Chapter Three

Nope.

No way.

She wasn’t doing this.

Lucy sat in her car in the parking lot, staring up at the warehouse-like building in front of her. Dark and squat, it looks liked a place that would be used for a set piece for a gruesome murder on NCIS, not a place to ‘transform her life’, as the website for Total Body Solutions promised.

And seriously, is every weight loss, diet, exercise-y place named Total Body Solutions?

Lame.

Nope, Lucy was not going to do this. Sure, she’d booked an initial appointment online at Brandt’s urging, after that second bottle of wine, but now that she was here…

Now that she was here, she realized that the appointment and that second bottle of wine was a bad, bad idea.

Lucy reached over and put the gearshift into reverse, then shrieked out loud when a hand rapped loudly on her driver’s side window, scaring the bejeezus out of her.

She slammed the gearshift into park hurriedly and then looked nervously over at the large body looming outside her window.

All she could really see from here was an incredibly well defined male upper arm, part of a gray tee shirt, and a hand that was gesturing with the index finger for her to ‘come here’.

No way.

After a moment, the body bent forward, and Lucy saw a smiling face looking at her through the glass.

If this was the trainer, Brandt was absolutely not kidding.

This man made the guy who played Thor look like Sheldon from The Big Bang Theory. Blond, tousled short hair, a pair of beautiful blue eyes, a bigger than average nose that somehow made him even cuter, a winning smile, and god, was that a dimple?!

Lucy loved a dimple on a guy. Totally unfair, stacking the odds with the dimple…

His tee shirt stretched across a nicely defined chest and hugged his arms that resembled really well defined tree trunks.

Holy god, he was just… pretty.

After being rendered mute by his blinding smile, Lucy tried to refocus and noticed that he was gesturing for her to get out of her car.

Oh, this was such a mistake, she thought, reaching again for the gearshift slowly, still unsure if fight or flight was the appropriate response here.

“Are you Lucy?” she heard a deep, melodious voice ask, muffled by the glass between them.

She looked over meekly and nodded slowly.

“You’re right on time. Wanna hop out?”

She glanced away and shook her head no firmly.

“Lucy…” he said, his tone firm but friendly. “C’mon, hop out. It’s going to be fine. I promise. I’ll take good care of you.”

She shook her head again, feeling like a dog who knows that the vet’s office never holds anything good but is forced to walk in anyway.

“Please?”

Lucy softened at that, and then, closing her eyes, nodded slowly. With a shaking hand, she turned off the ignition, grabbed her water bottle and exited the car.

“Hi Lucy, I’m Spencer. Spencer Jackson,” Thor the Thunder God said with a smile and an outstretched hand for her to shake. Lucy stood only five foot four, so she guessed Thor to be at least six-two, six-three in his bare feet. And still so pretty…

“Hi,” Lucy said, her cheeks flushed with embarrassment as she shook his hand for a millisecond. “I’m Lucy. Lucy Hildebrand,” she echoed him, feeling like they were introducing themselves like James Bond and his nemesis of the day.

“I know. Hi. Nice to meet you,” Spencer said easily. “Wanna come inside?”

“I think this was a mistake,” Lucy said, her voice tiny. “In vino veritas, if you will. I think I should go…”

“You haven’t even started yet. It can’t be a mistake yet,” Spencer said, opening the door to the warehouse. “At least give me a chance. You’re a friend of Brandt’s, right?”

“How did you know?”

“He texted me this morning to warn me that you were… um, unsure about the process,” he said, closing the door behind her. “And to say that you were really nice, and his best friend, and to take really good care of you. Just in case I was plotting your murder or some really killer cardio, I guess. He’s a really good guy, and he seems to really care about you.”

“I. will. kill. him.,” Lucy vowed softly, making Spencer chuckle.  “Is that why you were waiting in the parking lot? Because Brandt warned you?”

“Nah, I do that with all my new clients. You think you’re the first one with buyer’s remorse after signing up for a consultation? I’m thinking of just installing a lawn chair out there so I can wait for new clients while they mentally wrestle with themselves in the car before deciding to come in. Some, like you, just need a little coaxing. Anyway, here it is,” he said, gesturing behind him to the large, airy space. “You can put your bottle and keys just there,” he said, pointing to several cubbies by the wall.

Lucy glanced around and inwardly groaned. Yup, nothing but damn Crazy Weight Machines. Oh, and an Elliptical of Death, a Treadmill of Doom and a Bicycle to Hell.

Fantastic.

“Are you okay? You’ve gone really pale. Do you need some water?” Spencer asked, his voice full of concern, his eyes searching her face. “Relax, Lucy. We aren’t going to run a 10K today or anything. Let’s just start easy, okay? It’s gonna be fine. In fact, we’re gonna just talk first. I won’t even make you do crunches for at least twenty minutes.”

Lucy looked into her eyes and saw a twinkle of humor, warmth and support, and… a bit of a challenge.

Like he was daring her to try.

Okay then, she thought, squaring her shoulders, she’d try.

And if it didn’t work out, she’d waddle back to the car and get the hell outta Dodge.

And then she would plot Brandt’s demise.

As long as she had a plan, she thought, sitting down in the chair Spencer pulled out, feeling like she was sitting down in the electric chair.

3847/50000