“Yes, ma’am.” His voice came out deeper and made her heart race faster.
Eve smiled at him and shook her head. “Fine. I’ll see you right here a few minutes after eleven.”
“Right here?” He pointed at his feet, his dimples growing deeper as he grinned at her.
“Not an inch to the left or the right,” she shot back.
He chuckled, tilted his chin to her, and sauntered past her to the free weights. Eve kept her mouth closed but she let herself watch him walk away. He looked good, really good. Was he an athlete of some sort? He was like a walking billboard for fitness. She was glad he’d chosen her gym.
Suddenly, she felt someone standing next to her. Eve turned to find her client. “Trudy,” Eve greeted her warmly. “Ready to work?”
Trudy was staring after the man. It was then that Eve realized she hadn’t even asked his name. She needed to shift into trainer and owner mode when she gave him the tour. It was time to stop flirting and start being friendly but professional.
Trudy’s mouth was slightly open as she watched him pick up sixty-five-pound dumbbells and start with lateral raises.
“Trudy?” Eve questioned, passing a hand in front of her face.
Trudy blinked but didn’t stop staring. “Do yourealizewho that is?”
Eve shook her head. She let herself look and fully appreciate the striations in his arms as he lifted. She liked that he wore a comfortable t-shirt and not a ripped-up tank like some guys did, trying to show off. It was still more than apparent how muscular he was. “Tough guy with a nice face?”
Trudy rolled her eyes. “Nice? You call that manly beauty and absolute perfection,nice?”
Eve laughed. “Maybe it’s more than nice. Let’s get you warmed up.” She directed her to an open area with mirrors and mats and started her on inchworms.
Trudy glared up at her as she performed the exercise. “Only you would insist on inchworms when I could be staring at Beckett Tanner. What is that beautiful man doing in Golden?”
Eve glanced over at the object of Trudy’s drool. Beckett Tanner. It fit him. She liked it. She was dying to beg Trudy for info. Who was he? Why was it surprising he was in Golden? Golden was a cool town,—only twenty miles west of Denver, nestled against the mountains, a beautiful spot with a trendy downtown, and with a river running through it. She loved this town. Even more so now that Caleb and Luke each lived less than thirty minutes away with their wives.
“Plank,” Eve instructed Trudy.
“For the love of men, let me at least do something standing up so I can gawk at him.”
Eve laughed and shook her head. “Okay, squats.”
“Thank you,” Trudy breathed. Trudy had never thanked her for any exercise before. She was a matter-of-fact thirty-year-old who worked hard but didn’t gush about much of anything. She squatted deep with perfect form but her gaze was focused on Beckett, who was now doing an overhead press. Eve glanced around and it seemed like half of the late-morning crowd was goggling at Beckett as well. She rolled her eyes and focused on her client, pushing her through an intense workout. The entire time, though, her gaze strayed to Beckett almost as often as Trudy’s did.
Several times she caught him looking at her. He’d give her a dimple-revealing grin before returning to his exercise. He was definitely appealing, tough, handsome, and he’d been fun to tease but she prided herself on the fact that she wasn’t begging Trudy for information about him—no matter how badly she wanted to.
Trudy finished twenty burpees and dropped onto the mat, sweaty and obviously exhausted. “Let me catch a breath,” she begged.
“Sure. Then twenty pushups,” Eve said.
Trudy groaned. She rolled over and stared up at Eve. “You seriously don’t know who Beckett Tanner is and you aren’t even going to grill me with questions?”
Eve’s eyebrows lifted and she shouldn’t have but she glanced over to where Beckett was currently using the cable machine for a triceps pulldown. Whew! Those triceps were nicely formed, popping beautifully for her to gawk at.
“I’ve noticed him checking you out,” Trudy said before she rolled over and started into pushups. Eve felt her face flush. Trudy had noticed too? She put a hand to her cheek and forced herself not to look at him again.
Trudy finished her pushups and Eve couldn’t think what she was supposed to do next. Trudy glanced up at her. “Eve?”
“Um …” Her mind raced but all it could see was Beckett, smiling at her with those blue eyes and those dimples that showed even through his short facial hair. Why did he try to cover up dimples that beautiful? Who was he that had Trudy so interested? Well, Trudy was probably interested because he was so good-looking but he must be famous too. She should be thinking about how great this was for her gym, but all she could think about was how great it was for her personally.
“How about we do some rows on the cable machine?” Trudy grinned up at her.
Eve gave a very uncharacteristic giggle.
Trudy jumped to her feet. “Let’s go.” She raced across the weight room, fluffing her short, dark locks with her fingers as she went.