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“You got my money?”
Riley Soeurs glanced around him. He was twenty feet outside the front door of the school. He could make it if he was lucky. He pulled his black hoodie tighter and quickened his step.
He wasn’t lucky. Rough hands grabbed his shoulders, jerked him to a stop, and spun him around. He stared into the face of Rafe Landry, his best friend or worst enemy, depending on the day and on whose story you believed. One look at Rafe’s face told him this wasn’t a friendship sort of day.
Riley shook free. “No I don’t have your money. I told you I’d have it by Wednesday.”
“You better,” Rafe said. “People get hurt when I’m disappointed.”
Riley lowered his voice. “Look, they’re watching me, OK?”
Rafe’s expression went stony. “You need me to call you a wambulance?” He leaned into Riley’s face, his voice little more than a menacing growl. “I own you, remember? You want me to send those pictures to the cops?”
Riley swallowed. “No.”
“I didn’t think so.” He put a companionable arm around Riley’s shoulders and squeezed until Riley winced from the pain. “I’ll see you Wednesday.”
Riley rubbed his shoulder and watched Rafe walk away. All he’d wanted was a friend. Now, he was getting in trouble to stay out of trouble. How had that gotten so messed up? He leaned against a tree and studied the entrance to the school. Two hundred fifty dollars by Wednesday? He wasn’t sure how to make that happen, but at least Rafe had promised to give him the pictures once this payment was made. Riley turned back in the direction he’d come. No classes today. His mother would be all over him again tonight, but he needed to find a way to get himself out of the worst jam he’d ever been in.
* * *
MAC CLEARED THE STAIRS and studied the four women who’d plopped themselves on the mats covering the floor. They’d changed out of their street clothes while she’d piddled, so each one was now wearing something crisp, new, and trendy. She’d have them rumpled and sweaty in due time. She closed the door and put her hands on her hips. “You aren’t going to get much of a workout sitting on your backsides.” They scrambled to their feet, giggles all around.
“Let’s get started. Talk to me about why you’re here.”
Her four clients looked at each other. A beat of time passed before the redhead, Randy, took a step forward.
“We need you to whip us into shape.” She motioned to the others. “We’ve all decided that we need to be proactive about this thirty-something reality we’re trapped in.”
“Well, them more than me.” Dane’s sister, Jesse, dodged the swat Randy aimed at her. “I’m only twenty-nine.”
“Whatever.” Randy continued, “I work at the bank. I spend a lot of time at a desk.” She glanced down at the ring on her finger. “And I’m getting married in a few months. The honeymoon is a surprise, but if Eli’s plans include a beach,” her hands molded her waist, “I’m vain enough to want to look good.”
She slung an arm around the petite brunette beside her. “Alex is our pastor’s wife. She keeps house and chases kids for a living—”
“Not so much chasing now that the twins are old enough to drive,” Alex interrupted.
Randy raised a hand in a there-you-have-it gesture before turning to Dane’s sister. “Jesse is a CPA.”
“Yep, and my computer and desk chair are my best friends,” Jesse said. “Especially this time of the year.” She put her hands on her butt and inched them away. “And twenty-nine or not, the landscape is expanding.”
“Poor baby.” Randy’s comment was sarcastic as she motioned to the blonde. “And Charley...?” She shook her head. “Well, like Dane said, Charley’s a cop and could probably take any of us down, but—”
“But nothing.” Charley spoke for the first time. She pinched at a small roll of skin around her middle. “I’m active, I have to be, but my metabolism is changing. I need to get a handle on the love handles.”
“That’s our story,” Randy said. “Can you help us?”
Their hopeful expressions made Mac smile. “If you aren’t afraid of some hard work and a little sweat. I don’t work on the no pain, no gain theory, but the first couple of workouts are always the most challenging. Let’s get to it. Pick a mat and give yourselves plenty of room.” She waited while they got situated.
“We’ll start each session with some stretches to warm up our muscles, then we’ll move to some light weights for cardio and finish with some circuit training and more stretches.” She moved across the room, slid her phone into a docking station, and selected a playlist. Upbeat music filled the small space.
