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He pressed the talk button. "Kayla?"
Sara exhaled quietly. Simon shook his head at her to stay, then broke eye
contact to concentrate on what his sister was saying. "But I told you I had a
dinner meeting tonight. You should have checked with your mother. You'll
just have to& "
Okay, it was a not-so-little quibble and a very timely reminder. She should
leave. After all, Simon had already left her. Sara slipped out the door
wondering if it was a good thing or a bad thing that Kayla had interrupted
them.
"WHAT ARE YOU WEARING?" Hayden stared at her.
Not this again. "We're at a gym. I'm wearing gym clothes." Sara gestured to
her baggy T-shirt and stretch shorts.
After the bar fiasco, Missy had offered to take them to the ritzy gym where
her fiancé, Peter, worked out. Apparently, stressed out lawyers liked to work
out there and lawyers, stressed out or not, fit Sara's ideal man profile. Sara
wondered if they were capable of the complete devotion she required, but
Missy had responded to her query with a huffy little, "Peter is completely
devoted to me" and Sara figured it wasn't worth arguing the point.
"I've got your guest passes& " Missy trailed off when she saw Sara. "What's
she wearing?" she asked Hayden.
"Workout clothes! Aren't we working out?" Sara gestured to the machines.
Missy, dressed in a too-cute pink and white tennis outfit, shook her head.
"No. You'll, like, sweat."
"Well, yeah."
"That might not be a bad thing." Hayden wore black thigh-length, skin-tight
shorts with a sports bra top accented with neon pink and orange. She was in
full makeup. She even had on earrings. "Some men like a sweaty woman," she
purred, already distracted by the view in the free-weight room.
"You know you have no intention of sweating," Missy said.
"Not on the machines, anyway."
"But, Missy, why the tennis outfit?" Sara asked.
Missy gave her a patient look. "So I can hang around the juice bar and look
like I'm waiting for my court. The racquetball guys hang out there, too." She
gave a little faraway smile. "Racquetball develops some interesting muscles."
"Does Peter know you're trolling for men?" Hayden asked.
"I was demonstrating how to, er, troll for Sara."
"Right."
They both looked at Sara and shook their heads.
"Okay, okay." She got the message already. "I'll go home and change."
"And put some makeup on," Hayden told her.
"Give your cheeks an extra swipe of blush so you'll look healthy," Missy
added.
"Or I could just work out and blush for real!"
The problem was that Sara didn't have anything much to change into. Once
at home, she put on some makeup and a slightly tighter T-shirt, then headed
back to the gym.
The crowd had thickened.
Sara walked past the line waiting to sign in, and was intercepted by a black-
spandex clad set of impressive muscles. "Did you sign in?"
"Uh, I'm a guest."
The man extended a giant paw. "May I see your pass?"
She remembered Missy holding out the passes, but she didn't remember
taking one. "My friend still has it. I was here earlier, but I didn't get the pass
from her."
He wasn't buying her story. So what was this? Had Sara lost all credibility
with men? "Where's your friend?" he asked.
Sara scanned the area for a pink and white tennis outfit. "She's probably at
the bar where the tennis players hang out."
"Uh-huh. What's her name?"
Sara told him and he looked up Missy in the computer. "She's brought in
her two-guest limit today."
"Yes, I'm one of those guests. Sara Lipton."
"Okay, I see you in the file."
"Good. Then I can go in?"
He shook his head. "You've already been in. One free visit per customer."
"But I never got okay, can I just pay for today, then?"
"We don't do day passes."
What was she supposed to do now? She tried to find Hayden, but didn't see
her, either.
"I can sign you up for a three-month trial membership."
"And how much is that?" Hadn't she been thinking about working out? This
place would do as well as any other.
"There's a one-time thousand dollar registration fee "
Sara's mind went numb at that point. Strike two in the Sara's-hunt-for-a-
man campaign. She turned to leave and bumped into a solid wall of male
flesh. "Sorry!" She stepped back and bounced off another set of pecs. "Oh,
gosh, I'm so sorry "
"Well, hello."
The pecs belonged to Simon Northrup. Simon Northrup in shorts and a T-
shirt with the sleeves ripped off. Simon Northrup with his muscles exposed.
Oh, wow. The memory of their all-too-brief kiss burned on her lips.
He shifted his gym bag onto his shoulder. "Are you coming or going?"
"Going, I guess. I was only here on a guest pass and had to go back home
for & something. There's no reentry. I never really got in at all."
"Well, come on." He dropped a hand onto her shoulder and steered her to
the member sign-in area. "You can be my guest."
Every time she wrote him off, he managed to show up in time to rescue her.
Once more, Simon was getting her into some place that didn't want her in.
Sara started to tell him about the one-free-visit rule, but was distracted by the
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