Chloe heads to the squat rack. She places the barbell on her upper back and steps back and does a quick warm up set. When she racks it, I snap out of it and move to help her add weight. “Don’t you guys do this as a team?”

She nods as she follows the weight with a clip to hold it in place and then moves right back under the bar to go again. I stand behind her as a spot, just in case, as she busts out a set of ten.

“Bonus workouts, I dig it.” She’s in the zone, and my words take a minute to register.

“I need to be stronger and quicker on my feet. I’m not as tall as some of my competition so I need to make up for it any way I can. No weaknesses I can control.”

“Alright.” Her words poke at some insecurity inside me. I had to bust my ass to get where I am so I understand the basic logic behind her desire to outwork the competition. “Let’s put some real weight on there then.”

Her green eyes flash with competition.

I add what I think is a challenging but doable weight to both sides.

“I’ve never squatted that much before.”

“No weaknesses you can control.” I throw her words back at her, which does the trick. She lets out a breath and gets in position. Determination radiates off her, but I stay close to grab the bar if she needs to bail.

She doesn’t need me, though.

“Atta girl.” I help re-rack the bar after her third rep, and she turns and throws her arms around me.

“I did it!”

Sweat mixed with ocean and sunshine fills my nostrils, and I contemplate kissing her for all of two seconds before she seems to read my thoughts and steps back.

“What’s next?”

For the next forty minutes, we workout side by side. We take turns picking the exercises. I push her to add more weight, and she pushes me to move quicker between sets. Her competitive spirit and my desire to flat out not be shown up by a girl makes me work harder. She has this effect on me, I’m finding—she makes me want to be better at a lot of things.

It’s nearly nine o’clock when we sit on the floor catching our breaths and giving our shaky legs a break.

“Payne.” Coach’s deep voice catches me by surprise, and my head snaps up to find him standing just inside the weight room. He’s dressed in workout clothes with his headphones in hand. Note to self, Coach comes to work out late on the weekends. “What are you doing here?”

I jump to my feet and then proceed to wobble because damn my legs hurt. He takes in me and then Chloe while I find my words. “We were just finishing up.”