Chapter Seven #2
Sloan started to beg off, and then stopped.
The truth was, she’d enjoyed the class yesterday, but she had felt more than a little lost going from position to position.
She opened the door a little wider. “I would love to do that. What is the cost of the classes, though? I haven’t gotten my first paycheck and—”
“First session is on me.” Jessica bounced on her toes. “After that, it’s twenty-five for an hour, or one hundred fifty for a month’s worth of a couple times a week. We can work it out if that’s what you decide you want to do.”
Purchasing a month’s worth of anything seemed like a large commitment right now—a declaration that this was her final settling place. Sloan pulled at the hem of her shirt. And getting a job doesn’t? She finally looked up. “When are you free?”
“Right now, in fact.” Jessica’s grin widened. “I’m being pushy. Sorry again for that. I’m just excited to meet some fresh blood in this place—which goes doubly because you’re my age instead of twice that.”
She had noticed that most of the residents skewed to their forties and beyond. “I just need a few minutes to change.”
“Go for it.” Jessica danced back with a little twirl. “I’ll meet you on the beach.”
Sloan wasted no time. She dug out a pair of yoga capris and, after some consideration, pulled on a tank top over a sports bra. She didn’t make a habit of showing much skin, but the less fabric to slide around and suffocate her the better. She’d learned that the hard way yesterday.
Had it only been yesterday? It seemed like a lifetime ago.
She couldn’t stop herself from shooting a glance at Jude’s house as she stepped onto her back porch, but the door was closed and the shutters drawn. If she thought too hard about it, she might half convince herself that last night never happened.
It happened. He took everything you offered and walked away .
It shouldn’t matter. She was an adult. She wasn’t young or foolish enough to think that sex meant anything other than a potential pair of mutually satisfying orgasms. Between Cillian and Carrigan, she’d learned that lesson through observation.
The pang in her chest hit again, sharper than it had a right to be.
Carrigan . She missed a step and almost stumbled.
It was easier not to think of her sister out here.
Carrigan would hate this place, would feel confined by the lack of anything resembling city life, by the small population, by the thought of a life of settling down. She wouldn’t understand.
Devlin would have .
It doesn’t matter what Devlin would have understood. Devlin is dead .
“Over here.”
Jessica’s voice brought her out of her spiral, and not a moment too soon. She couldn’t manage a smile as she approached where the other woman had dropped her water bottle onto the sand, but at least this was one potential relationship uncomplicated by a past that went back…Well, her entire life.
She pulled her hair back into a ponytail that wasn’t nearly as bouncy as the other woman’s, and eyed the ground. “We had mats yesterday.”
“The older folk find it comforting.” Jessica shrugged. “Honestly, it’s better to have a connection to the earth. It grounds you, makes you feel like a small cog in a very large system.”
Though the words sounded suspiciously like some sort of hippie dogma, she couldn’t deny the attractiveness of the vision Jessica painted. So she nodded. “Where do we begin?”
The next hour passed in a blur. It started with the breathing technique she’d learned previously, which was relaxing in and of itself.
Jessica turned out to be incredibly helpful once they began going through the poses.
She demonstrated and then helped Sloan adjust to the correct form before moving on.
Between the steady whisper of the waves coming in and the clear air and the slow burn of her muscles, her thoughts emptied out of her head one by one, until there was only blessed silence in their wake.
At the end of the session, they spent ten minutes lying flat on their backs and just being.
Jessica stretched and sat up. “You did amazing. How do you feel?”
“Good.” And, for the first time in a very long time, it was the truth. She could feel all her worries and anxieties waiting to crowd back in, but for the moment they felt curiously distant. “Thank you. I didn’t realize how much I needed that until just now.”
“It’s addicting like whoa.” Jessica tipped her head back and closed her eyes. “Runners have their high, but yogis have serenity like no others. It’s worth its weight in gold in today’s world.”
Sloan couldn’t argue that. “I’ll be at the class tomorrow.”
“Great! I keep things pretty steady there, but you’ll be moving on to more advanced moves before you know it.” Her face lit up. “Just wait until we get to inversions. They’re a trip.”
“I look forward to it.”
Jessica’s expression changed, sharpening with curiosity. “Holy crap. Don’t look now, but our resident brooding writer is staring at you like he wants to eat you alive.”
Naturally, she looked. She couldn’t help it.
Sure enough, Jude stood on his porch, a beer dangling from his fingers, and even across the distance, she could read his hunger for her. Could feel her body already responding despite the fury she still felt over how he’d walked out last night.
He wanted her? Well, that’s just too bad.
She turned back to Jessica, gathered her newly found courage around her. “Is there a place around here to get a drink?” One night didn’t make her much of a drinker, but it seemed like a big deal to ask the other woman to a meal.
Jessica slanted her a look. “Are you sure? If he was looking at me like that, I’d already be in his bed.”
“He can wait.” She couldn’t believe she’d said the words, couldn’t believe she was going to ignore the way her body called to him, even after the single time together, but apparently she had some of that pride that seemed to run through the O’Malleys like bedrock.
Jude had hurt her last night when he left, intentionally or no.
And his bold words didn’t hold up to the light of day.
Or that was what she told herself as she ignored his silent command to come to him, and smiled at Jessica. “So what do you say?”
Jessica’s green eyes twinkled. “I say that you’re a woman I want to get to know better. Let’s do it.”