“I just moved to Nashville in January. I’m from New York.”

I’ve never driven that far north before. “Wow, that’s a big move.”

“My law firm transferred me down here for a major case.”

“And you have time to run?”

She glances over for a sec, then averts her eyes. “I don’t really know anybody except people at work. I needed to get back in shape and I wanted a fun way to meet people, so here I am.” She wipes sweat off her forehead. “But it’s getting harder and harder to make the time for these long runs. Last weekend, I was so pooped after that ten-miler that I just went home and watched TV the rest of the day. I didn’t do any work. I better be careful or I’ll lose my case.”

“Running d-does take up a lot of time.”

“You know what the worst part was, Annie? I was watching that movie Sweet Home Alabama on TNT. The one with Reese Witherspoon? And I was so tired, I bawled like a baby when Reese gets back together with her sexy ex-husband.”

I smile at Liza. I like her personality, and her rambling keeps me nice and distracted.

She goes on, “I guess the movie got to me—the whole realizing-who-your-true-love-is stuff and all that.” Liza suddenly goes really quiet, and I get the feeling she has more to say. “The training is good. I’m finding that it’s healthy for me to get away from the office. It clears my thoughts.”

“Running does that for me too.”

Liza chatters on about the case her law firm transferred her for. It’s a huge sexual harassment lawsuit filed by a bunch of women at a nationwide communications company.

“I can’t discuss the case specifically,” she starts, “but let me tell you, Annie, I never thought I’d have to use the word penis so much.”

She says it matter-of-factly, and it occurs to me that she wouldn’t be telling me about her job unless she thought I was mature enough to hear it. I smile.

“Hello,” a voice says. I look over my shoulder to find Andrew, this tall, middle-aged guy on our team. Instead of wearing a fanny pack, like Liza, or a CamelBak, like me, he carries a thick, plastic water bottle in his hand. He falls into step beside us.

“You’re gonna get in trouble with Matt for wearing those headphones,” I tease.

“Why are all you ladies so into him? Matt says this, Matt says that,” Andrew jokes.

“Um, have you seen him?” Liza asks.

“He’s not my type,” Andrew says. “I’m into short, curly-haired brunettes.”

God, is he hitting on her right in front of me? She raises her eyebrows at me, and I shrug. He’s okay looking, I guess, for somebody who could be my dad.

Matt jogs up next to us. Andrew yanks his headphones out, hides them under his shirt, and Matt smirks and shakes his head.

“Annie, let’s finish your run together,” Matt says. “We need to talk.”

I gasp. Does he know I hooked up with Jeremiah last week? My body tenses.

“You have to breathe while you’re running or you’ll pass out,” he says.

I remember to breathe.

“C’mon, Annie,” Matt says. “Let’s do some speed bursts. They’ll make you stronger.” He gestures for me to pass Liza and Andrew, and then he shoots off like a bottle rocket. “Let’s go!” he calls, and I sprint after him.

He makes me run at full speed for thirty seconds. Goddamn it makes my legs burn. I’m panting when he lets me return to a jog.

“Control your breathing,” he says.

In through the nose, out through the mouth. Breathe. Breathe.

“Good,” he says. “Now let’s jog for a bit and then we’ll do some more bursts.”

I give him my I’m-totally-freaked-out face.

“You can do this, Annie. I’m pushing you because I know you can do it.”

After that speed-burst thing, the jogging is easier. But I can’t do another one of those bursts. It hurt!

“Relax your arms and shoulders,” he says, shuffling beside me. “Let that stress go. It’s holding you back.”

I roll my shoulders and shake out my arms.

“So I wanted to talk to you—”

And my arms and shoulders tense right back up.

“This week, you need to do speed bursts every day when you run. And I want you to start adding more peanut butter and eggs to your diet. You’re getting too skinny and you need to eat more as we start doing longer and longer runs.”

Is this what he wanted to talk about? Peanut butter and eggs?!