Pushing the Limits

Hannah

“All right, Team Green Machine. We’re going to try a different method for timing your one-mile benchmark,” Jordan announced from where he was standing above us.

The whole group of us collectively moaned as we stood at the base of the steps of the public library.

The very, very long steps. Ugh.

He looked good. Really good... it was kind of irritating how handsome he was. Maybe Ty would have been the easier distraction to deal with.

“I’ve marked a path up the steps and around the building,” he continued.

“Obviously, this isn’t going to be an official timing, but the incline and stairs will help you improve your time when we do your real times on the studio treadmills.”

“This is gonna suck,” I whined quietly.

“Yes, yes it is. I hate stairs,” an amused female voice chimed in from beside me. I hadn’t seen her before, but she was another non-stick figure.

She was taller than I, with her thick, dark, curly hair pulled back into a ponytail. Her dark skin was a stark contrast to the lightly colored athletic wear she had on.

She smiled at me, and I immediately felt at ease.

“I don’t think I’ve seen you before,” she stepped closer. She really was stunning with dark brown eyes and high cheekbones. Her figure was curved like mine, but you could tell she was in much better shape than I.

“Yeah, I only take the Monday, Wednesday, Friday evening class,” I told her.

“Ah... I hit up the five a.m. class a few days a week and train with Jordan on Saturdays,” she explained, and I made a sour face.

“Five a.m. No thank you.” I laughed, and she held out her hand.

“Tatum.”

“Hannah. It’s nice to meet you.” I smiled as I gave her hand a brief shake.

“You as well.” She returned my smile. “Us thick-thighed sisters need to keep together.”

“Okay. Here’s the catch,” Jordan announced. “You are now partners with the person next to you. Your partner must be in your line of sight the entire time you complete this mile.”

My eyes flashed over to Tatum, and she smiled. Her fist shot out for a bump, and I tapped it before we both turned back to Jordan.

“I’m going to be running the trail with you, making sure everyone is doing what they’re supposed to be doing.

“My friend Mollie here will be at the bottom of these steps timing you.” He nodded at the tall, slender, athletic blonde standing next to him. “Some of you may have met her when she’s subbed for her twin Mallory in the past.”

“Hopefully, she’s the nice twin,” I grumbled under my breath.

Tatum’s chest shook out of the corner of my eye. I guess she’d heard me.

“Don’t worry, she is. Mollie is definitely the nicer of the two,” she assured.

“Well, it wouldn’t take much.”

“I see you’ve had a run-in with our resident ray of sunshine,” she said with an amused smile pulling at her lips.

“You could say that. She’s not my biggest fan.” I was trying not to sound petulant, but I still didn’t understand why Mallory had such a distaste for me.

“She’s really not that bad.”

I arched an eyebrow in her direction.

“Okay, she might be that bad. She’s always been grumpy, though,” she shrugged.

“You’ve known them a while?” I guessed.

“I have.” She nodded. “We went to college together. They ran track, and I was a discus thrower.”

“So they’ve always been thin as toothpicks,” I blurted out.

Her laughter drew some looks from the people surrounding us, including Jordan, who shot me a curious glance from his place in the middle of the steps.

“Pretty much. Honestly, most of Mallory’s attitude stems from an accident that happened,” she bit her lip and leaned in, but then Jordan interrupted us.

“All right. If you’d like to talk more with your partner later, that’s fine, but we need to get moving. It’s only going to get hotter as the day goes on.”

“I’ll fill you in later,” she whispered quickly.

“Sounds good.” I nodded, and we both turned to face Jordan again.

“Okay. This set of steps is your first trial. Move at a steady pace, but don’t crowd your neighbor and be careful. We don’t need anyone getting injured trying to rush,” he said, looking out into the crowd.

“I’m looking at you, Jack.” He side-eyed a pretty fit-looking man off to the side of the steps. He was already getting himself into position.

“Again, this is not an official time, but when we do our benchmarks in the studio, I expect your times to be faster than what you get today.”

“Have you done a benchmark before?” Tatum asked quietly.

I bit my lip and shook my head. “No. I only started a few weeks ago.”

She nodded and patted my shoulder. “We’ve all got to start somewhere.”

“That’s what I keep hearing.”

“All right, pairs, remember, don’t lose your partner. This is a team-building run, not a solo race. If your partner is slower than you, it’s not the end of the world,” Jordan addressed the group again.

“I’m just gonna warn you now. I’m gonna be slower than you,” I told her in a quiet voice.

She laughed and smiled at me, nodding to a space that was open close to the steps. “That’s fine. I’m not a big fan of running. If we get around twelve minutes, I’ll be happy.”

“You’re obviously overestimating my abilities,” I laughed.

“Now if you put me on the rower, no offense... but I’d smoke you,” Tatum warned. Ah, so she was one of the people who was a glutton for punishment. The rower was not my favorite place.

“I don’t doubt that,” I said. “I have a hate-hate relationship with the rower right now.”

She glanced over my shoulder. “Don’t let Jordan hear you say that. He was on crew in college.”

“Yeah, I’m aware of mister rowing master. We got paired up for capture the flag last week.”

“I’m assuming he won?” She laughed, and I nodded. “He’s always been super competitive. He doesn’t like to lose.”

“Okay, ladies and gentlemen, get on your game faces, it’s time to climb,” Jordan called out with an excited grin.

“Ugh.”

“I heard that, Hannah,” he teased as he looked over at me and winked. Damn smug, handsome grin in place.

“Shit,” I mumbled, and Tatum started laughing.

“That too,” he called out, lifting an eyebrow.

Rolling my eyes, I made eye contact with him, and he winked, pointing two fingers at his eyes and then back at me.

