Page 83 of Fierce-Jonah

“No,” he said. “Megan works out there. We’ve got classes upstairs for women. Cardio classes. The men go up too. One part of the gym is just a normal gym. Cardio machines and weight equipment. The back is where I train the fighters. Are you thinking of joining?”

“Yeah,” Sarah said. “Are you?”

Bill shrugged. “I used to lift weights in high school. I wrestled back in the day. I do miss the training of it. Age has crept up on me.”

“I’d do it with you,” Sarah said excited. “If Megan is there too.”

Megan smiled. “I go a few times a week after work. That is when it’s the busiest. Later after dinner I think it slows down.”

“In the morning before work, I find a lot of thirty- to fifty-year-olds. After work is more of the twenty and thirties,” he said.

“How early do you open?” Bill asked.

“I open at five.”

“That’s too early,” Sarah said. “I need to get the kids ready for school and I’m not getting up that early.”

“Bill,” Megan said. “If you want to go early on your way to work, do it. Sarah can go with me to start.”

“Can I go too?” Abby asked. “I want to work out. Aunt Megan, your arms are totally lit.”

“You’re not going to a gym,” Tom said firmly.

“Oh, ease up,” Emily said. “If she is with Megan and Sarah it’s not a big deal. Maybe I’ll go too. A gym is a gym.”

“Not that gym,” Tom said. “There are fighters there.”

“There are people who are fighters training at every gym whether you know it or not,” Jonah said. “But please, if you want to try it, first time is on me. Come in and I’ll show you around or Megan can.”

“I’m doing it,” Sarah said. “I need to get my butt back in shape. I’m jealous of Megan.”

“You are?” Megan asked.

“We looked the same in college and now I’m a fat flabby mom. No more,” Sarah said. “Emily, you in?”

“I’m in,” Emily said, smiling.

“You’re beautiful the way you are,” Bill said to Sarah.

“Thank you, dear. But you could stand to lose some of this belly,” Sarah said, laughing and pinching him.

“See, Tom,” Emily said. “Bill thinks Sarah is beautiful. You don’t say that to me.”

This was getting out of hand and now he knew why Megan was stressed when she returned from these dinners.

“I told you my family was nothing like yours,” Megan said, leaning into his ear. “But it looks like you might have converted my sisters. This should be interesting.”

She was smiling so he’d take it as a win and his work here was done.

30

Stuck It Out

“Megan, you are getting a nice body on you.”

She turned to look at her sister Sarah on the treadmill next to her. “Thank you. I don’t think I’ve lost more than five pounds, but I’m not trying to lose weight. I just think I’ve got a lot more muscle on me.”

“Abby told me that I’ll be able to post on Facebook with the hashtag ‘Mom Goals’ soon,” Emily said. “I don’t believe it, but I’ve lost almost ten pounds in three weeks since we’ve been coming here.”