Chapter 19
After getting off the call with Moira, Jamie tried calling Violet but there was no answer. He messaged, asking how her day had been. When his phone lit up just a couple of minutes later, he reached for it, assuming it was her.
A surprised smile lifted his lips at the message from Matt, one of his oldest friends, asking how everything was going. He started to reply a few times before deciding to keep things light and simple. He’d give him a more detailed update over a call one day.
Their banter-filled exchange only lasted a few minutes and included Matt complaining about Jamie not being around for their five-a-side football with their regular crew, or for their weekly Wednesday-morning jog.
He was actually missing his exercise. Partly the social side of it, but he also felt his fitness levels were dropping. Maybe he’d start jogging on the beach in the mornings. He should speak to Cal too.
Impulsively, he took his number from Moira’s note and fired off a message asking if he played any sports.
While he couldn’t quite imagine Cal playing football, or any kind of ball sports, he was positive he must do something to keep himself in shape.
Given the amount of muscle on the guy it would be unfair if he didn’t work out.
His reply was succinct to say the least. Just a dropped pin on a map and instructions to meet there at 8 a.m. Jamie’s request to make it a little later was ignored entirely.
An early night was probably in order then. A message came through from Violet as he walked upstairs, saying she’d had a long day and was wiped out but would speak to him tomorrow.
He sent her a row of kisses and continued to bed.
The following morning, he cursed Cal for the early start.
With no time for coffee, he felt groggy as he followed the satnav out of North Berwick and along narrow winding roads.
It was ten past eight when he approached his destination.
Although there was a chance he’d gone wrong somewhere.
The dirt track taking him onto what he suspected was private farmland didn’t seem quite right.
He felt a pang of hope at the sight of a bunch of cars lined up on a slab of concrete adjacent to what looked to be an old warehouse.
He groaned when he got out of the car to be met by the sounds of grunts and groans from inside.
The sign above the door announced it to be The Forge.
As much as he wanted to exercise, he wasn’t keen to join some macho men’s club.
Especially not if the clientele were similar in size to Cal. His ego couldn’t take it.
The door was only slightly ajar. He could back away without anyone knowing he’d been near the place.
After the smallest step backwards, a face appeared in the gap.
It was a woman, but she wasn’t far off being Cal’s size.
Slight exaggeration, but she was solidly built and could definitely lift heavier than Jamie. She didn’t look pleased to see him.
“Are we expecting a newbie?” she shouted loudly without taking her eyes off Jamie.
“Aye!” Cal’s voice boomed just before he appeared and slid the door open. “What time do you call this?”
“I didn’t know I needed to be punctual,” he said as Cal slung a heavy arm around his shoulders.
“No bother. Come on in. I’ll show you what’s what.”
They’d only just stepped inside when Cal lifted a stopwatch which hung around his neck and pressed a button. He blew into a whistle, causing a piercing screech far too close to Jamie’s ear.
“Two minutes to get your breath back, gang!” he shouted before his eyes slid to Jamie. “Welcome to The Forge!”
“What is this place?” Jamie cast his gaze around the large room.
A few tables near them were littered with drinks and snacks, while chairs and the surrounding floor were piled with coats and bags.
The rest of the room was adorned with various gym equipment.
Not the high-tech kind, but pull-up bars and dumbbells, tyres, ropes and kettlebells.
Black mats covered large portions of the floor and a couple of exercise bikes were parked at the far end of the room beside a row of punchbags.
Throughout the room, small groups of sweaty, smiley women chatted away.
“It’s my gym,” Cal said proudly. “Circuit training this morning. You’re in for a treat.” He checked his stopwatch. “Hang on one second.” He pressed a button, then blew his whistle again. “Off we go again, folks!”
The sound of a baby crying drifted from a buggy in the corner behind them. A woman on the other side of the room slid off an exercise bike with a weary look in her eyes.
“I don’t think so, Millie!” Cal shouted. “You don’t get out of it that easy. Leave Billy to me.”
“He’ll be wanting a bottle,” the woman said.
“In the change bag?” Cal asked.
“Aye. But it’ll need warming up.”
“Thirty seconds in the microwave,” Cal said. “Then make sure to shake it well.” He tapped his forehead. “I’m on it. You just focus on yourself. But don’t push yourself too hard. Take longer breaks if you need them.”
“Thanks, Cal,” the woman shouted as she hopped back onto the bike.
