She lifts again. Higher.
And then someone interrupts us.
“Everything okay over here?” Damien’s voice cuts through the air like a bitter fog.
Seriously, buddy?
Elena doesn’t lower her hips. She holds the position, glancing up at him upside-down.
“Oh, we’re great,” she says sweetly. “Colt’s just pushing me hard.”
Damien makes a choking noise. “Oh?”
“Yes. He’s doing great!” She says with a bubbly smile.
I force myself not to cover my face with my hands.
After a few moments, Damien finally leaves. Though I can feel a lecture coming from him again at some point.
“Elena,” I murmur, “you’re going to kill me.”
She lifts one eyebrow. “You said heavy day. So that’s what we’re doing.”
“I didn’t mean emotional damage,” I whisper.
She laughs and finishes her set strong.
When she stands, flushed and glowing, she wipes her forehead with a towel and meets my eyes.
“So,” she says softly. “What’s next?”
I swallow.
Everything.
Everything is next. Everything I’ve been trying not to feel.
But all that comes out is, “Stretching.”
She gives me a look that knows exactly what I meant underneath that one word.
We’re both breathing harder now.
Neither of us is hiding it.
The session ends before I’m ready for it, and before my brain recovers, really.
Elena wipes sweat from her neck, and it is awhole problemhow much I notice.
“Good work today,” I say.
I sound like I’ve just run up five flights of stairs.
She slings her bag over her shoulder, eyes still bright from the lifts.
“Thanks, Coach Evans.”
She says it like a problem too.
