even the phone’s vastly expanded memory was strained.
He lengthened his stride as he recollected that Dawn was waiting at the gym for him. He wanted to see if his memory of her silky, dark hair, slashing cheekbones, and dark, watchful eyes was accurate. Although maybe her avoidance of him at the parties had made her seem more interesting than she really was. An unusual buoyancy bubbled in his chest at the prospect of actually talking with her at last.
He crossed an intersection to see a large, redbrick building dominating the entire block. It looked exactly like what it once had been: a college gymnasium built in the late 1940s, with a double row of tall windows and a convex metal roof. The entrance had been updated with several plate-glass windows on either side of big glass-and-steel double doors. The neon sign over the entrance said WORK IT OUT in bold turquoise letters that glowed even in the daylight.
A cell phone antenna perched on the apex of the roof. It was surprising because the gym wasn’t that much taller than other nearby structures. Maybe the antenna was just a signal booster.
As he approached, a flock of women in yoga pants spilled out the doors, some chatting, some staring at their phones, some looking harried. He held the door as a couple of stragglers sauntered out. One looked him up and down as though she were considering bidding on him at a livestock auction before she said, “Nice manners and good-looking too. You must be taken.” She kept walking.
He felt a smile tug at the corners of his mouth as he stepped into the gym’s double-height lobby. Maybe the occasional interaction with random strangers wasn’t so bad after all.
His pleasure was overlaid by another wave of sadness. His mother had insisted that he hold the door for women, children, the elderly, and the infirm. When he asked with teenage sarcasm if there was anyone he shouldn’t hold it for, she’d just given him one of her looks. From then on, whenever he held a door open for anyone, he’d looked at her and she’d smiled.
As soon as he turned toward the blond-wood reception desk, he saw Dawn, and his melancholy blew away like wisps of smoke.
Because Dawn was more than his memory of her.
Her olive skin had the sheen of satin, while her dark eyes were luminous and less wary than he remembered. Maybe because she was on her home turf at the gym. The slight smile of greeting curving her lips was professional, but the lips were soft and full, a delicious contrast to the strong cheekbones and jawline. A high ponytail rippled like a dark waterfall when she nodded to him. She pushed away from the desk with her hip and walked toward him, every movement betraying a coiled energy tamped down under tight control. He had a strong desire to make it explode.
He hoped Dawn remembered that he had signed up using one of his online aliases—Lee Wellmont—so his identity would not be easy to track down if his unauthorized meddling was discovered.
“Hey, Lel . . . Lee. Glad to see you’re smiling,” she said. “That means you’re looking forward to a hard workout.”
“Or maybe it means I’m extremely pleased to see you.” He poured on the Georgia drawl.
Discomfort flickered in her dark eyes. So she didn’t want to flirt at her job. Or maybe she didn’t want to flirt in front of the huge man who had risen from the desk to join them, his baseball mitt of a hand thrust out.
“Welcome to our newest member,” the man said. “I’m Ramón, the owner of this place, and I’m pleased to have you here.”
He’d bet that Ramón had been a boxer . . . or a linebacker. The man’s nose had been broken more than once and his neck was as thick as a telephone pole. His smile, though, held nothing but kindness and affability.
“The pleasure is mine,” Leland said, relieved not to find Ramón’s handshake crushing. “I’ve heard great things about both Dawn and your gym.”
Ramón’s smile turned into a beam. “That makes me real happy, Lee. Who’d you hear it from?”
“Dawn’s friend Alice Thurber. We went to high school together.”
“Alice is good people. Any friend of hers is a friend of mine,” Ramón said.
Dawn cleared her throat. “Talking isn’t going to build you any muscle. Let’s get to work.”
“I hope Alice warned you that Dawn believes in a challenge, both for herself and her clients,” Ramón said,