“OK, ladies, watch me for your rhythm and tempo.”
Alex raised her hand like they were in school. “Is it OK if we change the music?”
Mac stopped. “Uh...”
“We tried to start an exercise group for the ladies in the church gym, but we didn’t get any interest,” Alex said. “We made a playlist that we used the few times we did work out together. I could share it with you. It’s contemporary Christian music. It’ll put a praise in our heart while it gets our bodies moving.”
“Christian music?”
Alex nodded.
Mac frowned. How was she supposed to get this group pumped up with funeral dirges playing in the background? “I appreciate the thought, but we really need something upbeat—”
“Oh, then you’ll love these.” Alex crossed the room, plucked Mac’s phone from the station, and fiddled with it for a few seconds. “I’m sharing the list to your phone.” When she pressed the play button, the room came alive with pounding drums and rhythmic guitars. She grinned over her shoulder even as her foot began to tap. “Praise and worship,” she yelled over the music. “Not a better way to start the day.”
Mac motioned the little pastor’s wife back to the mats. She cocked her head, listening. This was Christian music? OK, I guess I can work with this. She caught the tempo of the music.
“Ladies, with me.” Mac bent from the waist to touch her fingertips to the floor, straightened, then repeated the action.
They moved from one routine to the next. Her clients watched her for the next move while Mac studied them, trying and failing to fit this group of Christian women into the strict mold of The Body. Never mind that they were all out socializing when some of them obviously had husbands and families to care for. Three of them had jobs. Two of them had paint on their toenails. And their hair? Well, none of them wore their hair boy short, though the blonde came close with her above the collar, run-my-fingers-through-it-and-be-done style. Even the one who claimed to be a pastor’s wife wore a trendy short bob. It didn’t make any sense, no matter how she twisted it.
Mac shelved her questions and moved the group to the next portion of the workout. She distributed some light weights and gave them instructions on form and repetitions. As they neared the half-hour mark she circled the room, watching their form and posture, making corrections, and extending encouragement as necessary.
“Randy, straighten your back and shoulders. When you slump like that, you’re working the wrong muscles.
“Jesse, widen your stance a bit more.”
Jesse’s arms went limp at her sides. “What?”
“Like this.” Mac demonstrated, spreading her feet shoulder width apart.
Jesse pushed her glasses back into place and went back to work.
“Charley, you’re doing great. You’ll be teaching the class soon.”
Charley worked the weights back and forth. “I’d rather chase bad guys down a smelly alley than do this all day.” She blew out a breath and focused on the ten-pound barbells in her hands.
Mac turned to the diminutive Alex. “How’s it going?”
Alex huffed out a breath. “My arms feel like spaghetti.”
Mac stood in front of her and mimed her motions. “Just five more. Breathe in when you pull the weight in and out when you move it away. Count with me. One...two...three...”
When they reached five, Alex dropped the weights and slumped to the mat. “I might be dying.”
“Oh, get up you big wuss.” Jesse said.
“You better hope I stay down.” Alex glared at her. “Because when I get up, hurting you is the first thing on my list.”
Mac looked from one to the other. Was she going to have to break up a fight?
Jesse did her last rep, dropped her weights, and danced around her fallen friend. “You want a piece of me? Come on.” She motioned with her hands. “You can’t touch this!”
“All right, that’s enough.” Mac pointed at Jesse. “Pick up those weights and give me ten more.” She offered a hand up to Alex. “She’s right about one thing. You need to get up and keep moving. Just walk around the room while I get the others started on the machines.”
“Teacher’s pet,” Randy hissed.
Mac put her hands on her hips. “Do you ladies even like each other?”
“Best friends,” Jesse assured her. “If we didn’t love each other, the sniping wouldn’t be any fun. Don’t you have someone you love enough to poke at on occasion?”
Mac frowned.
“I hate you!”
“You may go.”
