Page 43 of Love at First Rep

HUNTER: Ew, cardio. Why did I sign up for this again?

COLE: Team Cherrywood is going to kick everyone else’s ass!

RILEY: Thanks for the assist, Cole!

COLE: Anytime, Ri! And damn that was fast. Josh must be talented.

RILEY: ::middle finger emoji::

JOSH: I’ve been practicing!

15

GARRETT’S LEGS WERE TURNING into Jell-O.

As he looked around the gym, it eased his ego to see most of the others struggling a bit with the day’s workout, including Rafe, who had joined him in every gym session since he’d arrived.

He had one round left after this one, and he’d have trouble walking out of the gym afterward.

Tobias tasked them with five rounds of a four-hundred-meter run, thirty box jumps and thirty wall balls. And they did all of it after a half hour of rope climbing. Watching Rafe fly up the rope over and over again had been entertaining, but now Garrett couldn’t wait to be done. At least he was still beating Rafe.

After he completed his last wall ball for round four—going into a deep squat with a twenty-pound medicine ball and then standing and launching it at a target ten feet up the wall—Garrett made a break for the propped open back door to run his final four hundred meters, Cole falling in beside him. It wasn’t a surprise, since the two of them had the most stamina out of everyone in the gym, but Garrett struggled that morning.

“Can you still feel your legs?” Garrett asked as they began their run. They didn’t have the gas to run as hard as they did in the first round, but the two of them still managed a decent pace.

Cole laughed, his ice blue eyes bright. “Uh-oh, old man. Are you starting to feel your age?”

“Fuck off, I’ll be outrunning you even when I’m in the nursing home.”

“Ya know, I really don’t doubt that. So why are you riding the struggle bus today?”

Garrett groaned. He could only think of one reason why he might be more fatigued than usual. Rafe.

The sex they had the night before was everything he’d wanted for years, until Rafe left his life that awful night. Now, his desires were back, and he couldn’t ignore them anymore.

This situation would tire out anyone. It wasn’t the most physical sex he’d ever had in his life, but the mental gymnastics Garrett had been stumbling through—his gut telling him Rafe was hiding something and that something was amiss with this investigation—tired him out more than anything.

“You okay, man?” Cole asked. Garrett almost forgot he was running next to him. “Oh, is that Rafe guy working you too hard these days? He’s hot. You should take him and—”

“Please do not finish that sentence,” Garrett said.

The wide grin on Cole’s face made it obvious Garrett was fooling no one. Usually, Garrett had an amazing poker face and people had to work hard to break it, but something about Rafe had him off his game. At least Rafe had the same problem. The guy could go undercover anywhere. He had a quick wit and charm and won over everyone he talked to. Plus, he had the smarts to navigate nearly any situation, allowing him to weave whatever tale he needed to get his job done. But when it came to Garrett, Rafe was a shit liar. The question was, what was he lying about?

Garrett and Cole reached the back door of the gym and made their way to their solid wooden boxes. Everyone else must have been on their run because Tobias stood alone in the gym, watching them like a hawk to check their form and make sure they didn’t get hurt.

As Garrett tried to focus on his workout, readying himself for his box jumps, Rafe wouldn’t leave his mind.

Just like any other investigation, Garrett had to consider Rafe a suspect. He didn’t want to believe this was all a trap, but he had to take it into consideration. Especially after the guilt written all over Rafe’s face that morning as they drove to the gym together. Hiding from Garrett for twenty years and haunting him with his damn messages took a toll, but Garrett’s gut told him Rafe was keeping something else from him as well.

Two decades was a hell of a long time. Rafe could have become a completely different person during their separation. Garrett had no idea what Rafe had been through, no idea if he could truly trust him. His heart said he could, but his brain called him an idiot.

While completing his jumps, Garrett contemplated how best to attack this problem. He could start with adding Rafe to his list of people to investigate. If he found something suspicious, he’d deal with it, one step at a time. Innocent until proven guilty weren’t empty words to Garrett, but at the beginning of a case he had to treat everyone as a suspect. Then he did everything he could to arm himself with accurate information as it was revealed. This one was no different.

Garrett’s gaze drifted to Rafe when he returned to the box next to him. The smile Rafe sent Garrett’s way before starting his own box jumps made Garrett want to take back every suspicion he’d had about him, but he had to remain strong. He had to be smart and protect himself. Protect his friends at the gym. Protect Lucas.

It wouldn’t be easy, but it had to be done.

Garrett had to investigate Rafe. He just had to hope it led to nothing.