He forced his gaze back to Zoe, whose voice had grown strangely muted to Sean’s ears. He realized his heart rate was jacked, his pulse thudding in his neck. He tried to pull himself together when they were released to do the warm-up, but he couldn’t shake those eyes. It wasn’t so much the color, even though it was absolutely the color, but everything swimming inside them.
“Eh, Santos.” Sean tried to catch him while they all bear-crawled across the gym. Santos was so tall his bear crawl looked awkward and clunky. “Who’s the new girl?” He pointed to the rear of the gym, where Highland Park had finished her bear crawl and was executing high-leg kicks that nearly touched her nose. She was all alone inside a sea of chattering people, oblivious to their conversations.
Rhett was quiet while he watched her a second. He turned to Sean with a shrug. “Don’t know. But a hundred bucks says she’s a marine.”
“Her name’s Delaney.” Red’s voice came on Sean’s other side. She stared up at him with a knowing smile. “She’s a drop-in. This is her first time here. Came in with a business card. Doesn’t talk much.”
Sean felt his cheeks warm. Overly curious by nature but a master at keeping that fact to himself, he hated when people guessed his thoughts. He didn’t mind Rhett knowing his interest had been piqued, but Red was another story. Not that she’d say anything. To anybody. Ever. But Sean respected the little massage therapist who’d come into Santos’s life and turned it around for the better. Sean didn’t need her thinking he was a perv, especially when he’d briefly dated her sister, Sunny.
“Just get it done.” Rhett shook his head with a smile. “It’s hard enough to get you in here to work out. You don’t need any distractions.”
This was all true. “But she was petting Humphrey,” Sean said. “You see that?”
Rhett shrugged. “Humphrey makes his own decisions.”
As they moved from warm-up to workout, Sean did his best to focus on the job at hand and not on Delaney. If he doubted her toughness, he only needed to watch her with the barbell. Though impressed, Sean was a little disappointed. If he’d been able to offer her some pointers, he would’ve had an excuse to talk to her. But Delaney could likely give him pointers, if he was honest.
When they were all collecting wooden boxes to jump on for the rest of the workout, Sean found himself directly behind the newcomer. The boxes weren’t typically heavy for someone who was fit, but they could be awkward to maneuver.
“Need help?” Sean almost regretted his words as soon as they popped out. At this gym, everybody collected and cleaned up their own equipment, no questions asked. If you couldn’t lift it, you couldn’t use it.
Delaney peered at him from around her box. “I’m good. Thanks.” She hauled her box to the corner of the gym closest to Humphrey and didn’t give Sean a second glance.
Sean grabbed his own equipment and set up his workout space, but watched, out of the corner of his eye, as Delaney warmed up her handstand walk. She flipped right up on her hands and executed a tight, smooth walk from one end of the gym to the other, then dropped down, one foot at a time, with the grace of a ballerina. Humphrey seemed to watch her, too, even though everyone knew he had cataracts. Sean was glad he wasn’t the only one who struggled to keep his eyes to himself.
The music rose from the speakers, belting out a hip-hop playlist. Then Rhett shouted, “Three, two, one, go!” and Sean shook himself free of her spell and focused on his workout. When it came time to do a handstand walk, Sean groaned inwardly. He hadn’t done them in ages and knew he should probably scale the movement to something he could handle better. But today, Sean’s male pride was real. Delaney flipped onto her hands at one end of the thirty-meter marker and Sean did the same at the other. His walks had never been superclean, his legs bent awkwardly and pace clunky, but as he started moving down the floor he surged with pride. Was he really going to pull this off after a spotty year at the gym and his last recorded handstand walk a distant memory?
That was when Sean felt his balance go. Worried he might flip over on his head, he tried to bail sideways. He smacked into someone and they both went tumbling to the floor. “Shit, I’m sorry.” He looked down at his victim, pinned under his bulky weight, and died a little bit inside.
Delaney glared up at him, her amber eyes on fire.
Rhett dropped out of his handstand walk with grace, despite his height, and planted his hands on his hips. “Callahan. You’re done with handstands today. Go get a set of dumbbells.”
