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But he wasn’t.

He tapped the menu. “Try an apple-and-blueberry muffin. The recipe uses applesauce to replace some of the fat.”

“Now you’re a muffin expert?”

“I test and approve every item we serve.”

Her eyes widened. “Wait, you work here? I thought you just had a membership. Are you a chef? Or a shift supervisor?”

“No, I own the place.”

“Oh.” Now she gave him a more thorough inspection, head to toe, trying to be subtle but not succeeding. “I bet you test every piece of equipment too. Thoroughly.”

An unexpected laugh burst out of him. “I do.”

“Okay, I’ll try the apple-and-blueberry muffin.”

“Try the equipment as well if you want to, but make sure you’re doing it for the right reasons.”

Access to on-trend exercise classes and the best cardio and weight machines that money could buy meant nothing if a person didn’t have the right motivation. And that motivation came from within. Every coach at Planet Health was trained to nurture those tiny seeds of self-belief until they blossomed—that was the key to the business’s success, not the funky aesthetic or the fancy spa. Cris prided himself on achieving the best staff-to-client ratio in the city.

“I heard there was a waiting list.”

“There is, but not for you. I’ll gift you a year’s membership. It’s the least I can do after you returned my wallet.”

Cris knew how to play the long game. If Lauren was still with the boyfriend after a year, then Lady Luck wasn’t on his side. Not the way she had been that day in Afghanistan when a bullet had missed him by half an inch. Or the time in Libya when he’d driven cautiously down a rutted track, only to watch in the mirror as the vehicle behind detonated an IED. Those memories still haunted him, but if he let them take over, then the enemy would score a late victory.

“No way,” Lauren said. “A year’s membership? That’s too much.”

He shrugged. “If you want to use it, then use it. If you don’t, then don’t.”

Did he want her to come? Yes, all over his dick. Fuck, man, inappropriate. To the gym. Did he want her to come to the gym? In truth, Cris was undecided. In the space of a few hours, Lauren Rossi had worked her way under his skin, but seeing her every week without being able to have her might just kill him. On the other hand, not seeing her at all would be worse.

“Honestly, a muffin is plenty enough of a reward.”

“Then I’ll throw in a tab at the juice bar too. Come for the free muffins, stay for the spa.”

“Are you always this impossible?”

“So I’ve been told.”

Frequently.

Tessie, his ex, had married Cris when he was on active duty as a US Marine and then complained when he wasn’t home to eat dinner every night. Three years later, their relationship had degenerated into sex and arguments, and a year after that, just the arguments. Turned out Tessie was getting the sex from a neighbour. The kid had been that motherfucker’s too, the daughter Cris had raised as his own for two years and now wasn’t allowed to see. Was he bitter? Of course he was bitter. But a little of the ice in his cold, hard heart had melted today when Lauren fixed her gaze on him as he waited for lunch. He’d felt the shift.

Had she?

It was her turn to shrug. “Maybe I’ll come.”

CHAPTER 4

LAUREN

A month later…

Some things changed, some things stayed the same.

“You want lunch, Lauren?” Macie asked.

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