Total pages in book: 97
Estimated words: 91266 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 456(@200wpm)___ 365(@250wpm)___ 304(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 91266 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 456(@200wpm)___ 365(@250wpm)___ 304(@300wpm)
She hadn’t been aware that chatting was part of yoga class. Some of the older folk had stuck around, but Sloan had felt a little like a kid hoping not to be picked last for a group project. It had been easier to walk away. “I had a shift at the diner.”
“I know.” Jessica grinned. She wore a pair of purple yoga pants and a loose gray wrap thing over a white tank top. The wrap defied comprehension, leaving gaps to show the tank beneath it. “Sorry, that was creepy and stalkerish. The truth is that everyone pretty much knows everything about everyone else in Callaway Rock. So, I promise I’m not snooping around, but I had heard that you got a job from Marge.” She spoke so fast, Sloan wasn’t sure if she was supposed to interject a response or not, so she just stood there and waited. Jessica wasn’t done. Her smile brightened. “I’m babbling on, and it’s terribly rude. I’m sorry. The whole reason I came by, aside from introducing myself, was to tell you that I offer one-on-one sessions. I can tell you haven’t done much yoga before, but you have a knack and you’re bendy. And, forgive me for saying it, but you are tense enough to be brittle. Yoga will help with that.”
Sloan started to beg off, and then stopped. The truth was, she’d enjoyed the class yesterday, but she had felt more than a little lost going from position to position. She opened the door a little wider. “I would love to do that. What is the cost of the classes, though? I haven’t gotten my first paycheck and—”
“First session is on me.” Jessica bounced on her toes. “After that, it’s twenty-five for an hour, or one hundred fifty for a month’s worth of a couple times a week. We can work it out if that’s what you decide you want to do.”
Purchasing a month’s worth of anything seemed like a large commitment right now—a declaration that this was her final settling place. Sloan pulled at the hem of her shirt. And getting a job doesn’t? She finally looked up. “When are you free?”
“Right now, in fact.” Jessica’s grin widened. “I’m being pushy. Sorry again for that. I’m just excited to meet some fresh blood in this place—which goes doubly because you’re my age instead of twice that.”
She had noticed that most of the residents skewed to their forties and beyond. “I just need a few minutes to change.”
“Go for it.” Jessica danced back with a little twirl. “I’ll meet you on the beach.”
Sloan wasted no time. She dug out a pair of yoga capris and, after some consideration, pulled on a tank top over a sports bra. She didn’t make a habit of showing much skin, but the less fabric to slide around and suffocate her the better. She’d learned that the hard way yesterday.
Had it only been yesterday? It seemed like a lifetime ago.
She couldn’t stop herself from shooting a glance at Jude’s house as she stepped onto her back porch, but the door was closed and the shutters drawn. If she thought too hard about it, she might half convince herself that last night never happened.
It happened. He took everything you offered and walked away.
It shouldn’t matter. She was an adult. She wasn’t young or foolish enough to think that sex meant anything other than a potential pair of mutually satisfying orgasms. Between Cillian and Carrigan, she’d learned that lesson through observation.
The pang in her chest hit again, sharper than it had a right to be. Carrigan. She missed a step and almost stumbled. It was easier not to think of her sister out here. Carrigan would hate this place, would feel confined by the lack of anything resembling city life, by the small population, by the thought of a life of settling down. She wouldn’t understand.
Devlin would have.
It doesn’t matter what Devlin would have understood. Devlin is dead.
“Over here.”
Jessica’s voice brought her out of her spiral, and not a moment too soon. She couldn’t manage a smile as she approached where the other woman had dropped her water bottle onto the sand, but at least this was one potential relationship uncomplicated by a past that went back…Well, her entire life.
She pulled her hair back into a ponytail that wasn’t nearly as bouncy as the other woman’s, and eyed the ground. “We had mats yesterday.”
“The older folk find it comforting.” Jessica shrugged. “Honestly, it’s better to have a connection to the earth. It grounds you, makes you feel like a small cog in a very large system.”
Though the words sounded suspiciously like some sort of hippie dogma, she couldn’t deny the attractiveness of the vision Jessica painted. So she nodded. “Where do we begin?”
The next hour passed in a blur. It started with the breathing technique she’d learned previously, which was relaxing in and of itself. Jessica turned out to be incredibly helpful once they began going through the poses. She demonstrated and then helped Sloan adjust to the correct form before moving on. Between the steady whisper of the waves coming in and the clear air and the slow burn of her muscles, her thoughts emptied out of her head one by one, until there was only blessed silence in their wake.