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“Okay, we’ll do it together.” She gave him a hug, and his arms tightened around her, his jaw raspy against her cheek. “Let’s go tell Mr. Superstar.”
Downstairs, they found Brett putting away free weights in the exercise room.
“We’d both like to join,” Renita said. “And have the two-for-one deal with a personal trainer.”
“Excellent.” Brett hefted a pair of twenty-five-pound dumbbells as if they were feathers, and placed them in the rack. “I’ll take you both on myself, if you’re game.”
Lifting her chin, Renita said, “Bring it on.”
BRETT LOADED FATHER AND daughter up with timetables, newsletters and receipts. He made arrangements for Renita to bring Steve to his first training session the next morning.
“I’ll see you for yours Friday afternoon,” he told her, holding the door open for them as they went out.
“Way to go, boss.” Janet congratulated him when she returned to the reception desk after her session was over. “Two new members.”
“It was touch and go there for a while.” Brett pulled up a window on the computer screen and started to enter their details.
“I saw you work your magic. Never a moment of doubt.” Janet slanted him a quizzical glance. “Who’s the woman?”
“Renita Thatcher. She’s the loans manager at the bank. I knew her in high school.”
“I thought I caught an undercurrent,” Janet said. “Were you two an item?”
“God, no,” Brett said, saving the page. “She tutored me in math.”
Half a dozen women from the aerobics class drifted down the stairs, chatting and laughing. On the way out, the single ones all sent flirtatious glances at Brett. He was friendly, but ignored the unspoken invitations. The small number of people in the class was a worry. There should have been twenty, at least.
“You could have your pick of that bunch,” Janet observed when the door shut behind the last one.
“I don’t date clients.” He began to shut down the computer.
“Probably wise.” Janet pulled out the equipment brochure again. “These machines are really expensive,” she said, flipping through the pages. “You could get better deals buying used ones through the internet.”
Now was the time to mention that his loan wouldn’t even cover cheap used equipment. But Brett found he just…couldn’t.
“I wouldn’t waste my time. These babies are top of the line,” he said, reaching for the brochure. “It’s time I started making a list and checking it twice.”
He wanted the best equipment money could buy. He’d find that money, somehow. He’d never gotten anywhere in life by being cautious.
CHAPTER THREE
“FUN RUN. Isn’t that a contradiction in terms?” Renita said to Lexie as they wandered through the mall, shopping for exercise clothing. “I mean, what’s fun about sweating?”
“Ask Jack—he’s the athletic one in the family. It’s to do with endorphins.” Lexie pushed back her long, unruly blond hair with paint-stained fingers. Her naturally slender build, coupled with the fact that she regularly forgot to eat when she was working on a portrait, meant she never had to worry about her weight. “You should take up yoga.”
“My body doesn’t bend properly. My stomach gets in the way.” Renita stepped sideways to allow a young mum pushing a stroller to get by. She scanned ahead, past clusters of teenagers and middle-aged couples, for the athletic store her assistant, Poppy, had recommended.
“I can’t believe you actually got Dad to agree to run,” Lexie said. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen him in shorts, let alone moving faster than a walk.”
“He only signed up because the great Brett O’Connor talked him into it.” Renita rolled her eyes.
“Brett O’Connor?” Lexie repeated. “Wasn’t he the footy player you were madly in love with in high school?”
“Mild infatuation,” Renita corrected, hoping her sister wouldn’t recall how she’d doodled Brett’s name in every notebook. Ah, here was the shop. She stopped in front of the display window. “I love the color of that sports bra.”
“Cobalt-blue. Perfect with your dark hair,” Lexie declared. “Try it on.”
“And expose my midriff?” She made a face. “No thanks.”
“All you’ve bought so far are three oversize T-shirts and a pair of baggy shorts,” Lexie complained. “Do it.”
“I’m so fat. It’ll look horrible on me.”
“You’re pleasingly plump.”
“Who am I pleasing? Not me.” She eyed her reflection in the window critically. She didn’t hate her body; she just didn’t love it. “I need to lose twenty pounds.”
“You’re going to. As soon as you start exercising. First you need the proper gear.”
“I guess there’s no harm in trying it on. It doesn’t mean I have to buy it.” Renita went into the shop. Flicking through the clothes rack, she found her size in the sports bra. “Hold these,” she said, and handed Lexie her shopping bags before finding an empty fitting room.
“What did you see in him, anyway?” her sister asked, taking a seat outside the cubicle, bags rustling. “Jocks aren’t your type.”
