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I sigh heavily when they slide right down my hips onto the tile floor. I yank them back up and roll the waistband twice so they’ll stay up. Glancing in the mirror, I look lean and maybe a little pale since my skin rarely sees the light of day.

Smoothing my v-neck tee down, I decide I look decent enough and leave the bathroom. As soon as I step out into the main living area again, Brooks and Drew look me over. Brooks bursts out laughing and Drew pushes him.

“You don’t have any tennis shoes?” Drew asks over Brooks’ laughter.

I wrinkle my nose. “I purchased hiking boots the other day, but no tennis shoes.”

Brooks walks up to me, still chuckling, and lifts my shirt. “Oh my gosh. You had to roll the waist band?”

“Shut up!” I shove his hands away and pull my shirt back into place.

Sophie looks at me sympathetically. “Don’t let Brooks get to you. It’s not your fault my husband is huge.”

I look over at Drew, who is preening at her compliment. Wait, is he doing a Superman pose? What a weirdo.

“Can we please get this over with?” I ask before walking toward the door in the kitchen that leads to the garage.

As soon as I turn my back to the room, I hear Sophie reprimand Brooks and tell him to be nice to me. I withhold a laugh and continue walking until I’m in the garage. Drew and Brooks follow closely behind me.

Drew’s three-car garage is large enough to store his precious Bronco, my sister’s SUV, and one area completely dedicated to his gym. He’s lined one wall with mirrors and the floor is covered in thick, black mats. On top of the mats there’s a squat rack, a few benches, a long shelf for dumbbells, some kind of yellow and black contraption—I think he referred to it as a TRX band before—and some other machines that sort of look like black, metal praying mantises.

“Alright,” Drew says before clapping once and then rubbing his palms together. “Let’s get to work.”

Brooks swaggers toward the weight rack and picks up a tiny pink dumbbell. It’s obviously the smallest weight, as well as the only pink one. He hands it to me.

“Let’s start you off with this one.”

I glare at him. “Funny.”

“Soph told you to be nice.” Drew grabs the weight and sets it back on the weight rack. “Let’s start with lunges, and then we’ll do squats. You’ll be using those gams while hiking, so we’ll focus on that.” He points to my legs, which compared to Drew’s muscled calves look more like sticks than gams. “Grab the heaviest weights you can manage, and you can lower as you need to for each set.”

I grab a fifteen pound weight in each hand and test their weight with a lunge. These feel good enough. I don’t want to be so sore tomorrow that I can barely function. Drew grabs the fifty-pound weights and Brooks takes the forties.

Show-offs. At least I know what a bifurcated derivative is.

After completing our first set of lunges, Drew and Brooks both lose their shirts. Sophie brings out three glasses of ice water and Drew sneaks in a kiss. She pretends to be disgusted by how sweaty he is and I pretend to be annoyed by their public display of affection… but honestly, it’s nice to see my sister so happy.

Brooks' phone rings in the middle of our second set. He grabs it out of his back pocket and smiles before answering. “Hey, Molls.”

Molly is Brooks’ best friend; they met at M.I.T. And now they co-own a medical supply company that they started after college. They specialize in plastic surgery, because of course Brooks would focus his skills on making people look better.

“They want to rush the order?” Brooks asks, his eyebrows drawing together briefly.

The muffled sound of Molly’s reply goes on for a minute. I notice that Brooks' demeanor changes while he’s on the phone. He’s more serious, and even stands up a little straighter.

Brooks keeps his work life separate from his personal one. I never see him in work mode, but it makes me like him just a little bit more seeing him like this.

Brooks nods and then speaks into his phone. “Yeah, bring the contract by and I’ll sign it real quick. I’ll text you my brother-in-law’s address.” He smiles as she responds and then ends the call.

“Who are you giving my address to?” Drew asks in an annoyed tone.

Brooks grimaces. “Sorry, my business partner, Molly, is going to stop by so I can sign a contract real quick. She lives in this neighborhood.”

Drew arches a brow. “You know someone in my neighborhood and you’ve never mentioned it before?”

He shrugs. “It never came up.” His neck and face are growing more pink by the second.

I’ve always wondered if Brooks held a secret flame for his friend, but now my curiosity is piqued even more.