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“How’s she doing?” I kept my voice low.
He just shook his head.
“If you feel dizzy, go wait outside. I’m not going to let anything happen to her.”
Ellis looked unimpressed as he inspected my pink tank top and pink-and-white camouflage capris tights. “I think I can handle it.”
I gave him a dirty look that I didn’t mean in any way, shape, or form. I loved Wes’s brother—he’d been kind to me from the first moment I met him, even though Wes was seriously injured while protecting me. “Fine,” I huffed, heading back to my mat.
Ellis didn’t budge.
Fiona eyed him. “He’s stubborn.”
“Stubborn’s probably good.” I sighed. “Stubborn will protect you.”
I wanted to talk more, but the instructor came in, and the room fell silent. Talking during yoga was a no-no, as were cell phones. Fiona and I followed instructions, gamely moving through the poses as the room grew hotter. We did sun salutations, upward-facing dogs, downward-facing dogs, forward folds, and halfway lifts.
By the time we’d warmed up and gotten to Warrior One, sweat poured off me.
I glanced at Fiona. Not only was she sweating, tears were coursing down her face.
“Are you all right?” I whispered.
“Yes.” She quickly wiped her eyes.
Throughout the rest of the class, tears streamed down her face. I wasn’t the only one to notice—the instructor came over, a kind, insanely fit woman in her fifties who looked like she could bench press me. The teacher whispered, “Are you okay?”
Fiona nodded. “I just lost my husband.”
“The tears are a release—as you release the physical tension, you release the emotional tension.” The instructor patted Fiona on the shoulder. “Good work.”
I thought I heard Ellis snort from his post on the wall.
I ignored him and prayed Fiona did, too.
After class ended, I cleaned my mat and checked on Fiona.
“That was intense. I still need a drink.” She looked down at herself. Her shirt was drenched and sticking to her skin. “I guess I need to shower?”
“There’s a dive bar down the street,” I offered. “If we put our sweatshirts on and sit far away from everyone else, maybe no one can smell us.”
Fiona smiled. It was the first smile I’d seen from her in a long time. “Then let’s go, but quick. I need to get home to Katie and Quinn—I was at the office before this. It’s the longest I’ve been gone.”
“Of course.”
Ellis followed us out, and I noticed there was a sheen of sweat on his forehead. “What did you think of the class?”
He rolled his eyes, which told me plenty.
Ellis and Brian didn’t sit with us at the table we selected in the dark bar—they stood near the door, alert and watching the few patrons’ every move.
“How are the girls doing?” I asked.
Fiona considered her vodka and soda. “They love having my mom at the house. They asked her to move in with us.”
“Aw, that’s sweet.”
“Except that she said yes, and I haven’t lived with my mom since I was eighteen.” Fiona poked the straw into her glass, swirling the ice around. “It’ll be nice, I guess. To have someone home. Jim usually got out of work before me…”