“Tell me about it.” Renita’s voice was muffled as she pulled her scoop-necked ivory top over her head.
“Was it because he was unattainable?”
“Who wants a guy who’s unattainable?” Renita was much more pragmatic than that. And yet the reason she’d liked him didn’t have anything to do with practicality. “He made me laugh.” She sighed. “And he was hot.”
“He was gorgeous,” Lexie agreed. “Still is, I’ll bet.”
Oh, he is. “It’s funny, though,” Renita said. “Beneath all that cockiness, I don’t believe he’s as sure of himself as he pretends.”
She stared at herself in the mirror, eyeing the bulge of flesh below her bra strap, the roll above the waistband of her slacks, then turned away.
“Was it fun catching up on old high school stuff with Brett?” Lexie asked.
“Not much to catch up on,” Renita replied, taking the sports bra off the hanger. “After I stopped tutoring him I hardly ever saw him again.”
“Didn’t you ask him to a dance and he turned you down? I seem to remember you sobbing to me over the phone about it. When I was living in Melbourne, going to art school.”
“I did ask him out. He said no. No great loss. As for me sobbing over Brett O’Connor? No way.” That last bit was a lie but Renita didn’t want to revisit the past. She’d moved on since then, had her share of boyfriends…her share of disappointments in love. Brett had no power to hurt her anymore.
She tugged on the sports bra, sucking in her gut as she turned sideways to check the fit in the mirror. The cobalt-blue did look great, but oh, that midriff. And her breasts were too small. If she had a bigger bust maybe her stomach wouldn’t look so huge.
She tried to imagine a slimmer version of herself. Was it possible? Could she work that hard, lose that much weight? For years she’d been in denial, telling herself she wasn’t that heavy, concealing her girth with flattering garments. What would it feel like to wear a revealing top and look trim and toned?
Suddenly, she wanted to find out.
“Are you done?” Lexie called. “I’m dying for a coffee.”
“Just a minute.” Renita dragged the bra over her head and changed back into her clothes. She opened the door to the cubicle. “As soon as I pay for this.”
“Awesome!” Lexie said. “I’m so proud of you for having the guts to wear something revealing.”
“Oh, I’m not going to wear it,” Renita said. “It’s going to hang on the back of my bedroom door. Every time I look at it, it’ll be incentive for me to keep exercising.”
“You go, girl.”
“Then when I’m buff, Brett will want me just as badly as I once wanted him. I’m going to look so hot he’ll slip on his own drool.”
“No great loss, you say?” Lexie commented drily.
Renita ignored that and moved to the checkout. “He won’t be able to have me. I’ll be unattainable.”
“Renita, don’t be a tease,” her sister said, following behind. “Okay, he hurt your feelings in high school, but you can’t hold that against him now. He seems like a nice guy. Even the gossip magazines could never find any sleaze on him.”
“Brett’s a big boy.” Renita tossed her ponytail. “He can take care of himself.”
“It’s not just him I’m worried about,” Lexie said. “You’re not as tough as you pretend.”
“I am tough.” Renita’s fists tightened around the plastic hanger. If she was going to be around Brett she would have to develop a hide like a rhino.
“HEY, GRANT.” Brett shifted the phone to his other ear while he gave change to a gym member for the coffee machine. “The financing is all approved, the sale is going ahead. I just wanted to confirm that my salary as manager continues up until the date of the transfer of property. Then I’ll be on my own.” He chuckled as Grant offered commiserations. “I’m looking forward to taking over. Can’t wait, in fact. If you happen to be in town for the grand opening, be sure to come by. I’ll let you know when it is.”
Brett hung up and made calls to a few painting companies and flooring installers. He didn’t have a loan for refurbishment—yet—but there was no harm in getting a few quotes so he’d be ready to roll when he did get the money.
He glanced at his watch. Nearly 6:00 p.m. He needed to get Tegan from his parents’ house, where she was helping babysit his brother Ryan’s little girl.
He left the reception desk to poke his head into the weight room, where Mark was wiping down the seats and handles of the machines. “I’m taking off now,” he told him. “I’ll be back in an hour or so. I’ll close tonight.”
“Sure thing, Brett.” Mark lifted the bottle of spray cleaner. “Catch you later.”
On his way to his parents’ he stopped off at home to pick up a glass coffee table he had no use for. When he’d split from Amber she’d kept the mansion on the Yarra River and bought all new furniture, giving him the old pieces. He knew his mum and dad would be thrilled to get a nearly new coffee table in perfect condition.
