Personal Trainer

by Mia Carson

  “I wasn’t sure what you wanted so I kind of got everything—oh!” She squeaked when Edmund stood and kissed her warmly. “It’s just breakfast,” she whispered with a laugh.

  “No, it’s more than that,” he said and sat down. He wanted to say more, but the words were stuck in his throat, so he kissed her knuckles before they both dug into the food.

  An hour later, Beth found them in the cafeteria and said Tommy was awake. “Mom and Dad went in already, I had a few minutes with him, but when he heard you were here, he demanded we find you,” she said, grinning. “You know him.”

  “Stubborn ass,” Edmund said with a hint of a grin.

  “I’ll wait here for you,” Kris told him. “I don’t want to be in the way—oh, and tell him I say hi!”

  “I will,” he promised and followed Beth up to the fourth floor where Tommy waited in his room. Beth nudged Edmund when he took too long to step into the room. He crossed his arms and scowled at his friend as he shook his head. “You are never allowed to scare me like this again.”

  “Didn’t you say that after I was blown up, too?” Tommy smirked.

  Edmund shrugged. “Probably. I say it every time,” he muttered and hurried to his friend’s bedside to shake his hand. “Damn it, man, you look better than you did before the accident.”

  Tommy sighed as he leaned against the pillow, running a hand down his scratched and bruised face. “So that’s where Beth gets it from. You’re a bad influence on her.”

  “I had to be an influence on someone,” he teased and dragged a chair over. “How you feeling, really?”

  “The pain’s tolerable,” he murmured. “They said something about a cane. Apparently, I fucked up my ankle pretty bad, but hey, canes are snazzy, right?”

  “You’ll be a lady killer in no time,” Edmund agreed. “We’ll get you one with flames on it.”

  “Flames, huh? Not too shabby, I guess,” he said, but there was no smile behind his words. He fiddled with the blanket, and his eyes darkened. “I was so scared, man. Not for me—I thought Beth was going to die. I’m used to this type of shit, but hearing my little sister scream like that?” Tears filled his eyes, and he hurried to wipe them away, but Edmund reached over and hugged him. “Shit, man, I don’t ever want to hear that sound again. It tore me apart.”

  Edmund knew the feeling, though thankfully, his situation wasn’t as bad. The night Kris had screamed for him, red had blurred his vision, and the sudden instinct to protect her took over. If there hadn’t been people around, he probably would’ve beaten Roy to a bloody pulp or worse.

  “She’s tough, like her brother,” Edmund said. “She’s going to be just fine.”

  “I know,” he whispered and wiped the fresh tears from his face. “This does not leave this room.”

  Edmund nodded. “Not a word, ever, or until you find yourself a girlfriend.”

  Tommy laughed. “Fair enough, but speaking of girlfriends, Beth said you have a new one with you. That woman you told me about?”

  “Yeah, Kris,” he said as he sat back in his chair and grinned. “She’s great. Perfect.”

  “Holy shit, you’re in love with her,” Tommy said excitedly. “You actually found the real thing on your road trip.”

  Edmund smiled wider, his chest swelling with love. “I did. Breaking down outside that tiny town was the best thing that has ever happened to me.”

  “And what do your parents think? I’m assuming she met them.”

  “Actually, Dad wasn’t so bad. I think he likes the idea of having someone around who knows how to do something useful besides accounting,” he frowned. “Mom, on the other hand… She’s ready to blow a gasket.”

  Tommy glanced towards the door. “Did you leave her out there alone with them?”

  “Nah, she’s in the cafeteria, and I’m pretty sure they’re not back yet. She can handle herself, though.” He tapped his fingers on the arms of his chair, anxious to rescue her before she could be cornered by his parents.

  “Go on,” Tommy said. “Get out of here. You checked on me, I’m alive, now go back to your girl. I’m assuming I’ll get to meet her soon?”

  “We’re working on our next move,” he said thoughtfully. “My car will be fixed in a few days, and after that… After that, we’ll just have to see how things go.” He stood but hesitated. “You sure you want me to go? We can stay in town a few days. Kris won’t mind.”

