Feeling defeated, Preslee tinkered around unsuccessfully on a few other machines before finally throwing in the proverbial white towel. A sweaty one at that. She didn’t know what she was thinking by coming here. It was obvious to her that working out wasn’t her forte. Even if Adam had been polite enough not to say so to her face.

As if on cue, he looked over again.

Dang it. Why does he keep doing that?

Embarrassed, Preslee turned away from him. She wanted nothing more than to slink away from all the prying eyes that were making her extremely uncomfortable and self-conscious. She didn’t normally feel this bad about herself in her day-to-day life, but somehow being surrounded by so many hard bodies was bringing out all of her insecurities. She didn’t like it one bit.

Unfortunately, she also didn’t want Adam to watch her give up and go home. Not after he’d gone out of his way to help her. The least she could do was wait until he wasn’t paying attention before she faded into the background and ducked out the door.

Her heart sped up, and her stomach churned. For some strange reason, she hated the thought of him being disappointed in her. She didn’t want him to think she was incapable of making it through one workout by herself…which apparently was the truth.

Oh well. None of that mattered. Because once she finally made it out that door, she was never setting foot in his gym again anyway.

*  *  *

Adam gripped the counter so hard that his knuckles turned stark white as he glared at his gym manager. “Tell me again why I shouldn’t cancel their memberships.”

Kurt scrubbed a hand over his face. “You heard me the first time. We can’t afford to lose any paying customers at the moment. Even if those two are slimeballs.”

Adam shook his head. “I don’t care. I’d rather have no clients than them in my gym. You know how I feel about bullies.”

Kurt nodded solemnly. “I know. But you’re not that same kid who got picked on by guys twice your size.”

“Everyone was twice my size back then,” Adam said, gritting his teeth. “I was always the smallest guy in the room.”

“Now you’re the biggest.”

Yeah, maybe. “But I still remember how it felt when others made fun of me. I’m not going to let that kind of crap go down in my gym. Especially when it comes to two men doing it to a woman.” He pointed one accusatory finger into Kurt’s chest. “Frankly, I’m surprised you aren’t more ticked off about this. You normally would be right there on the front lines with me when it comes to this kind of stuff.”