“Very nice guns for your frame and body type. Now hydrate and stretch.” Smiling, Jen held out a hand. “Body by Jen. I’m liking what I see here.”
Morgan clasped hands, groaned her way to her feet. “This body by Jen feels like it’s been pounded with a thousand tiny hammers.”
“Hydrate and stretch,” Jen repeated, “and it won’t. You’ve come a long way. Keep it up. Hey, Nell.”
“Jen. I’ve got a free hour.”
“And the world shudders on its axis.”
“I know, right?” In her black shorts and tank, Nell grabbed a pair of fifteen-pound weights. “I’m squeezing in some fun.”
She took her stance, started with a swimmer’s press, and sent Morgan a look. “You look like you’ve finished the fun.”
“I’m done. Done in. She’s a monster.”
“I wear the badge with pride. Stretch,” Jen said again, her beaded braids swaying as she walked away to find another victim.
Morgan started her stretches and scowled at Nell in the mirror wall. “Show-off.”
“A badge I wear with pride. I was hoping to run into you before your shift. Mom just told me the Friedman event, that’s Sunday, wants another bar.”
“They already have two.”
“And now they want three. One for mixed drinks, and instead of the second for wine, beer, and soft drinks, they want to split that. One soft bar, one wine and beer bar.”
“I’ll ask Bailey to take it.”
Smoothly, Nell switched to Crazy Eights. “Is she ready?”
“More than for a wine and beer bar. It’s a good way for her to solo at an event. I’ll let you know. If she can’t take it, I’ll see if Nick wants it, or can switch shifts with me and I’ll take it. Becs has her Friday night art class, and I wouldn’t ask her to miss it unless we’re stuck. Tricia’s on vacation until Saturday.”
“I’ll leave it to you. How are you?”
With her hands clasped behind her back, Morgan drew them down and let out a sound that signaled relief. “I think my bones are burning.”
“Keep stretching, and that’s not what I meant.”
“I haven’t heard anything for a couple of days. The last I did, they found the car he stole when he dumped the first one at the airport in Omaha. He ditched that—he’d switched the plates—at a truck stop in South Dakota. They think he might’ve gotten a ride from there, heading west, as they had a possible sighting in Wyoming they were going to follow up on.”
“So he’s still running, and in the opposite direction from here. That’s a good thing.”
“I’m trying to think of it that way.”
“I’d try that, too. I don’t know if I’d succeed.” Switching to twelve pounders, Nell started triceps extensions. “How’s the new security system working out?”
“The ladies love it. Go figure.” As she stretched her own triceps, Morgan had to admit—as usual—the burn had turned to warmth, and her fatigue to smugness. “They baked Miles a damn cherry pie.”
“I love cherry pie. He did not share. It was intrusive of him, Morgan. Miles doesn’t intrude unless his feelings outweigh his pretty rigid sense of stay-out-of-it.”
“I get that. And along that line, how are you doing with your triangle?”
“I have a triangle?”
“You, Jake, Miles.”
With a laugh, Nell set down the lighter weights. “I’m doing my best to enjoy one, ignore the other. And along that line, why don’t we all go out to dinner, make it a foursome? Maybe next Sunday night when you’re off.”
“Oh.” After rolling her shoulders, Morgan lowered into a runner’s stretch. When Nell picked up the heavier weight again for another set of shoulder presses, Morgan wondered how Nell could lift steady without breaking a sweat. “Wouldn’t that be a little awkward?”
“I don’t think so. I think it would be good for Miles to see me and Jake as a couple.”
“Are you?”
“I think we’re cautiously approaching that destination. I can set it up, keep it casual.”
“Have Miles grill,” Morgan suggested. “He likes to, and it’s not only casual, it fits the dynamics. Friends and family.”
“That’s brilliant. I should’ve thought of it.”
“Maybe ask Liam to join with a date. That turns the triangle into a hexagon. I think.”