No Rep (Madd CrossFit 1)

Taos grinned at that. “I think I could manage to feed you.”

I grinned. “And, just sayin’, but I can come get you for the first two classes of the day. You’d have to stay in the middle, then I can take you home that night really easily. No extra feedings required. But if you wanted me to pick you up and take you home during the middle classes you offer, then you’d have to feed me and ride along on my errands with me.”

Murphy fist-pumped. “I can pick you up when it’s done, too.”

I scowled at Murphy, but he didn’t see it.

The man was taking away my Taos time, and didn’t even realize it!

I’d literally just walked right into my dream, and he didn’t realize he was taking away some Taos time by being sweet.

“Perfect.” Taos grinned. “In that case, yes, you can keep my car. But I swear to God, I better not hear you entering it into one of those street contests again.”

Murphy laughed, pocketed the keys, and then started to unload his dog food, two bags at a time.

That was a hundred something pounds on his shoulder, and he looked like he didn’t even struggle.

“Let me guess.” I watched as he disappeared into the building with the food. “You know him from CrossFit?”

“Five in the morning class,” Taos confirmed as he walked in with the rest of the shit that Murphy had requested.

When Murphy came back, I handed him the receipt, and he handed me cash.

I loved cash. Cash meant I didn’t have to claim it.

I mean, sure, I was technically not supposed to do it. But what the government didn’t know wouldn’t hurt them.

“Thank you.” I smiled.

I’d seen that he’d given me a rather sizable tip, like always.

I fucking loved Murphy, even if he kind of sort of hated me. Or, more accurately, he didn’t seem to get along with my sister.

Since Murphy had moved back to Soul’s Chapel before Mavis had Vlad, they have been sniping at each other. Mavis and Murphy seemed to hate each other for no apparent reason.

He called more than twice during the week for me to go pick up a part for him that was out of town because he wasn’t willing to wait. So that always worked out well in my favor tip-wise.

“Thank you.” He shook his head. “You have no idea how much I hate closing this place up to go get the shit. And with the hours I keep, that means that I have to do it in the middle of the day or I can’t get it. You literally save me a lot of hassle.”

I grinned.

That was why I liked doing what I did.

People were nice to me because I was doing them a favor, and I got paid handsomely for it.

Plus, the last time I was there, Murphy offered to give my car a tune-up in exchange for a trip to the store, which I took. And now it ran better, but it was still a beater.

I had no clue how nice it was to know a mechanic until Murphy.

“Damn, those dogs are getting big.” Taos shook his head as he walked out, wiping dog hair off of his pants.

I wondered what kind they were.

I’d never asked.

“Yeah, they sure the fuck aren’t the little puppies that they used to be when they came to the gym with me, are they?” Murphy asked.

After our goodbyes were made, I offered Taos the keys. “I’ll give you a dollar to drive.”

“Deal.” Taos paused as he looked at the minivan. “Though, just sayin’, but I think my man card will get revoked if I drive it.”

I snorted and got into the passenger seat. “I hate driving it. I feel like I’m driving a damn boat. But it’s easier to just take hers and allow her to take mine rather than shuffling the big ass car seat around.”

He chuckled as he put the van in reverse, then paused when he saw the backup screen.

“That’s really fuckin’ cool,” he mused as he started to back out. Without, might I add, once looking at the screen.

I didn’t have a screen in my car, either, meaning that I rarely glanced at the screen myself.

But I agreed with him, it was really fuckin’ cool.

“I think it’s so big, and surrounds the car so much, because they’re anticipating a shit ton of kids getting in here. And what better way to make sure you don’t run over those shit ton of kids than to have an angle on every single piece of this car?” I teased.

“There was an accident I worked once,” he said as he put the van in drive and then started driving down the road to somewhere I wasn’t privy to. “A grandmother ran over her grandchild. It was awful. Like, well and truly awful. I never thought I would see anything so heartbreaking. The van was partially on the kid’s chest when she realized what she’d done, and when she got out, she didn’t know whether to move the van or not. She was elderly, and crippled to boot, so there was literally nothing that could be done. But the uncle of the kid, hearing the screaming, came running out of the house and fuckin’ lifted the van right off of his nephew. You know they say that there are spurts of superhuman strength when you have adrenaline pumping through your body? The man that did the lifting was like five-foot-six, a hundred and seventy pounds. He shouldn’t have been able to lift that, but he did.”