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“I can give her a ride,” Will said. “I have all my workout stuff in my car already, so I don’t have to go home first.”
“What if I don’t want a ride?”
“Now you’re just being ornery,” Charli said. “Besides, your legs might not work after you’re done, and you’ll need someone else to drive.”
“That’s settled then,” Jay announced. “I’ll take Peyton to Misha’s so that Denise can watch him and Ciara, and then Misha and I will meet you two at the gym.”
Will waited for Janessa to protest, but she just rolled her eyes and turned to grab a cloth to wipe down the counter. Perhaps she was going to wait until Jay and Misha left to change her mind. Will wouldn’t try to talk her into going if that happened, but he hoped it wouldn’t.
He wanted to hang out with people who knew him well, and who he knew would always have his back, always lift his spirits. It might be a temporary lift, but at least it was enough to keep him going, instead of feeling like he was drowning in the negative emotions that had filled him since the breakup.
After Jay and Misha left a little while later, Janessa said, “I’m gonna go get my stuff. I’ll be down in a minute.”
“No rush,” Will told her. “I need to go… uh… clean up my car.”
Janessa laughed as she headed for the stairs. “I’ll meet you out there.”
Will said goodbye to Charli and her parents before going out to his car. He opened the passenger side door and gathered up the junk that he’d been tossing there. Since he hadn’t had anyone riding with him in his car lately, he hadn’t been as careful about keeping it clean.
He didn’t have a bag to put the stuff in—some of it was garbage, like empty fast-food bags or receipts—so he put everything into the trunk, vowing to clean it all out when he got home. Not that he thought he’d suddenly have people riding with him, but he needed to start caring again.
It had been hard to care—especially about himself—when the person he’d loved told him that not only did she not care about him, but that he’d been a waste of her time and that she’d never really loved him.
The memory of that conversation made Will feel a little sick, so he was glad when Janessa appeared, distracting him from his thoughts.
She’d changed into a pair of leggings and a baggy T-shirt and had a small duffel bag in her hand. Since she had on a pair of flip-flops, he assumed the bag contained her runners.
He stood by the open passenger door, waiting until she’d settled in the seat before closing it for her. When he slid behind the wheel, she sighed. “I can’t believe I let you guys talk me into this.”
Will had turned the car on, but he didn’t put it into gear. Instead, he shifted to face her. “You don’t have to come. I don’t want you to feel like we forced this on you.”
She lifted her brows. “You’ve known me for a long time, Will. When have you ever known me to do something that I really don’t want to do?” She held up a hand. “Not counting when it was something I had to do because my parents told me to.”
“Yeah. You don’t tend to do things you really don’t want to.”
“So there’s nothing you or Jay could do to convince me to do this if I really didn’t want to.”
That was true. But if she wasn’t doing this against her will, then whywasshe doing it? He didn’t ask her to explain herself, however. She might get defensive, and he didn’t want that. Things were just starting to feel normal with her.
“Okay, then,” he said. “Let’s go.”
Janessa was a strong woman, but Will didn’t feel threatened by her. In his own family, his mom and Reese both had forceful personalities, though maybe Reese had a more aggressive one than his mom did. His mom had a quiet, steady strength, and his dad always said that he wouldn’t be able to do what he did without her by his side.
“I hope everyone knows that I’m not doing a workout of the same length and intensity as all of you. I brought my book along, since I’m going to finish forty-five minutes before you three.”
Will chuckled. “No worries. None of us are going to force you to do more than you should at this stage.”
“I believe that of you, but Jay? That man is always saying stuff like… just five more minutes. Then twenty minutes later, he finally turns the treadmill off.”
“It’s like you know your brother or something.”
“No question there.”
It didn’t take long to get to the gym, and soon they were walking into the building. Will didn’t see Jay’s car in the parking lot, so he assumed they’d beaten them.
“Will!”
Before he could stop himself, Will glanced in the direction of the voice, wincing as he saw his sister jogging toward him from the direction of the changing room.
