“Time to wake up, Cookie.”
“What time is it?”
“Six-thirty.”
“Then it’s not time to wake up.” I pull the covers up over my head, rolling on my side.
“We need to do something about making you a morning person, Kate.” Cole tugs on my covers, and then I feel the bed sag as Cole climbs over, straddling me. “I have a great morning planned for us,” he croons.
Okay, now he’s got my attention. “Us?” I pull the covers off my head.
“Yes, us,” he smiles, leaning down, kissing me. “But you need to get up.”
“What are we doing?”
“There’s a seven a.m. kickboxing class we’re going to.”
I put my fingers in my ears, rubbing them. “I must have heard you wrong. I thought you said kickboxing.”
I get that tooth-paste ad smile. “I did.”
No way Jose, that’s the last thing I want to do; has he lost his mind? I try to pull the sheet back over my head, but Cole’s faster than me and grabs it out of my hands. “I thought you enjoyed working out?”
I make an exasperated noise. “No, I don’t. I do it so I can eat cake.”
“Well then, come workout with me and afterwards, I’ll buy you cake for breakfast.”
I raise my eyebrows. “Promise?”
Cole’s hands snake down around my waist, squeezing my sides. I yelp and squirm with surprise. “Cole stop.”
“Come workout with me.”
“Buy me cake.”
“Workout.”
“Cake.” I cry out as he tickles my sides. I try to get around him to squeeze his sides, but he grabs my hands, holding them above my head.
He leans down so we’re face to face. “I will buy you cake; I promise.”
“Then what are we waiting for? Let’s go workout.”
We walk into the aerobics room right at seven. Unfortunately, the doors open into the front of the room instead of the back. For seven am, the class is packed full. Aren’t most of these people on vacation who wants to work out? Don’t people stay up all night in Las Vegas? Since there are so many people in the class, the only spots left are towards the front. The instructor is a tall redhead, who is overly fit. She’s doing some type of stretch with her arms. I watch her watch Cole as we move into our spots, joining the class, and she winks at him. By all that’s good and holy, please don’t let this woman be an ex. I eye Cole warily, but all I get is his patented smile and a wink of my own.
When I peer up at the instructor, she’s doing jumping jacks. “3, 2, 1, bring them forward,” she says through her headset. Everyone keeps up the jumping jacks, only with each jump, they move forward. Let’s complicate jumping jacks as much as we possibly can. We go back and forth doing them for what seems like forever, and I’m already tired.
The music changes. “All right, now that we’re all warmed up, is everyone ready for a great workout?” Holy hell! If that was only the warmup—I’m doomed. There are several hoots and hollers. “All right, let’s get to it! Upper cuts; keep them nice and tight, suck in the stomach.”
Oh man, here we go.
Well, this is better than the jumping jacks. We continue like this for a while, and the instructor adds different punches as we go. I feel a nudge from behind me and a very busty brunette scoots herself between Cole and I. Oh good grief, not this again. I don’t know how he does it, but Cole jumps his way around the brunette, back next to me. I smile, he winks.
“Jab it out to the side; left, left—now right.”
This move isn’t too bad.
“Okay, now a three step; one, two, three—jab! One, two, three—jab.”