Lizzo’s “Good As Hell” blasted from her phone.

She looked at the screen. “Oh, shit. Can you hold this?” She shoved her smoothie at him and used both hands to peck at the phone. “Sorry, one of my regulars needs to move up our training session.” She slipped her phone into a side pocket on her camouflage-print workout leggings and lifted her smoothie from his fingers. “I need to go.”

“What about what we just discussed? Are you willing to take me on as a client?”

“Are you for real?” she asked. “I mean, for real for real?”

“Do you know how many gyms I passed on my way down here, just to take your class?” he said. “I promise, I’m for real.”

“All the way down from where?”

“Georgetown.”

She grimaced. “Okay, yeah, I wouldn’t drive all the way out from Georgetown just to hit on someone.” She gave him another of those quick perusals. “You don’t look that desperate.”

“For a date? No. For a trainer I believe in? Yes, I’m desperate.”

“Be careful there, Twenty-Three. My rate is based on a sliding scale. The more desperate you are, the more that price slides upward,” she said in a teasing voice. She pulled her phone from her pocket and looked down at it again. “I really have to go. Can we talk about this another day?”

“Tomorrow?” he asked. “I need to start training as soon as possible. Should we meet here? I can buy you another smoothie.”

“You said you’re up in Georgetown, right?” she asked. Jamar nodded. “I’ve been meaning to make an IKEA run. How about I meet you halfway? There’s a Starbucks at the outlet mall in Round Rock that’s near IKEA. Does that work for you?”

If he wrote up a list of places where he would run into the most Texas Longhorns fans, Texas Memorial Stadium would be at the top. A Starbucks near an outlet mall would be second.

“Would you mind if we met someplace else? There’s a little café not too far from the outlet mall.” He held up the business card she’d handed him back at Zilker Park. “Is this a good number to text you with the name and directions to the café?”

She nodded, but then her eyes narrowed once more. “You’d better be legit, Twenty-Three. I don’t want you wasting my time.”

“I won’t,” he said. “I don’t have any time to waste, yours or mine.”

He walked back to the smoothie truck and rapped on the window. He handed the guy a ten this time. “She’ll take another smoothie to go.” He turned back to Taylor. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FOUR