“Oh... he likes you,” Tatum teased as she bumped her elbow into mine.

“No. He’s just nice to me,” I insisted.

Tatum didn’t look convinced at my denial. “If you say so.”

“Let’s get started in three... two... one...” he called out and stepped to the side.

Tatum took off up the staircase, and I tried to maintain pace with her, just slightly behind. It was a long staircase, but not impossible.

I could feel my heart rate rise by the time we got to the top. My watch popped up a notification that it was going to start recording an outdoor run. I guess we were tracking this.

“Take a deep breath and just keep moving,” she encouraged as we reached the top of the stairs and moved toward the marked path.

I fell into step beside her on the trail, and we followed the markers along the side of the trail. Most of it was on a concrete path, but at one point, we cut off toward a garden in the woods on a mulch path.

My legs could immediately tell the difference. I could see why people liked trail running versus road running. It wasn’t quite as jarring, especially when you were running with a little extra baggage like me.

When we got to the corner at the end of the wooded trail, it met up with the concrete path again, and Jordan was standing there with a stopwatch.

“Nicely done, ladies. You’re at the halfway mark. Time is five minutes, twenty seconds. Keep it up,” he encouraged.

I was panting a little when my foot hit the concrete again. Glancing over at Tatum, she had started to sweat, but she didn’t look fatigued.

“You okay?”

“Uh…” I huffed. “Yeah…”

“Just take deep breaths and make your arms move in a fluid motion, it helps,” she encouraged.

My vision started to blur a little bit when we turned the corner around the building that had a sign indicating 0.75 miles.

We were almost there. And I wasn’t dead yet.

“You still with me, Hannah?” she asked as we turned the last corner, and the steps were back within sight.

If it weren’t for the massive staircase we needed to go down, I would have been relieved.

“Yeah... I’m... ugh...” I panted, sweat dripping down my face and neck. It wasn’t even that hot out, and I was sweating like a pig.

“Slow down when we get to the stairs,” she encouraged. “I’m gonna stay close to the handrail. Use it if you need it.”

I gave her a weak nod and tried to calm my breathing before we got to the stairs.

My hand shook as I gripped the rail and started to descend the staircase behind Tatum. There was already a small group of people waiting at the bottom of the stairs, clapping.

It didn’t look like the whole group, so at least we weren’t last.

“Come on, ladies!” Mollie cheered. “You’re almost there. Just a little bit left! You’re making great time!”

I wasn’t sure of that, but I hadn’t stopped, so that had to count for something. Tatum hit the bottom of the stairs first and jogged over to Mollie.

I felt my knees get weak once I hit the bottom step and gripped the rail so I wouldn’t fall.

A large hand appeared on my other arm and pulled me up as I faltered.

“You got this, Hannah. Just a few more steps.”

His other hand gripped my waist and helped me step down the last one on shaky legs.

“Can you stand?”

I nodded as I looked up into his eyes and stepped away from him. Despite the burn in my thighs and calves, I proudly took the last few steps to Mollie, and she called out our time.

“Thirteen minutes, nine seconds.”

My eyes flashed to Tatum, who didn’t look fazed. She put out her hand for a high five and winked at me.

“Not bad, partner. We should be able to crush it on the treadmill next week,” she smiled.

“I’m—” I panted. I felt terrible we’d missed her goal of twelve minutes.

“Don’t say it, Hannah.” My head turned, and Jordan was right there, standing about a step behind me, eyebrow arched.

“I’m glad you were my partner, Tatum.” I shot back over my shoulder, and she started laughing.

“It was nice to meet you, Hannah. Let me know if you’d like to go get a drink sometime,” she told me.

I nodded and took a big drink from my water bottle, wiping sweat from my forehead with the back of my wrist.

She gave a little wave to Jordan and jogged off toward the parking lot. I guess I'd have to wait to hear why Mal was so cranky another day.

“You had a nice time, Han,” Jordan said from behind me.

He touched the middle of my back as he stepped closer. The people who had finished had started to head toward their cars. Only a few people remained.

Mollie was looking at her clipboard a few feet away and checking off names.

“Did we get everyone?” he asked her, his warm hand still in place.

“Yeah. Only the two who didn't show up are the ones without times.”

My gaze bounced back and forth between the two of them, Jordan's hand burning on my back as I took slow sips of water.

“Thanks, Mol. Just leave the clipboard on the stairs, and I can enter it all into the computer. I know you need to leave,” he thanked her.

She saluted him and put it down next to a bag at the base of the steps, jogging off to a familiar Jeep in the parking lot.

“Do you have a few minutes to talk?” he asked me, his deep voice sending a shiver down my spine.

“I guess,” I responded curiously.

He smiled as I nodded at him.

“Want to take a walk?” he asked me, gesturing toward the wooded area.

“Depends…”

“On?” he asked, sounding a little skeptical.

“Do I have to go up those stairs again?”

His laugh was infectious, and I joined in as he dropped his hand from my back. He took a few steps toward the stairs and grabbed his backpack, putting it on before gesturing to a small hill on the other side of the steps.

“Is that any better?”

“Do you want an honest answer?” I shot back.

“It’s not that bad,” he encouraged.

“Says the guy who ran a mile and didn’t even break a sweat.”

“I’m sweating,” he insisted, using a few fingers to pull his shirt away from his chest. The hem rode up, and an incredibly defined abdomen peeked through before he let go.

Was it wrong that I wanted him to take his shirt off to show me where he was sweaty?

No... too messy. Don’t flirt with the hot trainer.

“Come on. Let’s go,” he urged as he started walking.

“I guess if I have to,” I sighed as I fell into step beside him, wondering what he wanted.