee?”
“What? No.” Luke was nearly out the door.
“Oh. OK.” Kane hesitated, then said, “You’re being odd. I’m saying that, because we’re trying to share, or something. Be brothers, I guess.”
“Right, then,” Luke said. “Come with me. I’ll probably be going for a coffee with you after all, because that can’t have been Hayden.”
Except that it was. Luke found him in one of the brightly lit, mirrored rooms where they did classes. Classes always seemed odd to him, full as they were of happy shouting, bright chat that would take your focus away from the matter at hand, and people dressed to impress for an activity that was only about getting fit, but they were always full anyway. No surprise that the world wasn’t run by his rules.
This particular class was led by a slim bloke in tiny shorts—that was a look—and a singlet, who was standing up on a riser, a little microphone at his mouth to allow him to be heard over the pumping music. He had a barbell over his shoulders and was doing lunges while making jokes, which was fine. The thirty or so people in the class—half of them men, but let’s say mostly men more like Hayden than Luke—were following along, laughing at the jokes and making their own. Also fine, except that one of them was Hayden.
“Oh, bloody hell,” Luke said.
“What?” Kane asked.
Luke was already opening the door. Kane came in with him, but Luke barely noticed.
The instructor said, without missing a beat on his lunges, “Grab a spot at the back, boys.”
Luke ignored him, too, and walked between the rows of lungers. No point trying to be inconspicuous, because Hayden was in the front row, and anyway, neither Luke nor Kane was built for subtlety. Luke got there and said, “Stop. You’re done.” Forcefully, maybe, because the music was loud. These people might be getting strong, though he was dubious, with those rubbish weights, but they were also risking hearing damage.
Kane was still with him, for some reason, which probably made too much of both of them for this space. Bit cramped anyway, with everybody lunging forward and back holding those bars. Unsafe, really.
Hayden stopped lunging, at least, and said, “What?”
“Contraindicated,” Luke said. “After concussion. Also stupid.” He shouldn’t have said that part, he realized instantly. He needed to dial it back, but he’d practically had to carry Hayden to bed last night, and that ambulance ride hadn’t been the most relaxed time of his life, either.