“Take over, will you, Zara?” Cal asked the woman who’d caught Jamie lurking outside.
He passed her his whistle and stopwatch, then moved to the buggy and lifted a baby to his chest.
“Is he yours?” Jamie asked.
Cal grunted a laugh and angled the baby at him.
“Look at him! Fairly sure any offspring of mine wouldn’t be this good-looking.
” While he rocked him gently, he took Jamie’s bag from him and slung it over with the others.
“You missed the warm-up, but Zara can take you through a few stretches and give you a rundown of what’s what. ”
“I don’t think that’s necessary,” Jamie said.
“It’s definitely necessary,” Cal replied. “No one works out here without warming up. We don’t want injuries. Once you’ve stretched, Zara will talk you through the different stations.”
Jamie didn’t argue further, and followed along with the warm-up Zara put him through.
For the most part she eyed him dubiously, which was at odds with her encouraging manner towards the rest of the group.
After walking him through several exercises and checking his form, she left him to move between the stations with everyone else.
They did exercises for four minutes, then took a two-minute break.
There was no set route between the activities.
They rotated to whichever exercise they felt like doing next and Jamie soon figured out why.
The group was social, chatting and encouraging each other as they went.
Switching freely between exercises meant they mingled with everyone.
It also meant that it started to feel a bit like an odd version of speed dating.
Everyone else knew each other and Jamie felt like the new meat that everyone wanted a piece of.
Aside from him and Cal, there was only one other man in the room. That guy looked to be about ninety.
It was surprisingly gruelling. After half an hour, he’d worked up a sweat and was starting to think that arriving late was a good tactic. As far as he could tell they had another twenty minutes to go, and he wasn’t sure he could handle much more than that.
He did box jumps alongside a perimenopausal mother of three.
It wasn’t a guess – she told him at length about her symptoms and trouble getting the doctor to listen to her.
Cal had apparently been way more helpful than her GP, and she sang his praises in between launching herself up onto the box with what appeared to be far more ease than Jamie.
When she said goodbye and moved along, he ended up drifting over to the pull-up bars.
“Oh I like a bit of friendly competition!” The little old lady beside him had a mischievous glint in her eyes. He looked down at her, then up at the bar above her head.
“You’re doing pull-ups?”
“I think we both are. If you’re up to it.”
Cal appeared with the baby dozing in the crook of his arm. “Go easy on him, June. Don’t embarrass him on his first day.”
“I’ll go easy on him,” she replied. “I promise.”
Jamie’s jaw slackened when she reached for the bar and pulled herself up.
“Go, June!” someone shouted across the room.
Cal slapped Jamie on the back so hard it made him stumble. “Show us what you’ve got then.”
Everyone in the room was watching, and the cheers for June increased as soon as Jamie took the next bar along.
Panic set in around June’s fifth pull-up.
She really might embarrass him at this rate.
He had no idea how many he could do, but if she got to ten, he suspected he’d be defeated by a pensioner.
After six she lowered herself to the ground and received a rowdy round of applause.
She bowed in response, then raised a hand to high-five Jamie when he stepped beside her.
“That was impressive,” he said.
“I’m seventy-three in case you’re curious,” she said at the same time that Cal shouted at the group to get back to work and wandered away.
“Amazing,” Jamie told her.
“You didn’t do too bad yourself.” She waved at the old man dragging what looked to be a tractor tyre across the room. “I think he can manage a few boxes, Stan.”
The man nodded through his exertion. “Whatever you say, dear.”
“They’re not even that heavy,” she said, aiming the words at Jamie.
“The tyres?” he asked, confused.
“No. The boxes. They need bringing down from the attic. You’re supposed to come and do it at the weekend. I’m June Jenkins.”
“Oh!” He offered his hand and she shook it firmly. “I have that in my calendar. I’ll be there.”
“I thought about cancelling. From what I heard, I thought you’d be some scrawny, clumsy thing, but I think you’re up to the job.”
“What exactly did you hear?”
“All this nonsense about you not being able to tighten a few screws and not knowing a hedge from a weed.”
“Oh.”
She patted his arm. “Don’t worry, dear. Emma put me straight.”
“Emma?”
“Our local police officer. She’s a good ’un. A detective now! Anyway, I trust her word. She said there was nothing wrong with the rail when you left, and the only gardening you’d done was what Mr Langford instructed you to do.”
“It’s good to hear she set you straight.”
