Excerpt 1: Noah


Leaning back into the office, he asked, “Is it the two guys by the punching bags?”

“No,” Jack said, stepping out and standing next to him. “That’s who you’ll be training.” He pointed at the two women he’d seen when he walked in.

Suddenly, Noah knew why the guys had been laughing. He turned back to Jack, wondering if this was a joke. Jack lifted a shoulder. “They’re here to be trained. So go train them.”
“Here he comes.” Nellie said, spreading her feet apart and reaching for the floor with her hands. “So what do you think of our trainer?”

Veronica looked up at her from where she was bending. “Huh?”

“Talk about sexy!” Nellie whispered as he neared.

“Nellie, he’s a kid.”

Half way to them, Noah dropped the mats and went back. Nellie and Veronica watched him from behind. His muscle shirt left nothing to the imagination. There wasn’t a muscle on him you couldn’t see or make out. And he had a lot of them. Typical trainer looking guy. Not an ounce of fat on him and whole lot of huge everything.

“Oh, C’mon where’s your sense of escapism? I’m a married woman and I’m enjoying the view. Who cares if he’s young. Nothing wrong with fantasizing—besides how many kids have you seen with a body like that? He’s gotta be at least twenty-three, twenty-four.”

“Twenty-four? No way.” Veronica said, bending over again. “You’re just saying that because he’s so big. But he has a baby face.”

“One of the strongest jaws I’ve ever seen on a baby.” Nellie giggled. “And did you get a load of those lips? Umm umm. Talk about suckable lips.”

Veronica had to giggle now, too. “Will you stop? The guy can’t be more than twenty-one and I’m being generous.” She’d been around students enough when she worked at the college to be able to guess their age fairly accurately.

“Let’s ask him.”

“No!” Veronica stood up. “Don’t you dare.”

Nellie laughed. “Why not?”

“Because it’s none of our business. You better not.”

Nellie shook her head, her face still full of humor. “All right, all right. You’re no fun anymore. The old Roni would’ve already been flirting with him.”

Veronica rolled her eyes going down for one more stretch. “Yeah, well the old me didn’t weigh a hundred and sixty-seven freakin’ pounds!” She groaned disgusted in herself. How could she let herself go like this? She’d gained more than the forty pounds she thought she had.

Nellie was right about one thing. She’d almost forgotten what a flirt she could be. But she was wrong about the other. There was no way she’d ever think about going out with someone so much younger than her. It was hard enough to find a mature guy her age, she most certainly not taking her chances on the younger ones.