“There are ankle cuffs if you want to work your calves, but if it’s a leg day, I’d recommend squats.” I scratched the back of my neck. “Or I’d have you pick up weights and do split lunges on the bench.”
She stared at me like I was speaking gibberish, and then her expression and tone turned dark. “I’m sorry. Are you telling me what to do?”
I closed my eyes and pressed my fingers to the center of my forehead. “No, I didn’t mean it like that. Habit.” I opened my eyes and gave her a plain look. “I was a personal trainer last summer.”
She stared at the ceiling for a moment. “Of course you were.”
I shook my head and racked the dumbbells I’d been using. Who the hell was she to judge me? I grabbed my water bottle and shirt—
“Wait,” she said, rising from the seat at the machine. She didn’t offer an apology with words, but her embarrassed look was enough of one. “Split lunges. What do those look like?” Her voice lost some of its power. “I mean, if I wanted to do them?”
“Grab some weight and I’ll show you.”
I had no fucking clue why I said it. I should have been on my way back to the main house because I had a group meeting for a class project, and I really needed to take a shower. Instead, I took another sip from my water bottle and waited for her to move.
Madison eyed the rack of dumbbells. “How much weight?”
“Fives? Tens? It’s whatever you want. All your body weight, plus the dumbbells, is going to be on a single leg, so maybe start light.”
She grabbed a five-pound dumbbell for each hand, and then her hesitant gaze swung my direction, awaiting further instruction.
“Face me,” I said. “Hold the weights at shoulder level and put your toe from one foot up behind you.” I gestured to the bench.
She shot me a dubious look but followed my directions. One foot went up on the bench, so she was standing on one leg, and she brought the dumbbells up to her shoulders.
“Now, bend your knee like you’re lunging.”
She did one and blinked in surprise. “It’s hard. And awkward.”
A smile tugged at my lips, but I strangled it back. “Move that front foot out so you’re farther away from the bench.”
Because it’d take some of the strain off her knee. She repositioned herself, and this time when she lunged, her eyebrows pulled together. Her expression feigned outrage, and her tone was playfully exasperated. “But that makes it even harder and more awkward.”
This time the smile came too quickly for me to stop, and it spread across my lips. And it must have been infectious because a soft smile brightened her face. It caused my heart to stumble out of rhythm.
She’d spent two years with Jack, but my eyeballs hadn’t worked then, huh? In all that time, how the fuck had I never noticed how gorgeous she was?
Her smile abruptly froze at the exact moment mine did. We’d momentarily forgotten about all the shit between us, but it came roaring back then. I remembered the anger that had flashed in her eyes the second before she’d flung that fistful of mud, setting off a chain reaction that ended with us both kicked out of our chapters.
My tone went detached. “Five on each side and three sets, Mads.”
“What did you just call me?” A storm brewed in her eyes, similar to the one that day.
“That’s how I think of you,” I said. “You’re always angry. Mad Madison . . . Mads for short.”
She stared at me like I was disgusting, which was bullshit. I mean, I’d caught her eyeballing me earlier, and she definitely liked what she saw. But her voice was vaguely threatening. “Don’t call me that.”
I delivered a flat smile that told her I’d do whatever I wanted.
“And can you put on your shirt?” She sounded irritated, but I wasn’t sure if I was the sole cause because she’d also resumed her lunges.
“Why?” I waved my hand dramatically over my toned chest and abs, like I was modeling them. “Do you find all this distracting?”
“Yes.”
Her answer came so quickly, so honestly, it threw me off balance. “Yeah?” I fired back. “Your sports bra’s just as bad.”
Confused, she looked down at her chest like she had to make sure it was still there. “What’s wrong with my sports bra?”
“I can basically see your tits, Mads.”
She set down her weights on the bench, raised an eyebrow, and shot me a direct look. “So? You’ve already seen my tits.”
Fucking hell. I tightened my jaw because while nothing in my statement had stunned her, her reply and the challenge in her eyes had surprised me.
Jesus, it was exciting.
She was exciting.
“I want to kiss you.” It came out so forcefully, I’d nearly demanded it.