He didn’t turn around, but his head lowered. “I’m not mad.”

“Bullshit.”

Adam turned off the burner and spun to face her. “I’m not mad, Preslee. Disappointed is probably a better word.”

Ouch. That was worse. “I’d rather you be mad.”

A grin tugged at the corner of his mouth. “That’s not how it works. You don’t get to pick my emotion.”

“Come on, Adam. I was prepared for pissed off. I can’t handle you being disappointed. That’s something else entirely.”

He crossed his arms. “Sorry. It’s the feeling I choose. Deal with it.”

Defeated, she sighed. “No, I’m sorry. What I did was stupid. And as idiotic as this sounds, I knew it was stupid while I was doing it. Which only makes it worse. But I was…I don’t know. Desperate. I wanted some small edge over my weight loss.”

Adam shook his head. “There are no shortcuts. You want results, then you put in the work. It’s simple math. There’s no magic pill that is going to get you to the end goal faster. Even if you did lose weight, chances are good that you will put it back on.”

“I know. It’s just that—”

“Don’t make excuses,” he said calmly. “And no more cheating the system. What you did was harmful, dangerous, and extremely unhealthy. It was a formula for disaster, and if you do something like that again, I’m done training you.”

Preslee blinked at him. “Wow, that’s harsh.”

“No, it’s not. But it is the truth. I won’t work with someone who refuses to trust me to help them. It would be pointless. I would only be wasting my time.”

“Okay.”

Although he’d kept his cool thus far, his tone suddenly hardened. “And just for the record, no damn guy is worth you harming yourself for him. You need to realize that your heart matters more than your weight does. Screw what Josh thinks.”

“I…I wasn’t doing it for Josh. I did it for you.”

Shock morphed his features. “For me?”

“I didn’t want to embarrass you by not completing the run. I was worried that I would hold you back and wanted to give a top-notch performance.”

He stared at her in disbelief. “Who the hell asked you to do that?”

“No one. I just…wanted to impress you.”

Adam raised his brow. “Do I look very impressed with you right now?” he asked. “I would rather you come in last or not finish at all than to do something so ridiculous as to endanger yourself. It’s not worth it.”

She bit her lip. “I know that now.”