Page 33 of Love on the Run
“Either way, I couldn’t breathe full stop the day Gabe hit me. I’m convinced that’s why I got run over. The lack of oxygen affected my eyesight.”
“If you’re worried about your fitness,” Liv said, “I’m sure Quentin’s mentioned one of his friends is a personal trainer. I’ll see if he can arrange a session for you if you like?”
“I don’t know about that.” Hannah looked down at her wholesome figure. “I’m not sure I want some health freak judging my lifestyle choices.”
“Think of the team,” Dorothy said, her accompanying sternness telling Hannah she already took her new role seriously.
“We’re not suggesting a lifetime commitment,” Liv said. “The race is only a couple of weeks away. After that, you can kiss the man’s services goodbye.”
Hannah looked from Liv to Mel to Dorothy. Going off their expressions it didn’t seem she had much choice. “Okay,” she said, at last relenting. “I’ll give it a go.”
“Excellent.” Liv clapped her hands together in excitement. “Wouldn’t it be funny if you ended up with two buff men sending you flowers.”
“No,” Hannah replied, deadpan. “It would not.”
CHAPTER23
Back in her jogging pants and new trainers, Hannah made her way downstairs. She felt anxious. She’d never had a personal trainer before and despite not knowing what to expect, it already felt way outside her comfort zone. Yet again, she found herself wondering why she’d agreed to do the run in the first place.
Entering the kitchen, she chuckled at the sight of Aunt Dorothy, who wore her pink running team T-shirt as she busied herself chopping a variety of fruit and placing it all in a cereal bowl.
“Breakfast is served,” she said, placing her spoils on the table next to a waiting glass of orange juice.
Hannah sat down. Looking at the segments of banana, apple, satsuma, and melon, she couldn’t help but smile. From their team meeting onwards, Dorothy had thrown herself into her role. “You don’t have to do this,” Hannah said. “I’m sure being my chief cook and however the saying goes…” It was early. Hannah’s brain hadn’t yet kicked into gear. Plus, she was about to embarrass herself in front of a fitness fanatic. “Isn’t in your job description.”
“Speaking of which…” Dorothy grabbed Hannah’s water bottle from the counter and placed it in front of her. “Voila!”
Looking at it, Hannah wondered how she was going to manage when the time came for her aunt to head home to Norfolk. Hannah had hardly had to lift a finger in the kitchen following Dorothy’s arrival and getting back into the swing of doing everything again was going to be hard. Having someone around to help had made Hannah realise just how little Beth and Archie did around the house.
“If a job’s worth doing,” Dorothy said.
Dorothy might have been talking about her job on the team, but it was a sentiment Hannah often used in her role as a mother. Sometimes she’d end the phrase withit’s worth doing welland at others she ended it withthen do it yourself. She sighed. More often it was the latter.
Picking up her fork, Hannah had more urgent matters to think about and as she dug into a segment of apple and stuffed it in her mouth, she turned her thoughts to the fitness guru about to knock on her door. Hoping she wasn’t about to embarrass herself too much, she felt Dorothy watching her as she chewed.
“Is everything okay?” Dorothy asked.
“I’m nervous about this personal trainer thing. Let’s face it, I’m not exactly the sportiest of people. I never have been.”
“You’ll be fine.”
Hannah wished she had her aunt’s confidence. “It might be years since I was at school, but you’re talking to the girl who no one wanted on their team.” She laughed. “That kind of leaves a mark.”
Back in Hannah’s day, nerd chic didn’t exist. Being academic meant nothing on or off the netball court. So if, like her, being bookish was all you had going for you, you definitely weren’t considered one of the cool kids. Week after week in PE, when it came to choosing teams, Hannah had to listen to team captains call out everyone else’s name but hers. She could still see their disdain when she was the only person left and had to join their ranks regardless. Hannah sighed. “I just hope this chap Liv’s organised has more understanding.”
“You’re worrying over nothing,” Dorothy said. “I’m sure Liv wouldn’t set you up with a drill sergeant.” She picked up her mug of tea and joined Hannah at the table. “You always were more brains than brawn. As a child, you’d read anything and everything you could get your hands on. And the constant questions… Sometimes my head hurt, you asked so many. Politics, literature, art, no matter the subject you queried something. It was like you had a sponge in your head soaking up as much information as it could get. Denis and I had visions of you becoming prime minister one day.”
“And look at me now. Things couldn’t be more different.” Hannah smiled, wistful. “I had such big plans when I was younger. Maybe not to run a country, but I wanted to pass my course…”
“Which you did.”
“Then I wanted to start my own interior design company.”
Dorothy glanced around. “That explains the beautiful house.”
“It’s surprising what you can do on a budget, which is why I was going to specialise in it. Helping people create beautiful homes without having to spend a fortune. Of course, that’s nothing new today. Everyone seems to be doing it. You only have to scroll through Instagram reels and Pinterest to see that. But I’ve always been a bargain hunter. Since well before it was fashionable.”
“So what stopped you?”