  Tommy grabbed a spare pillow and chucked it at his head. “Get out of here. I’ll be out in no time, and you can worry over me all you want.”

  Edmund tossed the pillow back gently. “I’m glad you’re alright, Tommy. I’m not sure what I’d do if I lost you.”

  Tommy nodded. “Same. Now go, before someone comes in here and sees us being all sappy.”

  Edmund backed towards the door and waved before he finally stepped out into the hall.

  “How is he?” Beth asked.

  “He’s crying like a baby over you,” he told her honestly. “But he’ll be fine.”

  Beth smirked and hugged Edmund around the middle as if she was a little kid again. “Thanks, Ed. You coming home anytime soon?”

  “Soon enough. I’m just waiting on my car to get fixed. Kris got the engine in yesterday.”

  “She’s working on your car?” she asked. “That’s awesome!”

  He glanced up and down the hall for her parents, but they were well out of earshot. “You know, your brother managed to find his own path away from what your parents wanted him to do. You can do the same without being so drastic.”

  She smiled and shrugged one shoulder. “That’s why we were driving back so late last night,” she told him. “Mom wants me to go to Yale, but I applied at Chicago. They have a great art program.”

  “And your parents are fine with it?” he asked, surprised.

  “Tommy told them they don’t have a choice. He’s helping me pay for school if they won’t. Apparently, he hasn’t touched his trust fund yet.”

  Edmund kissed the top of her head before ruffling her hair. “Good for you, kid. I’ll see you around. I’m going to go save Kris.”

  “You might want to hurry. I heard your parents were back.”

  Edmund cursed and ran for the stairwell, hoping they had left Kris alone.

  Chapter 15

  Kris grabbed another cup of coffee and sat back down at the same table so Edmund could find her easier. She texted Dennis again to let him know that Tommy was doing well and that Edmund was talking to him. Her brother texted back saying Grams had been at their tiny church all morning with several other townsfolk, and Kris wiped a tear from her eye. There might be some assholes in her small town, but most of the people there really cared for one another. She couldn’t wait to tell Edmund and see how much it touched him.

  Two loud voices drew her gaze to the door, and she grimaced inwardly as she forced a smile to her face. “There she is,” Sarah said loudly as she approached Kris’s table. “We were searching all over for you, dear.”

  “I’m right here,” she replied lightly, hoping the sarcasm wasn’t detectable. “Letting Edmund have his time with Tommy.”

  “That’s sweet of you,” she said, patting her hand sweetly as she sat down across from her. Edward left to grab them some coffees. “So, you and my son—what’s going on between you two?” Her hand tightened on Kris’s before she let go.

  Kris smiled at her bluntness and slowly pulled her hands out of the woman’s reach, stomach churning at the glint of anger in her eyes. “If you’re trying to throw me off, you’ll have to do better than that. I was raised by the bluntest woman in the world.”

  “Your mother?”

  “No, my Grams,” she corrected. “And your son and I are currently dating.”

  “Is that right?” Sarah said sharply. “You think because you spend a week with my son that you’ll be with him forever, is that it?” She studied Kris’s face. Her gaze drifted lower to Kris’s fingers, and she cringed. “Do you not know how to clean you
rself, dear?”

  Kris frowned and glanced at her fingers. They were roughed up from yesterday’s work, boasting several bandages and very dirty nails. Her fingers curled impulsively around her mug. “This happens when you’re a mechanic. Ed likes it.”

  “Ed? His name is Edmund,” Sarah snapped.

  “Ed to me,” she replied casually. “It’s growing on him, too, I think.” Sarah’s eyes bugged wide, and her mouth worked without making a sound. “Listen, I don’t know what you think you’re doing, but you can’t control your son. He’s a grown man who can make grown man decisions all on his own.”

  “Did you sleep with him?” she hissed.

  Kris’s eyes narrowed at her. “That is none of your business.”

  Sarah leaned forward as she lowered her voice. “Yes, it is, because I’m going to tell you exactly what type of woman I’m staring at.”

