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By the time I'd dropped Axel off at school, ignoring the pointed glare of the Principal with a friendly wave and overly bright smile that conveyed just how little she bothered me, I was almost late for the studio. I had to run across the street to make it in time, barely stashing my things in the back before I had to go open the front door for students to trickle in. My regulars greeted me with happy smiles, congratulating me on my marriage that the other instructors must have filled them in on as a justification for my prolonged absence. I wondered if they'd known I was getting married before I did, and that made me giggle where it might have pissed me off at one point.
It seemed so absurd, it just wasn't possible not to laugh.
"Excuse me?" A woman I didn't recognize asked, stepping up beside me at the front of the room where I waited for the rest of the class to filter in before we started at eight. "Are you Calla?"
I spun to face her. She wore her sable hair in a nondescript bun, her fresh face free of makeup as if she wanted nothing more than to fade into the background. Much like me. "That's me," I said with a smile.
"I joined while you were out for your wedding," she said. "Congratulations! I just wanted to introduce myself." She turned to walk away, and I fought the urge to giggle at how nervous she must have been to walk away after an introduction she hadn't made.
"What was your name?" I asked.
She spun back, her cheeks turning pink in her embarrassment. "Oh God, I'm an idiot. I'm so sorry!" She brought a hand up to her mouth, hiding it as she giggled at herself. "I'm Ness."
"It's nice to meet you," I said in response. "I hope my class doesn't disappoint. I have to admit, I'm a little out of practice compared to how I normally am, so I hope you'll cut me a little slack."
"Of course. That's understandable. I can't imagine newlyweds have much time for yoga. Of all the more fun kinds of workouts there are to be done." She blushed again. "Oh God, that was inappropriate. I'm so sorry," she reached out, touching my arm so delicately that I couldn't help but laugh with her.
"It's fine. It's the truth," I admitted with a roll of the eyes.
"Ugh, my boyfriend too. It's the worst and the best all at the same time, I swear. Anyway, thank you for forgiving my horrible faux pas. I'll let you get to teaching the class before I make a complete fool of myself again." She shook her head, as if she couldn't quite believe how many times she'd humiliated herself in a short period of time. Something about her made me just want to reach out and hug her, to tell her it was okay to be a goofball or to say things that might make other people uncomfortable.
She reminded me of a less confident Sadie in a lot of ways, like she had no filter but couldn't quite accept that about herself. She was young, and she would get there, eventually. "It was wonderful to meet you Ness. I hope you enjoy my class." I smiled as she walked to where she'd already laid out a mat, taking a space next to a man who had to be a new student too, since I didn't recognize him. Men weren't common in my classes, so I would have remembered him if he'd been there before.
He turned to smile at me, but his eyes went to where Dante lingered in the doorway to the backroom. He'd barely spoken as he brought me to the studio, lurking behind me like the creep he was as I attempted to ignore him. As much as I liked Dante, being out and about was an entirely different experience than it was when he'd simply been spending time with us at the house.
I didn't want to make him feel weird, but I also didn't want my students to feel awkward either.
I strode over to him. "Once class starts, you can wait in the back room. I'll leave the door open so you can hear, but I don't want them to feel uncomfortable with someone watching them who isn't participating," I said, and he looked hesitant for a moment as he glanced back to the room behind him. "If you sit at that table, you should be able to monitor me without them being able to see you."
That seemed to appease him, and he nodded his assent with a smile. "Sure thing, Mrs. Fiore."
"Don't make me stab you. It tends to freak
out my students." I glared as I turned and went for my mat. When I took my place at the edge, I gave myself a minute to take a deep, soothing breath before I exhaled out and smiled at the students watching me and working to center themselves despite whatever stresses worked through their brains.
It took effort. Every time. But I cleared my mind of all the noise.
And then I taught.
Forty-Two
Ryker
Following Tiernan was usually such a mindless activity that it didn't matter where my brain was. The man was so predictable it wasn't funny. Home with his side piece more often than not, though he sometimes mixed it up by bringing other women to his home a couple nights a week.
He lived the life of a man who believed variety was the spice of life.
It was his mentality, and he didn't seem to care if his woman knew it. Normally I'd have felt bad for the way he treated her, but she seemed to be aware of his promiscuous activities and infidelity, and, considering he was publicly engaged to another woman, I couldn't muster up my sympathy.
After he left home, he generally went to see Liam and Aoife a couple times a week. The rest, he went straight to Murphy's to conduct his loan shark business. There were no moves or even remote mentions of the trafficking operation from what I could tell, but I spent most of that day more distracted than normal.
Calla was at work. She was out of the house without me, and it had driven me mad with worry all day long. By the time I got home after picking Axel up from school, finally with permission from Calla, all I wanted to do was curl up with my family and relax. So we did just that, ordering in Chinese food and vegging out in front of the television. It wasn't something we did often, as Calla preferred to be actively involved with the kids, but from the way she rubbed at her neck and shoulders all evening, she genuinely felt sore from the way she'd suddenly thrust herself back into the physically demanding nature of her longer days. I knew she'd had two of her more advanced sessions today, on top of the long hours since she covered for the instructor who had taken over her classes in her absence to make up for her sudden time off.
When she finally finished reading Ines her story, she tucked her in even though I could see it took more energy than she had. Reaching into my Princess's bed wasn't always a simple task for me given my size, but Calla usually had no trouble. "Goodnight, Princess," I murmured, squeezing my way into the nook that her bed frame created and pressing a kiss to her forehead. "Dream of all the unicorns," I whispered, and she murmured in her half-asleep state with her arms wrapped tight around her stuffed wolf.
Calla closed the door behind us as we made our way into Axel's room. Our boy was freshly showered, waiting in bed with one of his books on his lap. Calla perched her ass on his bed next to him, snuggling in next to her son as she opened the book and started reading. Watching her read to the kids was one of my favorite moments of the day. There had been a time when I'd been forced to experience it through the window where I couldn't hear the delicate cadence of Calla's sweet, exuberant voice as she detailed the characters in the stories and tried to put on voices where appropriate. I'd never put cameras inside the kids' bedrooms for obvious reasons, so I'd never experienced hearing story time until the first night after I moved them in with me.
By the time Calla finished the story, Axel too was half-asleep. They were both their mother's children, sleep coming easily and quickly to them in a way I'd probably never understand. Above all else, I was happy they had that.
