No Rep (Madd CrossFit 1)

Couldn’t I?

“Hey,” came a voice that I now craved to hear.

I turned slowly from my contemplation of the sunset and smiled. “Hey.”

She tilted her head. “Everything okay?”

I thought about that for a second.

Was everything okay?

Not really.

The murders that the chief had pulled me in on had gone unsolved. Maria’s murder was still unsolved.

The teaching classes that kept me seeing a certain someone on a daily basis were now over.

And I already missed her.

I didn’t even know if she was going to keep coming to CrossFit or not.

I mean, sure we’d done ‘things’ that some would automatically assume meant a relationship, but life had gotten in the way over the last two weeks since Maria’s murder.

I’d volunteered myself full time to helping solve the murders with the FBI agent, Easton. Yet another murder had occurred, and we realized that the more manpower on the investigation, the better. Or, I did. I hadn’t quite been able to leave it behind once they’d told me that I could.

Then Fran’s nephew had gotten sick to the point where she was babysitting or working, and barely had time for me when I could find the time to break off.

Which meant, the only time I for sure saw her was when she was here…

“I, uh...” She paused. “I want to sign up for a full membership.”

My heart all but flip-flopped in my chest.

I grinned down at her, unable to help it, and her breath caught, giving me my first official sign that she was into me.

I’d wondered these past few weeks, after very little communication, if she was done with me. She was able to keep a lot hidden and close to her chest.

Hell, half the time I couldn’t even tell if she was struggling with the workout.

Other than sweating, her face was always blank. She had one hell of a poker face.

“Sweet,” I said as I jerked my chin to the office. “Sophia is up there. She can get you taken care of.”

Fran’s face fell slightly, and her shoulders drooped. “Oh, okay.”

When Fran started to walk away, I caught her forearm and halted her. “I’d help, but I have absolutely zero idea how to get memberships started. That’s always been Sophia’s domain.”

Fran’s shoulders picked back up, and a small smile lit her face. “I thought you worked in the office.”

I shrugged. “I do… when I’m working on writing. I will do the books now and then, and check to see small stuff on accounts if someone calls asking, but I mostly just stay silent as a partner. And I’m mostly here so people can do open gym if they need to.”

Her lips quirked up another notch.

Together we filed through the people milling about after the class to the office, but before I could go all the way up, she halted me with her hand on my forearm this time.

She looked like she started gathering courage before she started to speak.

“I’ve been struggling the last few weeks on telling you this but… a few years ago, I was running,” she whispered, sounding lost. “I was…”

The moment she said the word ‘running’ I knew exactly what she was going to say. The fact that she’d agonized over telling me the last two weeks had meant quite a bit more to me than she thought.

I’d felt, from the very beginning, that I’d known her. I’d had a connection to her. And I hadn’t been able to figure out exactly why.

But the moment that she said ‘running’ everything started to click into place.

That night. That night that had prompted me to end my career with the police department.

• • •

Two and a half years ago

“Hey, Taos.” The dispatcher who was working tonight got on the line. “I have a girl that needs a welfare check done on her sister.”

I pinched the bridge of my nose.

That was the last thing I wanted to do tonight.

Most likely, I’d get there, and there would be a dead body to deal with.

Which would then cause me to have paperwork to do, and all I wanted to do at that moment in time was go home, eat, and go to bed.

“Sure.” I paused, sounding just as hesitant to my own ears as I felt. “Where at?”

“Actually,” the dispatcher said, “it’s at the trailhead, I believe. The sister says that her tracker says that she was running, and that she stopped at a spot but never moved from there. When the sister calls, there’s no answer.”

I groaned. “Which one? I’ll get there as soon as I can.”

Two and a half minutes later, I was pulling onto the trailhead that the sister said the tracker was pinging as the location of the missing girl’s phone. I pulled out my flashlight, scanning the ever-brightening area with it in large sweeps, when I heard what sounded like a muffled shout.