Chapter 11
ELEVEN
The yoga class was only an hour long. Even if she wound up hating it, she could suck it up for an hour.
At least it wasn’t hot yoga. Maddy didn’t think she could handle that. Not when the thought of it sent her right back into that hellish room straight out of her darkest nightmares.
“So what’s the procedure here?” she asked as she and Xanthe hurried up the steps to the yoga studio. They were cutting it close.
“Just grab a mat from the cupboard on the left, and we’ll pick a spot on the floor,” Xanthe said, her long, lean body clad in yoga pants, a sports top, and a form-fitting jacket. Her personal mat was rolled up and tucked into the bag looped over her shoulder.
The studio was more than half full when they walked in. Everyone else was already in place. Bronwyn and Willow waved and gave them giant grins from where they sat on their mats on the far side of the room. Maddy hurried to the cupboard, took out a mat, and spread it out near the others.
“We thought you guys weren’t gonna make it,” Willow said, long brown hair pulled up into an artfully messy bun at the back of her head.
“Sorry, work stuff,” Xanthe answered.
Maddy glanced around. There were eleven women in here.
The instructor stepped to the front of the room, a twenty-something lady with red hair pulled back in a French braid whom Maddy had seen in town. “Namaste, everyone.” She put her palms together and bowed slightly to the class.
“Namaste,” everyone murmured back.
“I see several new faces amongst our regular crew. Welcome. Is this anyone’s first time doing yoga?”
Maddy glanced around, reluctantly put her hand up when she spotted two other ladies doing it, plus Bronwyn.
“Fantastic. Don’t worry. This class is a blend of strengthening and relaxation, so you’ll catch on fast. The whole point is to shut out the rest of the world and turn inward.
Connect with your body, your breath. If anything hurts or feels too hard, back off and work to your comfort level.
Listen to your body and focus on your breathing. ”
There was a lot of stuff about breathing apparently. She’d never realized. Might be helpful.
The instructor gave them a big smile. “Let’s get started.”
She walked over to dim the lights. Little candles flickered to life around the room. Maddy’s entire body sighed in relief.
Okay, now we’re talkin’. She liked the class more already.
And when soft music started a moment later, Maddy smiled. It wasn’t Celtic, but still nice and sounded ancient. Soothing. That and the dim lighting were exactly what she needed.
They started off by sitting cross-legged with the backs of their hands balanced on their knees, closed their eyes and did some breathing exercises. Maddy’s anxiety levels had dropped to zero before they did the first pose. Then Lachlan’s face popped into her mind before she could stop it.
The resulting rush of excitement ruined her concentration. She drew another breath and cleared her mind.
Some of the exercises were harder than they looked. Xanthe was clearly advanced, using foam blocks and other stuff to increase the difficulty level. Maddy found just maintaining her balance in some of the poses made the muscles in her legs and butt quiver and burn.
That pretty music kept flowing throughout the class, and before she knew it, they were winding down flat on their backs and doing more breathing exercises while rain pattered on the roof.
By the time the teacher turned up the lights a bit, Maddy didn’t want to move.
She was happy to stay stretched out here, enjoying the zen vibe and the rare quiet in her brain.
She opened her eyes slowly, blinked in the dim lighting as she took stock. To her surprise, she realized most of the tabs that were perpetually open in her brain were closed.
Wow. There might be something to this whole yoga thing after all.
Beside her, Xanthe rolled her head to the side to look at her. “Well? What did you think?”
She thought about it for a second. “I don’t know if I’ve ever felt this relaxed in public before.” And without headphones to drown out everything around her. She’d never thought that would be possible.
“See? Told you.” Xanthe looked at Bronwyn and Willow. “What about you two?”
“Just leave me here,” Bronwyn murmured, eyes still closed, backs of her hands flat on the mat. She looked like she was getting ready to spend the night there. “Maybe drape a blanket over me on the way out. That’d be nice.”
Willow chuckled as she slowly sat up. “Not happening. You have to come home with me to walk Rufus in the pouring rain now.”
Bronwyn wrinkled her nose. “Holy buzz kill.” She sat up with a sigh and glanced around. Smiled at the two other women nearby who were new to class. “Did you like it?”
“More than I thought I would. I’m Carla, by the way.” The blonde smiled at them.
“I’m Bronwyn. I’m here visiting my pal Willow.”
“I’m Xanthe.” She reached out a hand to shake with Carla.
Since Maddy was the only one who hadn’t been introduced yet, she felt obligated to follow Xanthe. “Maddy.”
“Hi,” Carla said. “Are you new here too?”
“Yes. Only been here a few weeks.” She shifted her attention to the other woman, a brunette who hadn’t said anything yet. Maddy recognized a fellow shy soul when she saw one. “What about you?” See, she could fake it and appear normal to strangers.