Sean rose to his feet. “Roger that,” he agreed. He wanted to help Delaney up, maybe apologize again, but she’d already flipped back onto her hands and finished her walk. She jumped to the rig and knocked out ten toes-to-bars like a gymnast.
Sean sunk into his work and wondered how much of the burn was lactic acid and how much was embarrassment. At the end of twenty minutes, when time was called, Sean slumped to the floor against his box and listened to the grateful thump of his heart. Only when Rhett smacked him on the shoulder did he remember it was time for high fives.
Sean offered and accepted fist bumps amongst the sea of people cleaning up equipment. He didn’t spy Delaney anywhere until he found himself directly behind her, as she was washing the chalk and grime off her hands at the sink. Plastered on the wall over the faucet was a poster for an upcoming summer fundraiser workout for Canine Warriors, several months away. An outdoor workout in July? Ugh. Pass. Sean could donate without actually attending, right? “Hey, sorry again about the spill,” he said, determined to keep it cool this time. He offered a fist.
She turned to look at him, hands dripping wet. She lifted an elbow to tap his fist. “Don’t worry about it. I’ve been done worse.” She looked like she was stifling a grin as she swiped her hands on her shorts, then was off, headed for the cubbies where people stowed their bags and coats. She said something to Red, who was getting a drink from the water fountain. Red smiled, said something back to her. They talked a few more seconds, before Delaney smiled, too. Looked like it might be pretty, but Sean was too far away and could only see her profile.
Then she was gone, out the door. Sean resisted the urge to ask Red if the new girl was going to join the gym. He put away all his stuff, feeling mentally worse than when he got here, even though physically his body was thanking him. Just as he’d tipped his box onto the stack, outside a motorcycle roared to life and rolled past the open bay door. The rider wore a silver helmet and red jacket, blue jeans and black motorcycle boots. She had to have put all that stuff on in the parking lot, but Sean knew exactly who was driving that bike.
He watched her go, and as the bike disappeared around a curve in the road, Castillo’s words echoed through his mind:Don’t sweat it, Sean. You’ll get a hard chase soon.
Sean was a mile from home when he made the split-second decision to stop at the grocery store for some Guinness. Nothing wrong with topping off a brutal, embarrassing workout with a cold one.
He’d just pulled into the parking lot when he spied a first responder vehicle, lights rolling, parked along the fire lane of the supermarket. Sean wasn’t on duty but he was headed into the store, anyway. Couldn’t hurt to see if he could be of help. He may not be the greatest at handstand walks, but he was good at his job. He grabbed his badge from the glove box and hustled inside to a group of county firefighters in the produce section, kneeling on the floor, making a circle around someone. Sean pushed his way through gawking shoppers to get to the scene.
A small woman in blue jeans and a white T-shirt sat on the floor, near the apple case, with her knees to her chest, arms curled around her shins, head to her knees. A few spilled apples littered the floor beside her. She rocked herself gently. One firefighter knelt beside her, hand on her back, talking softly. Another first responder had a dog on a leash, straining to get to the woman. The dog looked like a pit bull, on the smaller side, all black, with a little white patch down her chest. She wore a camo-colored vest with the wordsDo Not Pet, SGM Trinityembroidered on the side.
“That’s a service dog,” Sean said. “Let it go.”
The firefighter—a kid, no more than early twenties—looked at Sean with wide, confused eyes before Sean pulled his badge from his shirt and let it hang from its chain. The kid let go of the dog. SGM Trinity rushed to the woman, pressed her muzzle in and licked at the woman’s face until she finally peeked up. The licking continued, all over the woman’s face until she stopped rocking. “Okay,” she murmured. Her hand went to Trinity’s head, swiping over each ear. “Good girl. Off.”
Trinity stopped licking and stood next to the woman, quiet and alert. She looked like a little black ball of thunder.
“You okay, ma’am?” The firefighter by the woman’s side still had his hand on her shoulder. She seemed to notice the touch for the first time and flinched.