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“Yeah, actually. I volunteer there a couple times a week. Why the center though? Of all the charities you could have picked.”
Lydia shrugged, coming to stand by the desk. “I guess it was just a spur-of-the-moment thing. My company is preparing to enter a city-run competition to redesign the building that the center operates out of. We were chatting about it right before we started talking about our outreach project. I think the two things came together organically.”
“I heard about that competition,” Luke said. He’d been informed that a massive construction project was coming down the pipeline. The full-time staff had already begun planning to funnel funding and activities to other parts of the city in order to support the kids while the building was being renovated. “I didn’t realize that change was happening so soon.”
“It’s just the competition, which doesn’t finish until the beginning of November. The city probably wouldn’t be ready to break ground on any work until next year,” Lydia said. “Some of my colleagues and I actually stopped by the center the other day to have a look around. You know, get our bearings before we actually started drawing.”
“It’s such a great space,” Luke said. “Did you get a chance to talk to any of the kids?”
Lydia lifted her shoulder. “They were still in school. We stopped by before lunch.”
“Wait, what? How can you possibly redesign a building like the youth center without talking to the people who actually use the space?”
Lydia’s brows rose. “That’s a good point. Usually, if we’re working with a client, we get a basic brief about who they are and their vision. But with this... We kind of just had the volunteer coordinator show us around. She was great though. Very passionate.”
That wasn’t good enough. Walking through the center while it was empty was a completely different experience than seeing it in action. “You should meet me at the center sometime.”
Lydia perked up, some of her postrun exhaustion falling away. “Really?”
“Absolutely.” It might only be for a competition, but the center was important to him. If architects from all over the city were going to be vying to create the winning design, he wanted at least one person to truly have a sense of what the center represented. “I’ll give you a tour. A proper one this time. And I’ll introduce you to some of the kids who actually use the center on a regular basis.”
Lydia smiled. “I’d love that.”
“Great,” Luke said, touched by her enthusiasm but not at all surprised. From the moment he’d found her staring at the ceiling, Lydia had always struck him as the type of person willing to gain a little bit of perspective, and he was eager to show her his world. “We’ll set up a time between our work schedules and training.”
“Totally fine if you want to book it during training,” Lydia said. “Perhaps one of my solo workout days.”
“Nice try,” Luke said, catching on to her plan. “You’re doing the burpees.”
Five
Lydia
“When are you going to let me take you to Athleta so you can get some proper activewear?” Ashley asked.
“Why?” Lydia adjusted the phone against her ear as she made her way to the subway after work. “Are you getting tired of me asking to borrow things?”
“I just think with all the running you could do with filling out your wardrobe a little.”
“All I need is one good sports bra to stop my boobs from smacking me in the face when Luke tries to kill me with burpees.”
“Is training really that bad?”
“No,” she admitted. After some online perusing, she’d worried about things like shin splints and runner’s knee and plantar fasciitis, but shockingly—to her most of all—beyond the expected sore muscles, she was actually feeling okay since she’d started running. “Luke did a good job with my training plan. It’s got a balance of running and rest and cross-training.”
“Who are you? And what have you done with my sister?”
“Right?” Lydia laughed. “Guess that’s what I’m paying him for, but I still appreciate being able to walk into work without hobbling after a run.”
“Maybe you’re just a natural-born runner.”
“Yeah, I don’t think so. I’m more of the sit-down-at-a-bench-and-draw type.” A pleasant buzz filled her chest as the memory of her and Jack at the youth center swept through her. She’d relayed the entire interaction to Ashley in explicit detail the moment she’d gotten off work that day.
“You can’t still be blushing over the Jack thing,” Ashley said after a moment of silence, probably sensing what Lydia was thinking about.
“It wasn’t just a thing. We were definitely having a moment.”
“More of a moment than when you crashed into Luke and were so dazzled by his presence that you told him he took your breath away?”