  “Please, enlighten me, though I guarantee you’re wrong about everything,” Kris challenged.

  Sarah’s lip twitched as she folded her hands on the table. “You were born and raised in some small town, raised by your Grams, your parents most likely dead or not in the picture due to their addiction of one sort or another,” she started. “You might have had a sibling or two, but I doubt they were in your life much, either. You’re pretty, so you were popular with the boys in your town, but they just weren’t good enough for you.”

  Kris swallowed hard, struggling to keep up a wall of strength as the first cracks formed at her life being so harshly broken down by this woman.

  “You became a mechanic because it was better than being a waitress. You get to do something useful, and for years, you found an easy rhythm, were content, but wanted more. In steps my son,” she said proudly. “An Eastwood of high birth, wealth, and class. You find out how much money he’s really worth and a lightbulb goes off in that pretty head of yours. If you can seduce him, maybe he’ll be your ticket out of that shitty town you know you’re going to die in one day… alone, or married to a man worse than your father.”

  She leaned back in her chair, a satisfied smile on her face as her eyes gleamed, filled with hatred. Kris licked her dry lips, thinking over her choice of words, but none of them seemed significant in the face of such a harsh woman.

  “You don’t believe it’s possible that your son and I actually have something?” she asked quietly, weakly.

  “A fling,” Sarah said simply. “That’s all this was, a week’s fling. He was rebounding after losing his fiancée.”

  Kris nodded. There was nothing she could do. No matter what she said, Sarah would dismiss it as her son playing out a fantasy or a small-town girl looking for her ticket out. She sat back in her chair and laughed bitterly. “Well then, thank you so much for clearing that up for me,” she muttered. She stood and was ready to leave the conversation, but Sarah snatched her wrist and held her at the table. “Please let me go, or I’ll cause a scene.”

  “Cause a scene all you want,” Sarah told her, “but know this. You are to stay away from my son. You fix his car, and you send him home to me. If I ever hear of you again, you’ll wish you’d never met my son or me. Understood?”

  Kris’s chest tightened, and she sucked in a sharp breath as her heart slowly cracked down the middle. “You can’t keep him away from me.”

  “I’ll find a way. I’ll ruin you if I have to. Do you think I won’t? I’ve kept every woman from him except the one I wanted him to marry, and I’ll continue to do so,” she warned. “And if you tell Edmund any of this… Well, use your imagination, dear. You would never fit in with us. You’re not from our world, and you never could be. He is out of your league, regardless of what he thinks.”

  Kris yanked her hand free, rubbing her wrist where Sarah had held it so tightly, and glanced towards the doors in time to see Edmund entering. Edward was on his way back to the table, too, where Sarah sat looking like the perfect woman of poise and class. Kris couldn’t compete with her and her ideals. She wasn’t born into a world of wealth and white collars. She worked on people’s cars when they broke down outside her dirt-poor town because that was all she was good for. Edmund reached her as she forced a smile to her face and blinked away the tears threatening to spill over.

  “How was Tommy?” she asked him lightly.

  “Good. He’s doing really well,” Edmund told her. “You alright? You don’t look so good. You’re pale.”

  She waved his worry away. “I just need to use the restroom.”

  “Okay, if you’re sure,” he said and glanced at the table where his parents sat. He lowered his voice. “Did my mom say something? You can tell me.”

  Kris remembered Sarah’s words, and though she wasn’t sure what the woman would do, Kris didn’t want to find out. Money ruined people, and she knew if the right person pushed, it could ruin her. “No… no, they’re just keeping me company. Really, it’s nothing.”

  “Well, when you get back, we’ll head home,” he told her. “Tommy said to get out of town and not come back ‘til I’m driving myself.”

  “I’ll text Dennis and let him know,” she said as she walked quickly to the restroom.

  When she was inside, she gripped the sink hard and stared at her reflection. Her hair was a mess, and her nails were filthy from the day before. She had a scratch on her cheek from working yesterday and a grease stain on her neck she’d missed last night while she and Edmund made love in the shower. She turned on the faucet and scrubbed it until her skin was red and raw. She dug at her nails, picking at the mess beneath them until a soft hand fell on her shoulder.