“The rumours were flying at my kickboxing class yesterday, I can tell you. I’m glad I saw Emma this morning and got the truth of it.”
Trying not to contemplate June at a kickboxing class, Jamie glanced around. If she’d seen Emma that morning, did that mean she was here? He hadn’t noticed her, but he also hadn’t been looking.
“It’s quite a lot of boxes,” June said. “Just to warn you. They need lugging down from the attic so I can sort through them.”
“That’s not a problem,” he said, right when Zara blew the whistle. He moved to get a drink of water and was pondering which exercise to go for next when Cal caught his attention by clicking his fingers loudly. Then he pointed at the back of the room. “Let’s see how long you can hold a plank for.”
Jamie found an empty space on the mat and waited until the whistle blew before getting into a push-up position. Holding a plank for four minutes shouldn’t be too difficult.
“That was almost embarrassing with June,” the woman holding herself in a plank beside him said.
He turned his head at the familiar voice. “Hi! It’s Emma, right?”
“Yeah. We have met twice, you know.”
“I know, but you were Detective MacLeod then.”
“True.”
“You’re right about June. I was genuinely worried she was going to be able to do more pull-ups than me.”
“She’s a badass.”
“I got that impression.” He shifted his weight slightly as the muscles in his arms began to complain. “She reckons you were saying nice things about me, by the way.”
“The vicious rumours never stop,” she said dryly.
“You don’t want to admit you said nice things about me?” he teased.
“I told her I thought you could manage to carry a few boxes for her. I’d hardly call that a glowing character reference.”
“Thanks anyway. Nice that I’m not losing all my jobs.”
“Yeah, well, I’d hate to see you ruin Moira’s business completely.”
“Hopefully things aren’t quite that bad.” He shifted his hand a little, wondering how much time had passed. “I have a question,” he said, then inhaled deeply, hoping to improve the amount of oxygen getting to his muscles. “Is this a women-only gym?”
“No.” Her lips twitched upwards.
“But is this a women-only class?”
“Stan joins us most weeks,” she said, her eyes shifting to the old man doing Russian twists alongside June.
Jamie lowered his voice. “I’m not sure how much testosterone he adds to the group. Anyway, what I was wondering is if it’s really weird that I’m here?”
Emma opened her mouth but closed it again, eyes flickering with something that might have been confusion.
“Do you think Cal just invited me to mess with me? I feel as though there’s probably a men’s session after this I could’ve joined.”
“It is a little strange,” she said, a faraway quality to her voice. “It’s Cal’s place and he decides who can come. Theoretically, it’s a women’s session, but he’ll make exceptions occasionally. I’m not sure why he invited you.”
“I’m fairly sure it was to mess with me.” He pushed his weight back and then forwards, trying to find some relief.
“He wasn’t messing with you,” Emma said. “There is a men’s session later but the vibe isn’t the same. It’s a lot more egos and competition.”
“Doesn’t sound like my thing. I got scared going up against a seventy-three-year-old woman.” He let out a soft groan and hoped the whistle would go any second now. “Does Cal own the gym?” he asked after a moment. “Or does he just teach the classes?”
“He owns it.”
“It’s pretty cool,” Jamie said, gritting his teeth and hoping he wasn’t about to collapse on his face. “He told me he owns a campsite too.”
“Yeah. He’s quite an unassuming entrepreneur,” Emma said and then her voice turned wistful. “He’s created something really special with this place.”
“Surely it must be time to blow the whistle,” he said, groaning involuntarily.
“I reckon there’s another minute at least.”
“No way! Shut up! Now you’re messing with me.”
“I’m not.” She turned her head to look at him. “Engage your core and your quads.”
He was fairly sure he made a face as he did it. “That actually helps. A bit anyway.”
“You can drop down to your elbows if you’re struggling.”
With his ego well and truly pushed aside he did as she suggested. “That’s better,” he said, the relief immediate. Sadly, it only lasted a few seconds, then the muscles in his shoulders started to scream at him again. “Please tell me this isn’t as easy for you as you’re making it look?”
“It’s excruciating,” she said.
“Can you please act like it?”
“No chance.”
“I didn’t think so.” He growled against the discomfort. “Blow the bloody whistle!”
It took a few more seconds. He’d never enjoyed the screech of a whistle so much. Lowering himself to the floor, he remained face down while he waited for his muscles to relax.
When he looked up, Emma was nowhere to be seen.