“Same. I’m Lindsay. Came for a holiday and decided I really like it here. Not ready to go back to the real world yet.”
“I get that.” Maddy didn’t even know what the real world was anymore. Didn’t have a home of her own. But she was taking steps to change that.
“Lindsay and I met standing in line at a café yesterday,” Carla said. “We saw the poster about this class, and I made her come with me.”
“Good for you,” Bronwyn said to them both. “It’s not easy pushing out of your comfort zone and trying to meet people when you move somewhere new.”
No, it really wasn’t. Maddy still felt like an outsider, and she had Blaine, Xanthe and now Willow and Bronwyn.
“Have you met anyone else here yet?” Xanthe asked Carla and Lindsay.
“Not really. But we did see the sheriff yesterday.” Carla’s eyes danced with laughter. “I made sure we introduced ourselves.”
Bronwyn laughed. “I feel you, girl. And bonus, he’s also a nice guy, according to the people who know him best.”
“Yeah, he is,” Willow said with a nod, slanting her friend an amused look.
Maddy nodded, but in her opinion Rafe wasn’t in the same league as Lachlan.
They chatted together while they rolled up their mats and put them away. Maddy hung back as Xanthe talked to the teacher for a few minutes and the others filed out.
“Think you’ll come again?” the instructor asked Maddy.
“I think I might.” She’d enjoyed it more than she’d expected.
“I love hearing that. If you meet anyone else around town who might be interested, please invite them. I’d love to get a dedicated group together for class at least twice a week.”
“Sure.” Though Maddy didn’t expect to be hanging around town.
“So, are you glad you came?” Xanthe asked her on the way down the stairs.
“Yes. I liked it.”
“I love that you sound surprised. I think it’s great that you’re trying new things. I know that’s not easy for you.”
Maddy smiled. “Thanks.” She liked Xanthe. Admired her passion and intellect.
She was good to Blaine, too. Good for him, because while they were opposite in some ways, Xanthe was strong and motivated and knew who she was. No pretention. Authentic.
She was also a badass. Saving whales and handling terror and disaster with a strength Maddy couldn’t even hope to match.
Basically, if Blaine screwed this up, Maddy would strangle him. Though from everything she’d seen during the few weeks she’d lived in Blaine’s home, he knew exactly how lucky he was to have found Xanthe.
The rain had started in earnest at some point during class.
Maddy tugged the hood of her jacket up and kept under the overhang along the front of the building on the way to the sidewalk.
Bronwyn and Willow were talking to Carla and Lindsay beneath an overhang near the curb, huddled together out of the wet.
Maddy stood back a bit while they talked. Because asking for the keys to go sit in the car by herself and wait wasn’t socially acceptable. She’d learned that one the hard way.
Lindsay appeared next to her, hung back a bit from the others as well. She exchanged a glance with Maddy. They both did that awkward smile that acknowledged their discomfort at feeling out of place.
Maddy considered some things to say, but stayed quiet because she didn’t feel like expending the effort with a total stranger.
“Did you move here permanently, or are you just visiting?” Lindsay asked her after a minute. The others were all laughing about something, and Maddy felt like an outsider. Seemed Lindsay did too.
“Visiting right now. Haven’t made up my mind about whether to stay or not.” Then she made the effort of lobbing the conversational tennis ball back across the net. “You?”
“Same. I came here for a change of pace to try it out and see what the fit is like. I work remotely, so I thought island life might suit me if I decide to stay for a while. What do you do?”
“IT. You?” The back-and-forth small talk was exhausting.
She got the sense that Lindsay thought so too, but at least she wanted to talk about something more meaningful than the weather.
Maddy always cringed when people resorted to that.
Like, yeah, we can all see that it’s raining. Doesn’t need to be pointed out.
“Online marketing.” Lindsay shoved her hands into her jacket pocket. Another minute passed. “I don’t really know anyone here yet. Seeing as you’re pretty new here too and seem to hate forced socializing as much as I do, maybe we could get coffee sometime?”
Her initial reaction was an immediate no thank you. But she had to maintain some level of effort if she wanted to get out of this rut she’d put herself in, and she felt like Lindsay was a bit neurospicy too. “Sure, I’d like that.” Maybe?
They exchanged numbers, inputting them into their phones. Everyone finally said goodbye. Maddy and Xanthe dashed for their car up the street. It was raining hard enough that the drops splashed upward when they hit the ground.
As they neared the vehicle, Xanthe exclaimed in irritation. “Seriously? There’s no parking meter here.”
A piece of paper was folded under the passenger side windshield wiper. Maddy tugged it free, opened it.
It wasn’t a parking ticket. But her stomach grabbed when she saw the Arabic script printed beneath the English slogan at the bottom of the sodden paper.