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“That’s brilliant.” Lyric followed his lead, her feet keeping time with his. “Good thinking.”
“They already got back to me.” He did his best to block out the scent of her perfume or whatever it was that made her smell so delicious. “Franco is interested, so we’ll do an interview on Wednesday.”
“Perfect.” Lyric’s tense shoulders seemed to relax. “I can’t tell you how much I appreciate this.” Her gaze held his long enough to stir a craving in him. He spun her real quick to get his head back together. He couldn’t look into her eyes for too long or he’d stumble.
“Happy to help,” he said when they’d resumed their two-step. “So… how’re things at the clinic?” Small talk was always a safe bet.
“Good. Very busy.” The words ended in an abrupt, awkward silence. “And the rec center project,” Lyric murmured after a few beats. “How’s that all coming?”
“It’s moving along.” He wouldn’t bore her with the details. “We’re a little behind schedule, but I think now that we’ve moved to the interior, we’ll get back on track.”They had to get it back on track, since the grand opening was slated for the Rodeo Days weekend.
The song ended—finally—and they drifted back to their seats at the bar. “Can I order you a drink?” Thatch asked, but she didn’t seem to hear him. Her eyes were trained on something across the room.
“That’s Elina,” Lyric half whispered. “Right over there. With Franco.”
He turned his head, scanning the tables to their left until he saw the teenagers sitting across from each other. The girl with dark hair seemed to be scowling.
“Don’t stare.” Lyric nudged him. “They can’t know we’re watching them.”
She sure seemed to be staring a lot, but he didn’t argue. “You don’t think Elina will find it suspicious that one of your friends asked Franco if he wanted an internship out of the blue?” Everyone in town knew the six of them hung out all the time. In his opinion, the whole arrangement with Franco hadsurveillance opwritten all over it, but Thatch had also been trained in the art of skepticism.
“Hopefully, she’ll think it’s a coincidence,” Lyric muttered, still looking away from him. “All I want to do is see them together a few times. I’ll know if something’s off.”
Thatch noted the twitch in her jaw. “How will you know?” He hadn’t meant for his voice to soften so much, but her surety had to come from somewhere. In his view, the deepest convictions were born out of experience.
“Do you see how he’s looking at her?” Lyric asked, disregarding his question. “He looks angry.”
Thatch snuck a peek at the couple again and then focused on her before she could accuse him of staring. “They both look a little angry to me.” Maybeangrywasn’tthe right word. “I’d call them angsty.” He’d had his angsty moments as a teenager, that was for sure.
“I wish we could get closer so we could hear what they’re talking about.” Lyric swiveled her barstool to face him. “Maybe we could have a party and invite them to come.”
“Not sure teenagers would want to hang with a bunch of thirty-year-olds.” At least he wouldn’t have wanted to at that age. “But, hey, we could always pretend to be a couple and then follow them on dates.”
He’d meant the words as a joke but Lyric’s spine straightened. “That’s a bad idea.” A flush crept up her neck. “I mean, no. I don’t think that would work. Nope. We can’t pretend to be a couple.”
“I know.” Talk about playing with fire. Thatch smirked at her. “Relax. It was a joke. We’ll figure out something else.” Because he already knew that pretending to date Lyric when he had real feelings for her would be worse than all the torture he’d been trained to withstand.
CHAPTER FOUR
All right, ladies. Let’s bring it into a warrior one pose.” Lyric lunged into her right leg, bending the knee while straightening her left leg and lifting both arms up toward the ceiling.
Groans chorused through the room, competing with the percussive music coming through the speaker.
“My leg is about to give out,” Skye complained.
“This has been so hard.” Cheyenne stood upright. “My muscles are tired.”
“Okay.” Lyric had thought she could get one more challenge in tonight, but from the sound of things, they would revolt if she made them finish the whole flow. “Let’s sit in our butterfly pose instead.” Tonight she had pushed them a lot more than she had during the first session—balancing the flow between some stretching and strength training. But she remembered being new to the practice, too, and if you weren’t used to holding poses, the muscles could fatigue easily.
Uttering a collective sigh of relief, the girls sat on their mats, bringing the soles of their feet together.
“This might be my favorite pose.” Elina finally spoke up. Lyric had been observing the girl. She didn’t talk much compared with the others. But she didn’t seem shy as much as she seemed… cautious. That would likely make it difficult to get to know her.
“I’d rather stretch than do lunges,” Tallie mumbled.
Warrior one wasn’t exactly alunge, but Lyric let the comment go. “You all did great tonight.” She’d led them through a full beginner’s flow, and while they’d moaned and groaned some, they’d also chatted and giggled and tried. That was what mattered. Physical exercise should be fun—that was the only way they’d make it a lifelong practice.
“Well, I need to get going.” Elina hopped up. “Franco will be here any minute.” She rolled up her mat and paused on her way past Lyric. “Hey, did you ask your boyfriend to give Franco a job?”
