Chapter Sixteen
TALLY
A s I tied the laces on my running shoes, I glanced at the clock on the wall. 4:54 a.m. I was usually an early riser, but this was a little too early, even for me.
I had no idea what clothes to wear for this lesson, but assuming it had something to do with running, I had chosen leggings and a T-shirt with a sweatshirt over it.
The frigid air hit me when I opened the door, and I raced across the sidewalk to the main house and quietly let myself in. The kitchen was dark, the house completely still. The clock on the oven read 4:57 a.m., but given that it was as quiet as a library in there, I questioned whether I’d heard Jake wrong.
Had he forgotten? Maybe he’d hit snooze on his alarm. Maybe I shouldn’t have agreed to this in the first place .
I stood there staring at the red numbers as they changed, trying to decide if I should go back to the guest house and try to sleep for another hour. The clock turned over to 5:00 … 5:01 … 5:02 … 5:03.
Just as I was about to head for the back door, I heard footfalls on the staircase. I looked down the hallway just in time to see Jake hit the landing wearing only a pair of athletic shorts. He was barefoot and bare-chested with the sexiest bedhead, and I think my heart stopped for a full ten seconds before he looked up and saw me.
“Morning.” His voice was deeper and a little scratchy.
“Morning,” I managed.
He passed by me on his way to the laundry room and emerged a minute later wearing socks and tennis shoes and tugging a T-shirt down over his body, preventing me from ogling him any longer.
“Are you ready for this?” he asked.
“No.”
He grinned.
“I don’t know what I’m supposed to be ready for?”
“The first day of the rest of your life.”
“That’s a little dramatic, isn’t it?”
He shrugged. “Maybe. Or maybe not. Come on.”
I rolled my eyes as I followed him to the basement, where he had his own home gym setup, complete with a treadmill, exercise bike, elliptical, weight bench, and a punching bag.
He walked over to the treadmill. “Hop on.”
I reluctantly did as he asked. “I’m not much of a runner.”
“You don’t have to be. You can start off slow. ”
“Treadmills are boring. I’d rather walk outside.”
“It’s colder than the North Pole out there right now.”
“How do you know how cold the North Pole is?”
“Santa told me, obviously.”
I held in a laugh as he started the treadmill on an automatic setting, and I began to walk. This was a bad idea.
I watched him move to the weight bench, pick up a dumbbell, and start doing reps. My gaze was locked on his bicep, then traveled down over the muscles of his forearm as he flexed.
The treadmill suddenly beeped as it cycled to a faster speed, and I stumbled to catch up but caught myself before I face-planted and flew off the back of the thing.
Jake laughed and switched to the other arm.
“Don’t laugh at me.”
“I would never.” He winked.
“What does this even have to do with dating?” I asked, slightly annoyed. “Do you think I need to lose weight or something?”
His expression turned serious. “Not an ounce. Exercise releases endorphins. Those are chemicals in the brain that—”
“I know what endorphins are. They’re the happy hormones.”
“Exactly. They’re released when you exercise and help reduce stress.”
“There are other ways to release endorphins,” I said.
He raised an eyebrow at me. “Yes, there are.”
My stomach tightened at the deep, intense tone of his voice, and I was pretty sure where his mind had gone. I was shy, but I knew innuendo when I heard it .
“I could eat a chunk of chocolate and not have to break a sweat.” I peeled my sweatshirt off, and his eyes followed my movements.
He set his dumbbell down on the floor, walked over, and leaned on the front of the treadmill. “We want to work on your stress levels and try to get those down before you go on any dates. Getting the endorphins pumping will help to calm you before you meet some new people.”
“I don’t know if anything could get my stress levels down that much. And the party isn’t until Friday.”
“That’s why we’ll be meeting here every morning this week.”
I groaned. I wasn’t sure I could take watching Jake flex his muscles in front of me every day. That definitely wouldn’t lessen my attraction to him or turn my focus on someone else if that time came.
“You don’t have to do that,” I told him. “I can come down here by myself.”
“I’m the one who’s making you do this, and as your coach, I think it’s only fair if I do the same.”
“That’s true. I shouldn’t be the only one getting up at the buttcrack of dawn.”
He snorted. “For someone so shy, you sure don’t have trouble telling it like it is sometimes.”
“Only with you, I guess.”
“Lucky me.” That look in his eyes was back, and I felt it all the way from the crown of my head down to my toes.
He pushed off the treadmill and headed back to the weights. “So, something you can try before Friday … stand in front of the mirror and practice greeting people and come up with how you’ll answer people’s basic questions.”
“Like what?”
“What’s your name?”
“Tally.”
“What do you do, Tally?”
It was weird to hear him call me by my nickname. “I’m a nanny.”
“How long have you been a nanny?”
“Ten years.”
“Now maybe you could take your answers and elaborate on them a little more.”
I frowned. “How can I elaborate on my name?”
He chuckled. “Not your name. But you could’ve said you’re a nanny to three amazing girls who you adore, or you could’ve said you’ve been a nanny for ten years after coming from a large family and helping raise some of your younger siblings. Those kinds of things can then spur other questions. Like, how old are the girls you nanny, or how many siblings do you have?”
The treadmill sped up again and lifted a little to create an incline. My breathing came harder, and I was beginning to sweat. “I want them to talk about themselves, not ask me more questions.”
“You have to be prepared to talk about yourself too. How else will someone get to know you? It’s a two-way street, Natalia.”
My stress level had increased, not decreased, in the course of this conversation. Add to that the lack of oxygen from my struggling to breathe, and I was starting to freak out. I pressed several buttons, hoping to slow the treadmill down, but I only managed to lower the incline and increase the speed.
“I have to get off this thing,” I screeched. “How do I stop it? ”
Jake moved toward the treadmill as my footing faltered. I grabbed hold of the side rails, but my feet couldn’t catch up with the speed, and I began moving backward. Somehow, I pushed off the rails with my upper body enough that I didn’t fall on my face but was upright when the treadmill kicked me off. I hit something firm, which I quickly realized was Jake’s chest, and his arms wrapped around me as the inertia of my body caused him to fall back, taking me with him. We both let out an oof as we landed on the floor.
His lips were against my ear, his arms still gripping tightly around my middle, holding my body, which was splayed back across his, our legs twisted together. “Are you okay?”
“I think so. How about you?” One of my legs was resting between his, and as I rolled to check on him, my knee hit him in an unfortunate spot on his body.
“Oof!” He groaned and tightened his grip on me. “Please don’t move until I get us untangled, or this could get even more awkward,” he gritted out.
“I’m sorry.” I was already overheated from the treadmill, but my cheeks were now burning from the situation we were in. My embarrassment bubbled up inside me and escaped in the form of a giggle.
He loosened his grip, and I giggled some more.
He rotated our bodies to our sides, and my giggles wouldn’t stop.
When he stood up, I was still lying on my side, on the floor, full-blown laughing.
“You think that’s funny, do you?”
I couldn’t stop.
“You sure are entertained by my misfortunes. First the mouse poop, now this. ”
I sat up, unable to control my laughter.
“Whatever.” He waved his hand at me, clearly unamused.
“The endorphins are working,” I said through my giggles.
He finally gave me a laugh. “Clearly.”