Page 9 of Finding Romance
“Yes?” a woman’s voice says from behind us.
Hutch goes flying off the treadmill like a cartoon. Bray grips the handles of his to stop himself from doing the same. Gray starts laughing but doesn’t miss a beat. And me, I put my feet on the sides of the treadmill and turn my head to see a gorgeous woman standing across the room from me.
She’s at the door, clearly just coming in for a workout. And holy hell. She has the perfect body. I can hardly believe underneath those flowy clothes was all that toned muscle and flawless skin. Her sports bra doesn’t do her breasts any justice, but they still look perfect. Her hair is tied up in a ponytail. Her shapely legs look like they should be wrapped around my waist.
Holy fuck! I need to stop ogling her. And shit, did she hear Hutch?
“Oh my God! Hutch! Are you OK?” she asks as she drops her towel on the handle of an elliptical and runs over to check on him.
Hutch dusts off his knees and, with a little help from a nearby stair stepper, stands. “I’m good. Not the first time I’ve gone down and not the last.”
“Damn. That looked brutal,” she says as she looks him over.
He shrugs. “I’ve had worse.”
“I didn’t know everyone from the building worked out here,” she says as she climbs onto the elliptical and starts her workout.
“By everyone, you mean the cool people?” Drew says from the door.
“Hey, man, you are late,” Gray scolds.
Drew shrugs and gets on the last of the treadmills. “I need my beauty sleep and you fuckheads get up before the sun.”
Piper snickers.
“Oh, is this Cornelia’s niece?” he asks all of us.
I nod.
“I’m Piper,” she says as she holds out her hand to him from across the hand bars of their machines.
“Nice to meet you. Clearly, you’ve met the others,” he says.
“Gray, Bray, Hutch, Kasen, and you must be Cam’s roommate?” she asks.
He grins. “Guilty. It’s a full-time job but someone has to do it. I’m Drew, by the way.”
Giggling, she picks up the pace on the machine. Everyone seems to be immersed in their workouts now and something about that is cathartic. Have I missed this routine? I guess I have.
“Does everyone from the building actually come here?” she asks.
As if on cue, Al walks in and sits down over at the leg press.
“Good morning,” he says cheerfully.
“I take that as a yes,” she answers herself with a laugh.
“Yeah, pretty much. Cam and Carly mostly run the trail but sometimes come here when they have free trial days. And Roxy comes here at night a few times a week for a yoga class. Jessa and Troy are not much for the workout thing. And sometimes, Al here, talks your aunt and Margie into doing weight training with him,” I explain.
“The building that works out together stays together,” Hutch teases. Everyone groans and Piper laughs. I glance at her reflection in the window. Fuck, she looks hot. The way her breasts move as she increases her pace. The sweat forms on the skin between her breasts. I imagine for all of two seconds how salty that sweat would taste if I licked it off her.
“How’s Cornelia?” Al asks, breaking me from my very inappropriate thoughts.
“She’s better now that she has her ankle pinned back together. I think she’ll be back in here in a few months once we get her through some PT,” Piper explains.
I can see in the window that Al is glancing at me and then back at her. Al always seems to observe everyone. He’s a bit like me, except not as quiet.
“I hear you brought her your chair,” he states, glancing at me as he gets up from his set on the leg press and walks over to the next machine in his circuit.
