Page 35 of Just One Night Together

But he was home.

And he was still powerless against his foe.

He rolled out of bed, dropped and did a hundred push-ups, fast and hard.

Then he did a hundred more.

He was sitting, back against the wall, muscles trembling, heart still racing, when his phone rang.

* * *

Haley shouldn’t look.

How could shenotlook?

It was three in the morning and Haley was surfing. She checked her email, answered a message from her mom, peeked at her social media, left a comment on a cat picture posted by a college friend. She was stalling and she knew it.

She wasn’t tired.

No. She was exhausted but she knew she wouldn’t sleep.

She had to know.

She opened the browser and went to Google Maps, then typed in the address Joe had given her. The red pin marking the location wasn’t that far away. She knew the street, of course, but not the addresses. She switched from the map to the street view.

It was a perfectly nice little house, not unlike a lot of other houses in the area, and had been photographed on a summer day. It looked about fifty years old, maybe sixty, and was well maintained. A dark blue front door. An enclosed porch and a peaked roof over the second story. A single parking spot in front and a neat little garden along the porch with bright flowers.

Welcoming. Like a home should be.

She switched back to the map and calculated the distance. She could walk there in half an hour or so.

She bookmarked it, then took a deep breath. It wasn’t enough.

She Googled Damon Perez, assuming that he had the same surname as his mom. There were dozens of men with the same name, so she searched on the site for Flatiron Five Fitness. She found the names of the five partners and discovered that she’d been right about his name. There were a few pictures of the founding team but Damon was always at the back or just ducking out of the frame.

It seemed he didn’t like having his picture taken. He looked serious when she could see his face, as if he was participating on sufferance.

His back was always perfectly straight. Three of his partners were guys and they were all fit, but Haley could see the difference in their stance. Only Damon had served. There was a female partner, too, and she was laughing or smiling in every picture. Very pretty. Also in excellent shape.

Haley searched some more but she didn’t find much more about Damon. She scrolled through all the Facebook profiles for that name and was pretty sure he didn’t have one. None of the pictures were of him, and while he could have used an image or a logo, she didn’t think any of them looked right. The F5F Facebook page had the billboard of him that she’d seen before as well as one of the blond guy who was a partner, too.Get Wet at F5Finstead ofGet Hard at F5F.

Haley considered paying for a check as to whether he had a police record and decided she was getting carried away. She needed some sleep. She shut down her laptop and started to pull out the bed, then she remembered the gift bag.

It had no tag, but the bag said Happy New Year. She tugged out the tissue paper and found three bottles of lotion in the bottom.

And a card with the F5F logo.

Haley’s heart was in her mouth as she turned it over to find that familiar handwriting.

I wanted to say thanks, but you were busy.

Give me a call.

—Damon

Below that was a telephone number.

It was the proverbial offer she couldn’t refuse.

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