The message was riddled with misspellings and grammatical errors,and that was all Rebecca needed to delete that as well.
“Am I too harsh, Veruca? Too judgmental?” Rebecca pressed her lipstogether in a thin line as she signed out of one site, signed in to the other,and had much the same luck. There was one woman, though, who’d messaged her acouple days ago. Her profile photo was pleasing—light brown hair, big browneyes, a nice smile. Her profile said she was a first-grade teacher and waslooking for somebody to hang with, maybe more.
Rebecca didn’t respond to the message but didn’t delete hereither.
She poured herself a glass of the cucumber water in the fridge,then took it into the living room where she flopped onto her couch and pickedup her Kindle. As Veruca Salt made herself a new bed on her stomach, Rebeccadiscovered that she wasn’t really in the mood to read, her mind wandering.Kindle returned to the coffee table, she ran her fingers along the whitesoftness of her cat.
“I’m not really looking for a relationship, Ruke. Right? I mean, adate here and there would be nice. Somebody to go to a movie with or out todinner? But I don’t need arelationship.”Body humming with her purrs, the cat looked at Rebecca, gave a very slow blinkof her huge green eyes. “Besides, those sites make me feel awful about myself.”It was true. More than once, she’d found a profile and photo that intriguedher, sent a message, and never heard anything back. Rebecca was not a woman whoneeded a shot of confidence; she did just fine in that department. Butunanswered messages, she found, would often mess with her head. Start a barrageof questions that were very unlike her.Didshe see my photo and find me unattractive and delete me?Which wasfair enough, as she’d done the same thing multiple times, so she couldn’treally complain about that. Still. More questions.Is my profile lacking somehow? Am I unappealing andjust don’t realize it? What’s wrong with me that she isn’t responding?All these questions would swirl in her mind until she literally had to talk toher own reflection in the mirror, remind herself that shewasattractive, shewasintelligent, shewasworthy…things she’dnever had to focus on before.
It was exhausting.
And just like she did every time she checked the dating sites, shesilently cursed Sherry and Nick and Michelle for talking her into signing up.Then she cursed herself forlettingthem talk her into signing up.
Absently, she wondered if Spencer Thompson had found her fiancéethrough a dating site…
With a groan and a shake of her head, she stretched for the TVremote and clicked it on. She needed something to pull her mind out of thedating sinkhole it was being sucked toward.
Chapter Four
“All ready for day two?” Lucy asked Spencer as they passed eachother in the locker room. Lucy was cheerful and bubbly and dressed in a pair ofloose-fitting red nylon shorts and a black tank top.
“I am,” Spencer replied, pasting on a smile. “Not dreading it atall.”
Which was, of course, a giant lie, because she’d been dreading itall day long, since the moment Marti had left the house that morning. Herparting words, “this is going to be so good for you,” followed by a squeeze anda kiss on the cheek, only served to remind Spencer about the class. She’dconveniently put it out of her mind, but it came screeching back in then andhad poked at her for the next eight hours.
“Meet you out there,” Lucy said, and bounced out of the lockerroom.
Spencer was running late. It couldn’t be helped; an issue hadcropped up at the real estate office where she worked and the agent in themiddle of it needed her help in a big way. Things had been resolved but hadSpencer leaving the office twenty minutes later than she’d intended.
With a frustrated groan, she changed into her workout clothes,pulled her hair back, tied on her Nikes, and hurried out to the gym. She foundRebecca easily—her form-fitting top was bright royal blue today. The othermembers of her class were all on recumbent bikes, Rebecca leaning on the lastempty one. Spencer tried hard not to notice her figure, the gentle curves inall the right places, soft-looking skin showing at her throat, her calves. Shefailed, of course, sexy thoughts running rampant through her head. Rebeccaturned then, and that intense, blue-eyed gaze fell on Spencer, causingbutterflies to take flight in her stomach.
“There you are,” Rebecca said, her tone making it clear shenoticed Spencer’s tardiness and wasn’t thrilled about it.
“Sorry.” Spencer flushed and watched as those sexy thoughts in herhead evaporated like morning fog on a pond. “Work.”
Rebecca stepped away from the bike, gestured at it with a smallflourish. “Your chariot awaits.”
Spencer sat down and stretched her legs beyond straight in anattempt to reach the pedals.
“Slide your seat forward.”
Craning her neck this way and that, Spencer had trouble locatingthe correct lever until Rebecca sighed and leaned very close to Spencer. Theymade eye contact and continued it as Rebecca reached between Spencer’s legs.Spencer held her breath, totally mesmerized by Rebecca’s eyes. Yeah, the sexythoughts were back.
“Slide forward,” Rebecca quietly ordered.
Spencer did so and suddenly, their faces were mere inches apart.Spencer’s focus dropped to Rebecca’s mouth; she couldn’t help it. There was amoment. A beat. It held…
Rebecca stood quickly, almost jerked away from Spencer, whoblinked in surprise. “Warm up. Fifteen minutes at level five.” Then she wasgone, scurrying away from Spencer as if she’d been shoved in that direction.
“So glad I could piss off the teacher on my second day,” Spencermuttered, then poked buttons on the bike’s touch screen until she’d set itcorrectly.
She liked biking. She decided that immediately. She could feel herlower body working right away. Her quads, her calves, even her ass all got inon the action. At the same time, she could let her mind wander. Or watch TV,she saw, as the touch screen had a small square that looked to be showing ascene fromGrey’s Anatomy.Whatever she chose to do, it was an almost relaxing way to get some activity,which was an odd thing to think about exercise, but it was true.
To her left, Brittany, Bella, and Willow had all stopped pedalingand were chattering about their respective stats. Spencer squinted at her ownscreen, saw that it measured distance, calories burned, and average speed,among other things.
“I was going, like, seventeen miles an hour there for a bit,”Bella said. A glance at her screen told Spencer she was going eleven miles perhour.
Lucy must have seen her grimace because she tapped her on theshoulder and said quietly, “Don’t listen to them. Doesn’t matter.” Her face wasglistening with a sheen of sweat and her breathing was rapid, and it occurredto Spencer that maybe Lucy was as new to this gym thing as she was. She sent anod Lucy’s way but picked up her own pace anyway.