14. Nora #2
Flynn had fallen for her so hard, my poor brother had scared himself. I trusted no one more than Daphne to protect his heart the way she did. Her gaze contained a tender gravity, and I knew she would understand.
“Flynn and I had an argument. It might’ve been my fault,” I mumbled.
She blinked, her lips curling very slightly in a smile.
“Or perhaps it was his fault. He does have that kind of—” Lifting her chin off her hands, she gave an airy wave.
“You know, like a brother-knows-best kind of vibe. With me, it’s man-knows-best, and it can be annoying.
Did you want to slap him? Happens to me now and then. Although I would never do that.”
A laugh rustled in my throat, and I leaned back against the wall, straightening my legs and rolling my ankles in circles. “I know you wouldn’t. He does know best, or he likes to think so. I didn’t appreciate him talking with Gabriel about us.”
“Ah,” she said with a sage nod. “I advised him against that. He said he felt it was necessary because he didn’t want Gabriel to be stupid.”
“Stupid?”
“Yeah, by breaking your heart again. If he did that, Flynn would be caught in the middle. He doesn’t want to make a choice between you and one of his best friends,” Daphne said matter-of-factly.
She straightened her legs as well and removed an elastic hairband from her wrist. She continued talking while she slipped her fingers through her hair and twisted it into a ponytail.
“Flynn loves you, and he’s worried that you and Gabriel sort of share similar baggage. ”
I groaned and leaned my head against the wall behind me. “Great. So he’s talked to you about this too?”
She divided the ponytail and gave it a tug to tighten it. Dropping her hands, she looked at me again. “Of course. He tells me everything. He does have enough sense to know I won’t tell him everything you tell me, though.”
Shifting close to her, I wrapped my arm around her shoulder and gave her a squeeze before leaning back again. “You’re the best almost-sister-in-law I could have.”
Her cheeks went a little pink. “Same.”
“How about we discuss when you and Flynn are actually going to get married?” I teased lightly.
Daphne’s cheeks flushed even pinker. “I don’t know. I haven’t had time to plan it.”
“Well, we need to get to planning for Cammi and Elias.”
“Oh, I know,” she said slowly. “I am so happy for them.”
“Elias is so much more mellow these days,” I commented.
“Regular sex will do that,” Daphne offered frankly just as the door to the yoga room opened.
Gemma glanced down at us, her lips twitching with a smile. “Agreed.”
We burst into laughter as we stood. We waited while the guests left the room and then walked in. I put my shoes away in one of the little cubbies Cat had set up. We all had our own yoga mats now.
Gemma’s honey-gold curls glinted under the late afternoon sunlight falling through the front windows. The days were getting shorter as we moved into autumn, but we still had sunshine in the evening for now.
“How many staff do you think will be here tonight?” Gemma asked as Daphne and I took our favorite spots off to one side in the front.
“Almost everyone showed up last week. Will Diego be here?” I asked.
Gemma shrugged. “I think so.”
Daphne laughed at my side. She was bent at the waist, her hands resting on the floor as she stretched her back, so her voice was muffled as she spoke. “Of course, he’ll be here. Then he’ll go home with Gemma. We’re gonna have to find another person to take his room.”
“Do you think Harley will stay?” I asked as Daphne straightened. I was referring to Diego’s little sister, Harley, who’d come to stay in the staff house a few months ago and had extended her stay several times since.
Daphne shrugged. “You know as much as me. Of course, she’s welcome to stay as long as she’d like. She’s been helping out with the website and everything.”
“I know. She’s made it look great. What do you know?” I asked, looking at Gemma.
Diego, one of the pilots here, had recently fallen for Gemma. “I’m not sure either. I don’t think Harley really has any plans, and her work is all online, so it works out for her to stay here.”
“Is she falling for someone here?” Daphne asked, looking around the room.
Gemma snorted a laugh. “I don’t know.”
As if conjured by our conversation, Diego came strolling through the door with Harley right behind him. He crossed straight to Gemma, stopping in front of her and running his hands lightly from her shoulders down to her elbows as he leaned down and pressed a kiss on her temple.
It felt as if we were interrupting a suddenly intimate moment. Harley called over, “Cut the PDA, y’all.”
Diego stepped back and cast a lingering smile at Gemma. The warmth and possessiveness in his eyes sent a ping through my chest. Lately, it seemed I was watching all of my friends fall in love and wishing I could have something like it.
Diego crossed the room to fetch his yoga mat and put his shoes in a cubby while Harley walked briskly over to unroll her mat beside Daphne.
She smiled over at us. “Don’t get me wrong, I love that my brother’s in love.
But really. Some of us—” She cut her words off abruptly when Diego stopped beside her.
“Some of us, what?” he prompted as he unrolled his yoga mat.
“Nothing,” Harley replied airily.
I felt a prickle on the back of my neck that raced down my spine, and I knew Gabriel had arrived. Great, just great. I’d come to yoga class to relax, and now I would be a ball of tension because he was here.
Too late, I realized there was room for someone on my other side. In a matter of seconds, he was there.
“Hey, Nora.” His voice was low, and even though others were around, it felt as if we were alone.
His tone was warm and intimate, sending butterflies into flight in my belly and tingles chasing through my body.
I’d had that unsettling and confusing reaction to him ever since we’d given in to the chemistry that sparked between us.
I was so easily turned on by him, my nerves firing and sending signals of passion and need through me. It wasn’t solely that, though. My heart felt a visceral tug toward him.