Chapter 2
AFTER NEARLY TWO MONTHS of paperwork and waiting for backordered equipment to arrive, Chase was ready for his first day at Gym Rat Fitness, and he couldn’t have been more excited.
The nerves he had regarding working for one of his sports heroes took a backseat to wanting to do his best in this new position. Hopefully, he could turn this job into the career he’d always wanted.
Tobias met him at the gym early so they could organize all of the equipment in time for their first class.
A new shelving unit sat in the front of the gym next to the computer system and held all the yoga blocks and rolled mats they’d need, plus some towels to create extra padding for anyone who wanted it.
They spent the morning exchanging few words, Tobias likely because he wasn’t much of a talker, and Chase because he was so jittery and excited he thought if he opened his mouth then nothing but gibberish would come out. He was doing his best not to embarrass himself on his first day.
Everything was ready by the time members started arriving for the class, most of them heading right to the stretch area to get ready. Chase kneeled on the floor as he straightened the stack of yoga blocks on the bottom shelf for the fourth time when he was approached by two familiar men.
One of them was a solidly built Asian man with a wide grin. He dragged a leaner man by the forearm until they were right in front of Chase.
“Hi! You’re Chase, right?” the first man said as he stood to greet them. “I’m Josh, and this is Riley.”
Josh threw his arm around Riley’s shoulders and reached out a hand to shake Chase’s. Chase shook it with a smile.
“Nice to meet you,” he said as he realized where he’d seen the pair before. “Although, I think I caught you two at the soccer game where I met Mr. Moyer.”
“Chase, I told you to call me Tobias,” Tobias said gruffly as he walked by the three of them. When he played hockey, Chase had always referred to him as Moyer when he talked about him, so it was weird using his first name.
“Right, sorry… Tobias,” he said, his cheeks heating as he refocused on Josh and Riley. “You guys are cute. How long have you been together?”
He heard chuckles echoing in the space, and Chase noticed Riley tense, but he wasn’t sure why.
Josh answered him. “Oh, we’ve known each other since we were kids. Partners in crime, right, Ri?”
Riley opened his mouth, but said nothing.
“That’s so sweet,” Chase said.
“Actually, we’re just friends,” Riley said, and Chase winced at his mistake. They really could have fooled him, the way they clung to each other.
An arm settled around Chase’s shoulders, making him flinch, until he realized it was Cole.
“Don’t worry, Chase. Everyone makes that mistake,” he said. He then whispered, loud enough for everyone to hear, “They haven’t had their awakening yet.”
Ahh, I see. That will be entertaining once they figure it out.
“Cole, take your hands off the staff, please,” Tobias barked, forcing all their gazes to snap toward Tobias, who was staring at Cole’s arm where it lay across Chase’s shoulders.
Chase froze. He hadn’t seen that determination in Tobias’ eyes since he’d watched him on the ice.
For some reason, he was pissed. Cole slowly pulled his arm away, but Chase couldn’t turn away from Tobias.
Until he heard Cole whisper-shout again.
“I’m so glad you’re here. This is going to be so much fun. ”
There was tension in the air, but Chase wasn’t entirely sure why, and he didn’t have more time to think about it as Tobias gathered everyone around to start class.
A few others had snuck in while they’d been talking.
He recognized Garrett from his interview and gave him an awkward wave Garrett returned with a smile.
“Everyone, this is Chase Townsend, and he’s going to be our new yoga instructor.”
Chase exchanged hellos with the people he hadn’t been introduced to yet, and then Tobias explained the schedule. He’d teach two classes a week at each time interval and sometimes he’d help with cooldowns throughout the week during regular classes.
Gym Rat Fitness wasn’t the typical kind of gym where members could come and go as they pleased.
There were only scheduled classes utilizing everything from punching bags to weight-lifting equipment, and now yoga.
Chase loved the open industrial space, which even had rings and ropes hanging from the ceiling.
“On yoga days, Chase will lead the warm-up and stretch as well as the workout, so he’s now got the floor. Show us what you got, Chase.”
“Thanks, Mr.— I mean, Tobias,” he said, his cheeks heating once again.
“I’m going to take you all through a session I’ve created just for this group.
If there’s a move you can’t do, it’s important to not force it.
There are plenty of modified moves for everything, as well as some more advanced moves we’ll use to find out where everyone is when it comes to skill.
So, do what you can, but listen to your body and don’t forget to breathe.
Now, everyone grab a yoga mat, a block and an ab mat and spread out so you have plenty of room on all sides. ”
Once everyone had their mats and accessories ready, Chase led them through a warm-up some of them struggled with. Maybe he’d save the more advanced moves for a later date.
They progressed right into the main part of the class, starting with a style called Vinyasa Flow he thought would be a good introduction for them.
Tobias had explained he sometimes participated in the classes and other times watched and made sure everyone was moving safely.