  “Are you alright, hon?” a gray-haired woman in scrubs asked.

  “I’m fine,” Kris assured her with a weak smile.

  “Your tears say otherwise,” the woman said and held out a tissue.

  Kris looked at her reflection. Tears ran down her cheeks. “Shit. No, I’m fine, just a rough day.”

  The old woman studied her. “Something tells me it doesn’t have to do with a current patient.”

  “How… how would you know that?”

  “I’ve been around a long time, hon.” The old woman laughed sweetly. “That’s the look of a broken heart. Is he worth crying over?”

  She nodded and blew out a breath to regain control of herself. “He is, but it can’t happen. I realize that now.”

  “Sometimes life seems impossible, but we’re just making things more complicated than they need to be,” she said quietly. “Don’t let someone else tell you how to live your life or love who you love. You only get to go through this crazy mess once.”

  The nurse patted her on the shoulder before leaving the bathroom. Her words rang through Kris’s mind, but what proof did she really have that Edmund would follow through with his promises? What if he left and never came back or called her? What if she was just his rebound girl, the one he told stories about later? Her hands shaking as the uncertainties piled up around her, Kris realized how blind she’d been since Edmund stepped into her tow truck. She’d told herself to keep her distance, and what did she do? She let herself get completely sucked in by a handsome man. He was a novelty, something different, and she’d fallen for it.

  “It’ll never work,” she told her reflection. “Move on, fix his car, and let him go before you get in any deeper.” Eventually, he would have to choose between her and his life. How could she ask him to do that?

  She wiped her face, and once she could smile without it faltering, she left the bathroom and made ready to fight the hardest battle of her life—letting go of the man she gave her heart to with no chance of ever getting it back.

  Several days had passed since Edmund and Kris returned to Green Valley, but they returned very different people than when they had left. Kris was elbow-deep, working on his car all day long, and since her parents left town, she was back at the house. Edmund was still at the inn, sleeping alone in his bed for the third night in a row. He tried speaking to her several times, but she gave him a polite smile and told him she had to get b
ack to work or his car would never be ready.

  He’d stopped caring about the car long ago and told her that, but she ignored him and said she had to get it finished so she could make more room in the shop for the rest of her customers. He paced around his room, ready to pull his hair out because she was driving him so mad. He replayed everything in his mind about the trip to Louisville, but nothing stuck out as strange. He’d asked her if his parents had said something to her, and her eyes darkened though she’d said they were very nice people and had only kept her company.

  She lied. He knew she lied, but he couldn’t figure out why. Today was going to be different. He had a plan to whisk her away to another romantic dinner on Mr. Fitz’s land, going to their spot on the trail. Everything was laid out in his head. He grabbed his wallet and opened the door to head out and found Charlie with his hand raised to knock.

  “Oh—hey, man,” Charlie said, sounding less than thrilled. “Kris sent me over with your keys. Your car is finished, and you’re all set to go with a full tank of gas and everything.”

  “Where’s Kris?” he asked, not taking the keys.

  “She’s working,” Charlie said, but his eye twitched when he said it. “Take your keys, man, and just walk away.”

  Edmund stiffened. “What’s going on? And don’t tell me whatever lie she told you to tell me.”

  Charlie’s hand fell to his side, the keys jangling. “Look, she’s been pissed all week. I don’t know what happened in Louisville, but she doesn’t want to see you, no matter what I tell her.”

  “Nothing happened,” he growled. “Nothing that she’ll tell me, at least.”

  “I’ve never seen her this pissed before, man,” he said with a grimace. “She trashed the Judge.”

  Edmund’s hands on the door gripped it so tightly it creaked with the strain. “She did what?”

  “She got drunk and took a wrench to the car. Beat the hell out of it, but I stopped her before she could hurt anything she couldn’t repla—hey! Ed, I wouldn’t go in there, man. Just take your car and leave.”