Prologue

Veronica

The night Veronica Cruz prayed for her mother to die, she never imagined her mother wouldn't wake the next morning, but she didn't. She died in her sleep in the very house that Veronica was now destined to spend the rest of her life alone.

That was six months ago. Since then, Veronica's bane of existence consisted of waking to a silent home and wandering aimlessly about from her bed to the sofa in the front room to the kitchen table until it was time to crawl back into bed and start all over again.

Her mother had left her a substantial trust with the stipulation that the house would never be sold. The home that had been in the family for generations was to stay within the family for at least another hundred years or until there was no one left in the family to pass it on to. Unless she lived to be more than a hundred, it would probably be sooner since having kids required male companionship and meeting a man required her leaving the house for more than just grocery shopping. Still, she had promised her mother on her deathbed that she would never sell the house.

Since she was an only child, the house that was now paid for was hers free and clear. The closest relative she had was an aunt her mother had only spoken of a few times. She'd never met her father, so she had no idea if she had any family on his side.

At twenty-eight, Veronica felt like a spinster. Sure, most would consider her relatively young for a spinster, but the years leading up to her mother's death had aged her in so many ways. When Veronica found out about the cancer and how little time her mother had left, she dropped everything. She took a leave from her job as a human resource director at the local college—a job she loved—to care for her mother full time. Her social life became non-existent for over two years.

By the time her mother passed, Veronica was forty pounds heavier and drained completely of any energy to return to the real world. She had no desire to go back to work so worn and completely out of shape. Feeling as if she'd aged ten years and heavier than she'd ever been in her life, there was no way she was showing her face there again. Not only did her mother's death drain her physically but it had also taken her spirit. She was no longer the vibrant young woman full of goals and ambitions she once had been.

Losing her mom the way she had, watching her wither away hopelessly in so much pain with no way to help her, had scarred her forever. She was angry with God and saw no reason to even try being a contributing member of society anymore. What good did it do you, anyway, when it could be taken away just like that?

A loud knock at the front door jolted Veronica out of her dreary thoughts. She already knew who it was, and she rolled her eyes, dragging herself off the sofa to answer the door.

Her best friend Nellie smiled widely as soon as Veronica opened the door. "Guess what I got us?" She held up what looked like tickets of some sort.

"I told you," Veronica said, already heading back to her favorite spot on the sofa. "I'm not going to any movies or concerts or any event that involves me being around other people. I'm a cow, Nellie. I don't even have clothes that fit me anymore."

"Do you have sweats?"

"That's all I have." She pulled the material on the sweat pants she was wearing. "I haven't bought anything else in months. It's all I can get my fat ass into, and I refuse to go shopping for anything else in this embarrassing size."

"That's perfect then," Nellie said, "because these are one-week passes to the gym over on Fifth Street."

Veronica gaped at her. "A gym?" She wasn't even aware there was a gym on Fifth Street.

"Yes, a gym. Get up. We're going." Nellie grabbed her hand and pulled. "I'm tired of you using your weight as an excuse to bury yourself from the world. We'll go together."

Veronica groaned as she got up off the sofa. "I didn't know there was a gym on Fifth Street. Are you sure?" She took the tickets from Nellie. They were very amateurish looking—printed on regular paper even cut a bit raggedly. "Where did you get these?"

"Never you mind. I knew you wouldn't want to go to the crowded gym over at the mall full of all those people you're so adamant about staying away from." She shoved Veronica toward the front door. "This is a smaller community gym, but they're still nice enough to offer free one-week passes. We'll do a week, and then depending on how you feel, we can sign up for more."

Veronica tried to protest about not having a gym bag, but as usual, Nellie was one-step ahead of her. "I have everything we need in the car. Just grab your keys and wallet. No excuses."

For months, Nellie had done her best to try to pull Veronica out of her funk, and Veronica hated to sound so ungrateful. She seriously doubted she could even do one jumping jack without keeling over, but she'd humor her friend this one time. Truth was she really did need to lose weight.

On the drive over, Nellie told her about the gym. Her husband was now a member of the big gym by the mall, but he took kickboxing training once upon a time at the Fifth Street gym. He said it was just small enough that Veronica wouldn't feel overwhelmed. Great. Nellie had told her husband what a fat pathetic hermit she'd become. "So when the guy outside the supermarket gave me the passes, I thought this would be perfect."

Veronica didn't even attempt to be as excited about this as Nellie seemed to be, though she suspected it was a bit of an act. They'd been best friends since they were kids, and she'd done everything to try and cheer Veronica up after her mother died. One thing Veronica knew about Nellie was that she hated working out. So, as usual, this was a completely selfless act on her part, all for the sake of pulling Veronica out of the cave she called her home. It was just one of the reasons that made Veronica love and appreciate her best friend even more.

When they arrived, they were both surprised to see there were no other women. Veronica peered at the ticket she held in her hand. "Are you sure this isn't an all-male gym?"

Nellie didn't look so sure herself but quickly disagreed. "That's silly. I've never heard of an all-male gym."

"I have."

"Why would the guy offer me the passes if it was an all-male gym?"

Veronica looked around. It was a far cry from the gym at the mall that was for sure. For starters, the place was in great need of a paint job. There were a few treadmills and stair climbers on one end of the gym, four weight benches and weights on the other end, a rowing machine, lots of punching bags, and a big boxing ring in the middle of the gym. This was definitely a boxer's gym.

She followed Nellie up to a man with a clipboard, who stood near the punching bags, and showed him the tickets. "We're here for the free week of training."

He was an older guy with a full head of graying hair. He looked them both over and smirked. "You ever train before?"

Veronica attempted to suck in her gut and stood up straight. What seemed like a lifetime ago, she was actually on her college tennis team. And before her mother fell ill, she used to get together with a few of her colleagues to play regularly. Now she dreaded what a little workout might do to her.

"No, not really, but we're here to start." Nellie said, her chin up.

The man glanced over to an open door where a few guys stuck their faces out, staring in their direction. As soon as they saw him looking, they jerked their heads back in. Veronica could hear them laughing. Wonderful. They were already being mocked, and she hadn't even started jiggling her flab. This was going to be worse than she imagined. Veronica exchanged glances with Nellie before they both turned to the guy in front of them.

The man leaned over into a box next to him and grabbed two clipboards with small index cards on them. "Read and sign these. Lemme see what I can do." He walked away toward the very door with the laughing guys.

Veronica tugged at Nellie's arm. She'd already begun to read what appeared to be a liability waiver. "I don't think this is such a good idea after all."

"Stop," Nellie's tone was firm. "We're going to do this for at least a week. You can't stay cooped up in that house forever, Roni. I won't have it."

The idea of having one of those young guys, who were obviously already ridiculing them, stand over her and train her while she nearly passed out from doing a couple of sit ups was really beginning to panic her. "Maybe you and I can just go walking every night, you know, at the park. We can do our own work out."

Nellie arched an eyebrow. "No, you're not getting out of this. It's just one week. After that, we'll decide what we'll do. But for now, we're doing this."

Veronica sighed, defeated. Nellie wasn't going to budge. Veronica knew how she could be once her mind was made up. Just as she finished signing the waiver, she looked up to see two more young guys enter the same room as the man they'd been talking to, then heard more laughter. Her stomach tightened even more now. She knew leaving the comfort of her home was a mistake.