Coach Liz is in her office. She smiles when I step into the open doorway.
“Hi, Hannah. Come in.” She waves with one hand as she continues walking behind her treadmill desk. She’s another coach here at Premier, but she focuses primarily on floorchoreography and running the administrative side of things at the gym.
There are no chairs in her small office, so I stand to the side.
“Congratulations on working with Coach Rodier.”
“Thanks.” A flicker of the excitement I felt last week sparks to life. It’s hard to remember what a big deal it is while worrying I’m screwing it up at every turn. Or screwing up everything else in my life.
“I’m emailing over your plan as we speak,” she says, typing on her keyboard. “And I’ll print you a hard copy too.”
The printer hums to life and she effortlessly grabs the papers while still walking at a steady clip. I take them from her with a thanks and eagerly look over my new routine. And then frown.
“You’ll also be getting an invoice from the accounting office sometime this week for the added coaching fees. This month is prorated, but going forward payment will be on the first of every month.”
The reminder of the money I don’t have would cause more of a panic if I weren’t distracted by my new training plan.
“I think there’s some kind of mistake,” I say, looking up at her.
She frowns and I hand over the papers for her to look at more closely. She does and then shakes her head. “No, this is what Coach Rodier outlined.”
“But there are no gym workouts.” Not a single time slot for bars or beam or vault or even floor. It’s all general skill work. Weights, ballet, cardio, and high intensity workouts. There’s even daily visualization and meditation time.
Something like understanding settles into her expression. “Sometimes we have to go back to the basics before we can move forward.”
14
TRAVIS
I open the back door of my SUV and toss my duffel in the back seat next to my suitcase while I listen to Wade go on and on about the Dow and interest rates. I don’t really care, but I know I should care so I let him yap until there’s a silence that indicates maybe he’s done.
“Sounds like I still have enough money to live,” I say. It’s all I really care about. Sure, the excess and luxury are fun but if it all went away tomorrow, I’d be okay with it.
“If you didn’t, then I’d be the worst advisor ever.” He lets out a soft chuckle. “It’d take a dumb fuck to lose this much money.”
“I appreciate you,” I tell him. He isn’t dumb. In fact, he came highly recommended. If I had one complaint, it’s that he protects my money a little too well. I’d be happy risking more, donating it or just giving it away, but he seems to think I should be smart and plan for retirement and such. I’m not fantastic at money management but even I can see that there’s enough for several lifetimes.
“One more thing,” he says as Hannah’s purple Jeep pulls into the driveway next door and my heart rate picks up speed.
It’s been two days since she left me alone in the honeymoon suite. She’s avoided my texts and must have come home late in the evenings and left early in the morning because it’s the first I’ve seen anything of her since I got back. And I’ve been keeping an eye out. Okay, two eyes, both of them glued to the windows watching for her.
I shut the back passenger door of my Range Rover and round behind it to walk over to Hannah.
“I got a notification this morning that your inheritance money has been deposited.”
“There must be some mistake.”
“I thought so too, but I double-checked. Ten million dollars is being transferred now that you’ve met the fund stipulations.”
“No. That can’t be right.”
Hannah is out of her Jeep now and looking my way. Even from this distance I can tell she’s deciding whether she wants to sprint inside or get back in her Jeep and run me over. If it’s all the same to her, I think I’d prefer the latter. The avoidance is killing me.
“With your birthday last week, maybe your parents decided to remove the other stipulations.”
“My grandfather set it up before he died, but even if my parents had control of it, they aren’t that thoughtful,” I say, starting across the yard. “There has to be a mistake. They put those stipulations in there hoping I’d never find someone dumb enough to marry me.”
Wade chuckles, but slowly my own words strike a nerve.Holy shit. No. They can’t possibly know. Except…I swallow the lump forming in my throat.
