Page 54 of What It Means To Be Found

Back straight, I corrected Eloise with my hand on her spine, making her freeze as she made eye contact with me in the mirror. I mouthed the words to her again, and she nodded.

Fuck, her soft skin still felt amazing under my hands.

Eloise unracked the bar and started to slowly bend herself in half, barely bending her legs at all.

I quickly reached out from behind her and grabbed the bar, just enough to keep her from continuing the movement. It would be a dangerous thing for me to do if it was anyone else lifting (and if the weight wasn’t light enough for me to catch with one hand) but my instincts took over. At Eloise’s frustrated look, I shook my head at her and waited for her to rerack the weight.

I released the bar from my own hands and explained to her, You need to activate your legs. I then stood in front of her, showed her my profile, and demonstrated how her body should look squatting.

Eloise’s eyes darkened a little as they glued themselves to my thighs, then my ass as I showed the angle the legs should bend.

“Oh, I get it,” Eloise nodded. “I was focused on how heavy the bar was, I think.” I nodded because it was a common mistake people made when they lifted for the first time.

“Want to lower your weights, Lo?” Courtney asked as she settled underneath her own bar again, bumping Josh’s body with her ass playfully. He gently tapped it once before hovering his hands underneath her bar again.

“Actually, yeah I might.” Eloise stood as if she was about to rerack them, but I beat her to it. I quickly removed the tens on either side and added fives. The bar itself was close to forty-five pounds, so it made sense that I was overzealous with giving her tens on either side to start.

“Alrighty,” Eloise arched under the bar, tipping her chin up and checking her form thoroughly before giving me a look.

I stood in front of her, wondering what she was waiting for.

“Are you going to spot me?” Eloise asked, nodding her head for me to step behind her like Josh was doing for Courtney.

I could easily spot standing in front of her, but who was I to correct her? I smirked before walking around and hovering my own hands underneath the bar, careful not to touch any part of her body.

Eloise’s form was almost perfect now. She paced herself and didn’t try to complete the set as fast as possible. Her breathing was controlled, even though she was clearly struggling by the sixth squat.

After eight, she racked the bar and stood, her hands immediately going to her ass as she turned and gave us all a surprised expression.

“Holy shit, is my ass ripped yet?” She made a show of twisting around so she could see her own backside.

Josh and Courtney laughed, and I smiled.

“Right? You feel it immediately when you do it right.” Courtney encouraged, swapping places with Josh. He had to set the bar higher up because the guy was tall.

“No kidding,” Eloise nodded toward me. “Okay, your turn.”

I shrugged and went to add more weights to the bar.

After the fourth set of forty, I could feel her eyes on me. I paused what I was doing and glanced over at the little woman standing tall with her arms crossed over her chest, a small frown on her face.

“Are you trying to rack more than my body weight?” Eloise grumbled.

“He’s such a showoff sometimes.” Courtney agreed.

I flipped them both off as I positioned myself under the bar. I was obviously stronger than both of them simply because I had been regularly exercising for the past decade of my life. Not my fault if they felt self-conscious about that.

“I got you,” Eloise said as she waltzed behind me. I hesitated and gave her a look over my shoulders. “What?” she asked.

I straightened and turned around to rest my elbows on the bar, looking down at her, You think you can catch me? I barely mouthed that question to her as I signed it, but I wanted to see how much ASL she could communicate with and understand.

Eloise frowned, glancing over at Josh and Courtney for help, but they were distracted again. It had been a week since Eloise scolded me for not signing in front of her, which made me realize how much of an asshole I was to her the first time we met.

Simply because she couldn’t understand ASL, and I had the emotional depth of a puddle.

However, she had clearly picked up on some things.

Yes, Eloise signed.

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