Tantalizing Tours

Jordan

When Ty opened the envelope with the female winner, and his face lit up, I had to fight to keep my temper in check... but then the name wasn’t what I expected to hear.

“Connie Hollis…”

Fuck. It wasn’t Hannah.

She was going to be so disappointed. I thought for sure she had it in the bag. I hadn’t seen the last set of weigh-ins, but she was ahead Monday morning.

I tried to smile my way through it and pulled open the flap on the second envelope, praying it was who I wanted it to be.

My brain knew it was unethical to be rooting for a specific person, but this woman had burrowed deep under my skin and into my heart. I didn’t stand a chance of keeping from developing a bias.

Mal made a smartass comment about her team winning, but when I looked inside, I internally cheered.

“Not for second place!” I tried to tone down my excitement as I read her name, but I’m sure I failed. “Hannah Daniels from Team Green Machine locked down second place with 8.7 percent overall total loss. Way to go, Han!”

I tried to keep myself calm but upbeat for the last few minutes of the video, saying all the things we had practiced, but really wanting to check in with Hannah.

As soon as the video turned off, Mollie rushed forward and gave me a big hug.

“Oh my God. I so wanted to tell you, but I knew it would be better if you saw it in the envelope.” She smiled up at me.

“Thank you for all the hours you pulled the last three days. I know you took a vacation to make it happen,” I told her sincerely.

My little sister had really come through for me with running the weigh-ins and helping compile all the data.

“Of course! I was excited to see the winners too!”

“Congrats again, I guess,” Mallory said in a dismissive tone as she stood next to her sister.

“At least you got knocked down a peg. Maybe if you and ‘Han’ hadn’t been screwing around the last few weeks in class, she could have focused more.”

I sighed as I shot my other little sister a death glare. She couldn’t just be nice to people. She always had to insert snark somewhere.

Hannah would see how truly ridiculous her comment about Mal being desirable was if she saw this side of her. She was toxic when she felt strongly about something.

“Congratulations on having a few winners,” I told her with a tight smile, ignoring her rude comment about Hannah and me. “You and Ty stepped it up a little this year.”

“My team was focused, but we never seem to get quite enough momentum to take down the golden boy.”

Her team was focused in the studio, but I wondered how much outside coaching they got. I knew her team-building exercises had had low attendance and focused more on the superficial.

She just expected people to do what she said because she thought she knew better. I had access to all the Facebook pages. She didn’t talk about macro nutrition and realistic meal plans.

It was like a health lecture when she posted. Even I tuned it out, and I had a degree in nutrition.

Maybe I needed to sit down with Parker and pick his brain over what it was like to be on her team. If she’d do it, I wanted Mollie to coach a team next year.

“Are we ready to shut it down and lock up? I’ve got a hot date tonight,” Ty asked as he pulled his bag over his shoulder.

“On a Tuesday?” Mallory wrinkled her nose.

“I don’t work tomorrow, why not?” He shrugged.

“Go ahead and take off, man. I’ll lock up,” I told him with a pat on the shoulder.

“You need to take off too, don’t you?” Mollie teased as she elbowed me in the side.

“Keep those bony things to yourself.” I laughed as I dodged her sharp elbows.

“Did you figure out what you were going to make her?” she asked.

“I think I’m just gonna go with stir fry. It’s quick and easy,” I told her.

“Kinda like Hannah,” Mallory grumbled, and I decided I’d had my fill of her for the day.

“Enough,” I said loudly enough that she startled and looked up at me with wide eyes. “I get it. You don’t care for her. You need to drop it.”

“I…” she sputtered.

“I’m not interested in talking to you about this,” I said firmly. “I let you date who you want, you leave me alone.”

“You’re just lucky Ty chose to forgive you after you got all territorial,” she replied hastily, with a little bite to her tone.

“It wasn’t just Hannah who he acted like that with. He was making some of the clients' spouses uncomfortable,” I responded harshly.

“But she was the one who you chose to put your foot down with.” She rolled her eyes.

She was right, but I wasn’t giving her the satisfaction.

I had received complaints from at least two husbands about Ty being too forward with their wives. I knew he didn’t mean anything by it, but it was still unprofessional, and I had to address it.

He had backed off since then and everything had been fine. He had even talked to me about Hannah and told me to go for it if I liked her.

“Just go home, Mal,” I sighed. “You've got to let all this bitterness go.”

“I'll go with her,” Mollie offered. “You know she doesn't like to drive at night.”

I leaned down and kissed her on the cheek.

“You're a better sibling than I am,” I whispered.

“I know. But that's okay. I'm good at being the favorite.” She smiled and flipped her hair behind her shoulder with a cocky grin.

“Be safe,” I told her as I glanced at Mallory. She was getting dangerously close to crossing a line with me.

“You too, stud.” Mollie winked and then pushed her sister out the door.

I grabbed my bag and locked up after I switched off the lights and set the alarm.

On Tuesdays and Thursdays, we closed after the three o'clock class because attendance had dropped off those evenings. It wasn't worth trying to staff.

When I got home, I'd never been so glad that I tended to overbuy produce, so I didn't have to stop at the store.

Showering was a priority because I knew I smelled. I had spent half the afternoon sanitizing equipment between classes. No one told you how thrilling it was to literally mop up other people’s sweat.

Jordan

just getting home now. Text me when you leave work.

Hannah

can I come now? 😉

I checked my watch and saw that it was just before five. She should still have an hour left in her day.

Jordan

I’ll be wet and naked if you do

Hannah

you do realize that’s an incentive to leave early, right?

Fuck. This girl and the sarcastic comments.

Jordan

if you want to eat tonight, you need to let me get cleaned up

Hannah

maybe I like you dirty

I had a feeling having her in my home with no distractions was going to be trouble. My best intentions to do this the right way crumbled when she batted those thick eyelashes at me.

I had spent half of the class yesterday with a semi, thinking about those pictures she sent me over the weekend.

The caveman in me wanted to see her wrapped up like that in my own sheets.

Jordan

let me know if you need directions

I laid down my phone and got cleaned up, taking extra time to actually try to tame my hair. It usually had a mind of its own. It didn’t matter in the gym, but I saw how she had reacted to me at the cooking class.

Watching people’s bodies for subtle cues was something that came naturally to me. And I loved the way that Hannah followed me with her eyes.

Most people would have felt stripped bare by the way she unconsciously studied people, but it only served to turn me on.

For a while there, it thrilled me to try to watch her without getting caught.

Hannah

On my way

“Good enough,” I sighed as I put down the comb and rolled up my sleeves. I had work to do.

Jordan

can’t wait

I had been looking forward to this date. I usually wasn’t the type to get myself worked up over a woman, but she was different. She always surprised me. I found myself enjoying the unsettled feeling she created in me.

I got the vegetables out of the crisper and started to slice, stopping only briefly to get the wok up to temperature on the gas range. Cooking was something I enjoyed.

I had to take basic classes as a part of my undergrad work, but I sought out private lessons from Mrs. Matthews about ten years ago to learn more than the basics.