As he explained each station, Daisy listened with half an ear, sneaking glances at the visitors. Ellie and George were a mismatched pair—her so slight and elegant and him such a typical mountain man. Although the two weren’t touching, they stood close. One of George’s hands held the pull-up bar above their heads, tilting his body forward slightly and giving the impression that he was hovering over his girlfriend.
Turning her attention to Ian and Rory, she marveled at how striking they were. Ian could’ve been a fitness-apparel model dropped into her home gym, and although Rory wasn’t traditionally beautiful, there was something about her bearing that demanded attention. Her face serious, Rory was listening intently to Chris’s instructions, but Ian caught Daisy’s look and raised his eyebrows in question.
Embarrassed to be caught gawking, she shook her head and focused on Chris, knowing she was red from her forehead to her upper chest. Daisy was aware she was an antisocial recluse, but she didn’t have to prove it to everyone in the first ten minutes of them meeting her.
With a clap of his hands, Chris sent them to their stations. Seeing that the treadmill was free, Daisy hopped on and arrowed up the speed. Once she was running at her usual warm-up pace, she was free to look around again, although she tried to be more discreet about it this time.
Standing next to the heavy bag, Lou and Callum were chatting with Chris as they wrapped their hands. Rory and Ian had chosen the jump ropes. As Daisy watched enviously, they competed with each other to see who could do the most doubles in a row.
At the pull-up bar, Ellie was struggling to raise her chin over the top when she winced and lowered herself until she was hanging from the bar with her arms fully extended. Grabbing either side of her waist, George lifted her until her face and most of her chest was above the bar. At first, Ellie’s eyes rounded in surprise, but then she started laughing.
“That’s one way to do assisted pull-ups,” Chris said wryly before turning back to Lou. He watched her throw a straight punch and then corrected her form.
An uncomfortable feeling built inside Daisy as she watched them—watched everyone, in fact. It wasn’t envy of their comfortable twosomes, but more a longing, a wistfulness, as if she were looking at a picture of something she would never have. Her foot caught on the edge of the belt, making her trip. She caught herself before falling, but it reminded her to pay attention before she ate the floor and experienced true humiliation.
“You okay?” Chris called from across the room, where he’d moved next to Ellie, George, and the pull-up bar. She gave him a wave, wishing he hadn’t called attention to her little bobble. Unable to keep her attention away from Chris for very long, she kept darting glances in his direction. Daisy frowned. There seemed to be some tension between Chris, Ellie, and George. She made a mental note to ask Chris for the story later.
Pulling her attention away from the threesome, Daisy increased the speed to her normal running pace. When she looked up from the digital display, she almost tripped again. Callum was standing right next to the treadmill.
“Hi?” Her voice was uncertain.
He nodded toward the display. “Good pace. Do you swim?”
That was random. “Um…not really. I took lessons when I was a kid, but I don’t have much opportunity now.”
“Huh,” he grunted.
“Why?”
“Your fitness is impressive. You’d make a good candidate for the rescue dive team.”
Daisy was glad her legs were running on autopilot, since she would’ve stopped and been dumped off the back of the treadmill otherwise. “I don’t really…well, leave the house. Ever.”
His next grunt was dismissive, as if she’d just told him she couldn’t dive because she had a head cold. “Too bad.” With a final lift of his chin, he returned to where Lou was practicing uppercuts.
“Don’t listen to him, Daisy.” Ian’s raised voice brought her gaze to him, where he was still jumping rope with the ease of an expert. “Fire is better than the dive team. Who wants to jump into icy water?”
“Please. Fire, schmire. Who wants to run into a burning building?” Lou countered, sounding breathless. Her fist connected with the heavy bag. “Daisy would only join Fire if she were a gossipy old woman, which she’s not.”
“Everyone knows that firefighters are at the top of the first-responder food chain.” Ian threw in a couple of crisscrosses, just, Daisy was sure, to show off. “I don’t see a calendar featuring rescue divers. Help me out here, Ror.”
“I don’t know.” Rory’s expression was completely deadpan. “I was thinking about quitting the fire department and joining the dive team.”
There was a moment of shocked silence. In the middle of throwing a straight punch, Lou turned toward Rory, so her fist missed the bag altogether. Thrown off balance, Lou fell, grabbing the bag on her way down. Callum lunged to catch her, but she was already sitting on the floor, laughing, by the time he reached her.
Ian stared at Rory, eyes wide, until a tiny smile tugged up one corner of her mouth. Eyes narrowing, he gave her a light push on the shoulder, just hard enough to knock her off balance so she missed her jump.