My head bobbed in a circle, not able to decide if I should nod or shake it in disbelief. “Oh my gosh. Yes. I love that idea.”
Peyton gaped, her eyes flashing like she was seeing Times Square for the first time. “You guys have done those obstacle course races? Those look so fun.”
The guys nodded.
“Yeah. They really are,” Wayne said.
“And challenging,” Knox added. “If that’s your jam.”
“Could I join your group?” Peyton’s eyes were full of hope.
“Yes,” Wayne said so fast that I almost snorted. He shrugged, his voice suddenly cool. “I’m sure the guys would be okay with that.” I’d already caught Wayne discreetly looking her up and down, so it was no surprise that he’d take the ‘guys only’ sign off their door for her.
Silas sidled up to the group, dressed in jeans and a T-shirt now, listening quietly. Really, I could get rid of my TV, internet, and radio, as long as he was around. All the entertainment I would ever need would be Silas entering the room wearing something different than he had a few minutes before. Didn't even matter what it was. It always made my pulse race, my gut flip backward, and my breath catch in my throat. His eyes sparkled, and he was biting the insides of his cheeks to keep from grinning.
The third man broke in then—a tall, lanky guy, who might’ve just graduated from high school. “I wish this place was bigger, though.” He spoke to the other two guys. “We need access to some weight machines if we want to bring our game up to the next level.” He looked at Knox. “I know you’re trying to move up to Elite class. That ain’t gonna happen if you stop going to the gym in Honeyville.”
Like a true curmudgeon, his words took a bit of the excitementout of the air. The rest could join The Downward Dog, just not him. Kidding. The Downward Dog was an equal-opportunity gym. We welcomed all kinds. Even killjoys.
Silas rubbed a hand over his stubble, but he was still grinning, unlike the rest of us. “We gotta git.” He nodded toward me. “But we’ll try to come up with a solution. See you guys Friday?”
“You know it.” Knox and Silas did the bro hug with the back slap.
Then Silas ushered me out the door. He held the passenger door of my truck open and shut it when I was settled inside. Chivalry was so shmexy, and this man could give classes on it. Then he hustled around the front of the truck and got into the driver's seat.
He grinned. “Kinda cool, huh?”
I shook my head in awe. “Unbelievably cool.”
He pulled out of the parking lot and onto the road, leaned back, his arm outstretched, resting on the steering wheel. Somebody going the opposite direction passed, and he gave them a one-fingered wave. I chewed my lips, fighting against the smile that was trying to betray how adorably hot I thought that was.
He ran a hand over his hair. “So, I had an idea about how you could expand your studio and make more money.”
I turned to face him. “More than a bunch of new guys forming an obstacle race group?”
“Yeah. I mean, Jonathan basically said it back there.” Oh, Gruff had a name. “I can’t take all the credit. But what if you talked the owner of the building into selling it to you? The whole thing. You could keep the studio, but turn the other half into a full gym with weight machines, treadmills, ellipticals…you get the idea.” His thumb tapped the steering wheel. “The other side’s just storage, right?”
I frowned and blew out my breath. “Yeah. But that’s…that sounds like…I’d be way in over my head.” The thought of trying to run something like that, along with the studio and managing the farm by myself, made my chest tighten. “And how would I pay for all of that? It would be a huge investment.”
“I’m not sure about the finances, but I think it would be easier to run than you think. You get everything set up and we can install a swipe system. They have them at the gym I go to in Laramie.” He adjusted in his seat. “Everyone downloads an app and when they approach the building, the app signals the door to unlock. People can come and go as they please, twenty-four-seven. Just get a couple of employees to man the front desk—a few high school kids for the evenings. Then you hire someone to clean.” He clicked his tongue. “The place practically runs itself.”
I tilted my head. “There’s no way it’s that simple. What about when a machine breaks down? And do you think it would make enough money to pay back the loan on the building and all the equipment?”
He nodded confidently. “I do. I’ve been thinking about it for a while, actually.”
My eyes widened. “You have?”
“I called around to some gyms in nearby towns around the same size as Seddledowne. Some of them have as many as a thousand memberships a month. In the city, big gym memberships are peanuts. But farther out, you can charge more. Not as much as the studio, but you wouldn’t have to. You’re not paying instructors.” He nodded. “Apparently, this is a big thing with this generation of teens right now. The gym is their hangout.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. Holden detests going to the gym in the evening because it’s overrun with cocky, pubescent boys trying to showoff for their girlfriends and using it as a hookup spot. Says he has to go early before work or it takes two hours to get his workout done. Kids sit at a machine on their phones for twenty or thirty minutes before he can get to it.” Silas flipped the blinker to turn left. “And you’d need a good repair guy on speed dial. Didn’t you say the guy who owns the building used to run a machine shop or something? He’s probably good at fixing stuff. Some retired guys are itching for something to do.”
My insides were settling, but Silas tended to have that effect on me in general. And I didn’t want to confuse that with genuine peace. Was this something I could actually do? Or would I be hurtling myself, warp speed, toward financial ruin? What I didn’t want was to screw over the studio for the sake of trying to make more money.
I opened the calculator app on my phone. “So, if I charged, say, forty-five dollars a month, per member and…let’s be conservative…got six hundred memberships…so, for a year…” I plugged in the calculation. The number on my screen was massive. Like too big for me to fathom.
He chuckled. “You got really quiet. Everything okay?”
