Page 20 of Santa Has a Six-Pack
Taking a step away from Matt, I gesture for him to continue.
“Oh, may I?” he says playfully.
“Yes.” My eyes narrow at him. “You may.”
I didn’t realize Keira had disappeared until she jogs up to us with her lighting tripod and camera setup. “Cool if I film, Matt? This will be great for our socials.”
“Absolutely!” he says. “Film away. Though I could use a volunteer to join me for this particular demo.”
A flurry of hands shoots to the sky in the crowd.
But Matt’s eyes are only on me.
“Penny.” He reaches a hand in my direction. “Would you do me the honor of mounting my equipment?”
Chapter 6
Matt
“You want me to m-m-mount your… what?” she stammers.
Does it make me a bad person that I really like seeing this confident woman rattled?
I flash her a smile. “My equipment. Or I suppose I should say our equipment. The Kingpin Fitness glute ham developer.”
Penny shakes her head. “No. My glutes and hams are developed just fine, thank you.”
“They sure are,” I mumble.
“What did you just say to me?”
“Hmm?”
Scratch what I said a moment ago about her being rattled. I’m the one who can’t seem to keep my wits about me whenever she’s around. But Penny could fire my ass in a second if she wanted to, so I’d better get my shit together. Fast. Because there were plenty of buff Santas in that audition line last week who could replace me in a heartbeat.
I clear my throat and rephrase. “What I meant to say was, Miss Whitaker, I’d love you to join me for this next demonstration to show our guests how the equipment works. Have you used a glute ham developer before?”
“No, I have not.”
“Perfect.” I gesture to the apparatus.
“And I don’t plan to now.” She looks down the length of her body. “I’m in my work clothes.”
“It’s not like you’re in a skirt,” Keira says. “You can totally do the moves in a pantsuit!”
“Yeah, totally!” I agree.
“Why, thank you, Keira,” Penny says, her teeth clenched. “What a helpful gal you are.”
“That’s me,” Keira smiles and gets her camera ready. “Always a helpful gal.”
Penny smiles at the crowd, which is getting larger by the second, then approaches me and the equipment. “Should I take my shoes off?”
“Yeah,” I say. “Go ahead and slip those heels off for me.”
Her brown eyes lock with mine.
Yeah, I heard it too, Penny.