Fun and love didn’t go together in Mac’s family. She forced a smile and ignored Jesse’s question.
She assigned each of the four women a place to start on the circuit training while they sniped and bickered with each other. Their interaction bred something heavy in the pit of Mac’s stomach.
The female members of The Body were discouraged from spending time with each other socially. According to the teachings, that sort of thing led to lazy hands and gossip. The women fellowshipped at church, always under the watchful eyes of the men in whose hands their salvation rested.
The teasing bombarding her ears would have been labeled idle words. Something the Bible was very firmly against. Or, so I’ve been told. Mac resumed her quiet study of the women while their music played in the background. The lyrics were heavy with mention of God’s love and Jesus’s sacrifice, but these women just didn’t fit into any Christian mold Mac was familiar with.
“Move your lazy rear, Charley, you’re slowing me down.”
“Don’t get your panties in a wad, Randy.”
And friends? Mac shook her head. That’s not the way it sounded, but then, who was she to judge? She had no experience where friendship was concerned.
* * *
MAC STARED DOWN AT Jesse, spread eagled on a mat. “You OK?”
Jesse closed her eyes. “I think I’m dying,” she said, repeating Alex’s earlier claim.
“Not such a hot shot now. Huh?” the diminutive Alex asked from her own mat where she lay in a loose fetal position.
Mac grinned. Sometime in the last hour, the way these four women talked to each other had ceased to shock her. Truth be told, shock had given way to a small seed of envy. It might be nice to have a friend, especially one I felt comfortable enough with to be mean to on occasion.
Alex, Charley, and Randy gained their feet; Jesse didn’t move.
“I think your brother is still downstairs,” Mac said. “Do you want me to go get him for you?”
Jesse groaned. “That’s just mean.” She held out a hand, and Randy pulled her to her feet. “I’m up, praise Jesus!”
“Ladies, you did well. I’ll see you Wednesday morning. Remember, I’m only doing morning classes for now. Your fee entitles you to stop by any day between one and six and work out on your own.” Mac disconnected her phone, slid it into a pocket, and walked across the mats to the door. “Drink some extra water today, and find a chance to add an additional serving of protein to your diet. I’ll see you all bright and early Wednesday.”
She followed the group down the stairs, pausing when her phone vibrated against her leg. She dug it out of her pocket and frowned at the number. Not the school again. “Hello.”
“Ms. Soeurs? This is Caroline from the school office.”
Caroline had no need to identify herself. They were almost bosom buddies by now. Mac leaned against the wall in the stairwell, rubbed at the spot between her eyebrows, and braced herself for frustration. “What’s he done now?”
The sigh that filled her ear held equal amounts of compassion and resignation. “Is there any chance that Riley is home sick?”
She squeezed the bridge of her nose. “He left at the normal time, dressed for school and outfitted in attitude.”
“He’s not here.”
Of course he wasn’t. “Thanks, I’ll...handle it.” She slumped, swiped the call closed, and swallowed the sour taste of defeat. Riley, what am I doing wrong? What is it going to take to get through to you? She stood in the shadows for a few seconds, waiting for some spark of inspiration.
“Hey!”
The male voice raised in a shout sent her racing down the rest of the stairs. She skidded to a stop next to Jesse as Dane bolted out the door and onto the sidewalk with Charley on his heels.
“What...?”
Jesse shook her head. “Some kid just crawled out of the back of his van with one of his tool bags.” She waved toward the street. “He took off after him.”
Mac looked out the window and saw Dane heading back to the shop. He had his hand around the arm of a kid in a black hoodie. Dane pushed through the door, dragging the would be thief by the arm. Charley entered a step behind him.
The kid broke free for a second and made for the door. Dane grabbed him by the back of the neck, pushed him into a chair, and held him there with both hands on his shoulders.
“Charley get a patrol car over here.”
A snarl came from the depths of the hoodie.
Mac’s hand flew to her throat. “No...”
The kid reached up and pulled the covering from his head.
“Are you blind?” Riley scowled at her. “Get this goon off me.”