That morning, he’d opted to jump in and out of the workout.
He wanted to take breaks to help his members since it was such a different tone to their normal weight-lifting and high-intensity interval training.
As Chase directed everyone through each movement, he couldn’t help the way his gaze tracked Tobias throughout the class.
The guy was like a hawk, surveying everyone’s poses and taking quick glances at Chase, who hoped he was living up to what Tobias expected. Yoga was a new addition to his gym, and it was up to Chase to make it worth keeping. He couldn’t let any desire for him get in the way.
They reached the cooldown. He had them stand in a forward fold pose—basically bending forward and reaching for their toes. Tobias joined in for the final stretches.
The two of them were the most flexible by far, both of them reaching past their toes.
Cole, of course, decided to make things more interesting.
“Okay, Chase, how do we find out who is more flexible between you and Tobias?”
Chase smirked as he glanced at Tobias, keeping his eyes on him as he responded, “We add the block.”
Tobias and Chase grabbed their blocks and sat on their mats, their legs straight out in front of them.
They placed the blocks against the bottom of their feet.
The foam blocks were rectangular cubes slightly bigger than his favorite romance paperbacks, but four inches thick.
Chase had the long side of the block nestled against the bottom of his feet, the wide side on the floor, as he reached past his feet and wrapped his fingers around the block.
Everyone was impressed until Tobias did the same thing, except he turned the block lengthwise to make the reach even longer. He bent completely in half and his fingers crimped against the far edge of the block.
With everything else he was excited about, Chase had forgotten one of the most important things about hockey players, particularly goaltenders.
They were bendy as hell.
“Holy fuck,” Chase whisper-shouted. He shook himself and tried to regain some professionalism. “Impressive, Mr.— Tobias.”
Luckily, someone pulled his focus away from that delicious sight.
“Chase, will we all be able to do that when you’re done with us?” Josh asked.
It was painful turning away from that view so he could answer Josh. “Going that deep,” he said before choking on his own breath. He needed to get his mind out of the gutter. “That would take daily yoga practice for a long time, but we’ll do our best.”
Chase continued the cooldown, ending with a savasana, or corpse pose. They basically laid on their backs with their eyes closed for a couple minutes.
The gym was quiet except for the serene music playing on the sound system, and he entered a state of calm, a place he could feel truly relaxed and—
“Ow!”
Josh’s shout had everyone’s heads popping off the floor to find out what happened.
How did anyone hurt themselves during corpse pose?
It became obvious when he saw Josh had made his way over to Riley’s mat and was rubbing his face, his phone on the floor next to him.
He was likely trying to take a cute selfie of them and dropped the phone on his face.
“Josh, what the hell are you doing?” Tobias snapped.
“Sorry,” he said as he rolled to his own mat, the zen in the room chased away by the interruption. “My bad, guys.”
Chase ended the class there and reminded them to stay hydrated the rest of the day.
After everyone started packing up, Tobias met Chase at the front of the room. Would he provide feedback about the class? Tell him he did an amazing job? Would he be so blown away he’d drop to his knees and give everyone a show?
The answer was none of the above, thanks to being interrupted before they could exchange a single word.
“Hey, Tobias, sorry to interrupt, but I wanted to run something by you for Riley’s sister, Sophie,” Josh said warily, Riley nervously standing beside him. Chase moved to his mat to roll it up, still close enough to hear their conversation.
Tobias furrowed his brow at Riley. “Your sister? Does she want to join the gym?”
Riley took a deep breath and rushed through an answer.
“So, my sister works in the PR department for the Philly Inferno,” he said, and Chase noticed how quickly the blood drained from Tobias’ face at the mention of his NHL team, “and the current goalie for their alumni game later this season had to drop out. She hoped you’d be interested in taking his spot. ”
Oh shit. Tobias could get back on the ice?
The realization knocked away all his good sense.
“No way! That would be so awesome,” Chase exclaimed as he jumped to standing and joined their conversation.
He didn’t notice how un-excited Tobias looked as Chase gazed at him in wonder.
“I go to that game every year and it would be so cool to see you play again…”
Chase trailed off as he took in Tobias, who froze like he’d been hit by a stun gun.
Shit. I’m fanboying. Fix it, fix it, fix it!
“I mean, not me. My parents were big fans, and uh… I better get going and get ready for the next class. I’ll see you guys later.”
Fuck me.
Chase raced out of there before Tobias had the chance to fire him for being a Grade A Creep. Who’d want a silly fan as an employee? He could only hope he did a good enough job to get another chance.
He’d have to apologize the next time they spoke. Luckily, Tobias wouldn’t be in the gym for the rest of the day, instead leaving it to his other trainers.
Chase vowed to do such an amazing job the rest of the day everyone would be begging Tobias to keep him on staff. It was his only shot at staying. And he had just started to feel like this was where he belonged.