A half hour later he pulled into the gravel driveway of the seventies timber cottage where he had grown up. The ramshackle building, added onto in hodgepodge fashion as the family grew, was tucked in an old subdivision of Summerside. The backyard was big enough for a chicken coop, a veggie garden and, when Brett was a kid, for him and his brothers, Ryan and Tom, to chuck around a football. In his big earning years Brett had tried to buy his parents a newer house, but they’d wanted to stay where they had space for the grandkids to play. From the sounds of laughter over the fence, Tegan and little Charlotte were bouncing on the trampoline.
His dad opened the front door, big and bluff as ever. Hal’s graying hair still held traces of blond and his shoulders were as wide as his son’s. “Hey, Brett.” He feinted a karate chop.
Brett parried, only to find himself gripped in a headlock. He hooked a leg around his father’s ankle and got him off balance long enough to break away. Hal immediately twisted his arm up his back with an evil chuckle.
“Uncle!” Brett cried, knowing that otherwise this could go on for twenty minutes or more. Hal released him and he shook his shoulders to relax them. “Geez, Dad, when are you going to take up golf?”
“Golf is for sissies. Mary!” Hal bellowed down the hall. “Brett’s here.”
His mum, short and slight, limped forward slowly, hampered by her prosthetic leg. Brett went to meet her, picking her up and enveloping her in a bear hug.
“Let me go,” she cried, flustered and laughing, pushing back her curly auburn hair. After she was safely set back down, she said, “Are you and Tegan staying for dinner?”
“I have to get back to the gym in an hour. I’m just dropping off that coffee table we talked about. Dad, want to give me a hand?”
Hal followed him out to the car and helped him unhook the bungee cord holding down the trunk of the Mercedes. “How’s it going at the gym?”
“I got the loan. In thirty days the business will be mine.” Brett slid one end of the thick glass out of the trunk over the padding, steadying it so his father could grab hold. When Hal had removed the glass, Brett bent his knees and hefted the marble base, grunting under its weight.
“And the bad news?” Hal asked, somehow hearing it in the tone of Brett’s voice. He balanced the heavy piece of glass on his hip and crunched over the gravel to the front door.
“It’s all good.” Brett shifted the marble to get a stronger grip, then went sideways into the house. “Where do you want this?”
“Over here.” Mary waved him to a spot in the cozy living room in front of the his-and-hers recliners in worn brown Naugahyde.
“Brett’s got himself a fitness center,” Hal told his wife.
“That’s wonderful.” She motioned them a little farther to the right. “Not too close to the fireplace.”
Brett lowered the base, then helped position the glass top. Merlin, the fluffy gray cat, came to inspect the new addition to his home. Mary hunted up a cloth and a bottle of window cleaner.
“I’ll go find Tegan,” Hal said, leaving his wife to do the final touches.
“Thank you, Brett. This table is lovely.” Mary began to polish the glass top. “Doesn’t that girl who tutored you in math in high school work in the loans department? I’ll bet it helped that you knew her.”
Brett picked up Merlin and stroked him until he purred. “Oddly enough, needing math tutorials was no recommendation for a business loan in Renita’s eyes.”
“Renita, that’s her name.” His mum straightened, pressing a hand to the small of her back. “But what do you mean, no recommendation. Didn’t you get what you wanted?”
Somehow his mother always managed to coax information from him that he couldn’t tell his father. “Not the full loan,” he said flatly. “I can buy the gym but not refurbish it.”
Hal came through the door from the kitchen. “The girls are coming in now.”
“Tell your father,” Mary said to Brett. She took a potted African violet off the windowsill and placed it in the center of the table.
Hal glanced from her to Brett. “What is it?”
Brett groaned. “Don’t, Mum….”
“Brett’s got a problem with the bank. They won’t give him enough money. Can we help?”
“No, I’ll be fine,” Brett said firmly. His parents’ meager savings would see them through retirement as long as nothing unexpected came up. He didn’t like asking for help from anyone, and he definitely wouldn’t take it from his folks, who had so little to spare.
“Have you talked to Ryan or Tom?” Mary asked.
“No, and I’m not going to. They both have families and expenses of their own.”
“What about taking in a silent partner?” Hal suggested. “One of your old footy mates.”
Brett rubbed his jaw. It wasn’t a bad idea. Some of the guys could afford to throw a couple hundred grand his way as an investment. But to ask would mean revealing his ongoing problems with Amber and his financial embarrassment. “Nah, I’ll think of something.”
Hal clapped a hand on his shoulder. “Course you will.”
