Page 32 of When Hairy Met Stella

“Sorry, sir,” Nate said as he grabbed her hand and walked out of the room.

“What just happened?” she asked once they were in the hallway.

“Well, I think we just got busted like a couple of teenagers.”

“Hey! Hey! Hey!” Lucy shouted from the other end of the hallway. “We were just looking for you two.”

“Great,” Nathan grumbled. “You found us.”

“We were getting everyone together to get some ice cream upstairs, if you’re interested.”

Stella was never one to turn down ice cream, but right now, that was all she wanted to do. But this was Lucy’s weekend, so she’d take one for the team. Besides, she was sharing a room with Nate. She’d have a chance to chat with him later.

“Is it just me,or was I totally born to do this?”

Stella heard Johnny’s loud whisper over the pinky-plonky music in the yoga studio where her cousin, once again, had scheduled another couples activity.

“It’s just you, man,” Max stage-whispered from the other side of the room, eliciting chuckles from the rest of the group.

For all the things Johnny was, flexible wasn’t one of them, as evidenced by his current state—a jumble of limbs in no way resembling the lithe instructor on the raised stage at the front of the room.But who was she to judge? She was in the middle of begging every muscle fiber in her burning quads to play nice and not let her collapse, but she couldn’t resist peeking over her right shoulder.

At the man on the mat next to her.

“You’re doing really well,” Nate encouraged from beside her.

He was lying, of course, but she just smiled and said thanks with what little air she had in her lungs.

Hewas putting on a clinic, his body as agile and controlled as any she’d ever seen. Not a trembling muscle in sight, no scrunched-up face of someone holding off a trip to the bathroom like Stella had seen on her own face with the help of the giantmirrors surrounding them. His face was so relaxed, his body so steady, a boulder could have rolled into the room, Indiana Jones-style, and he probably would have still been standing there in the perfect Warrior II.

Though, he’d always been the epitome of unflappable, so it shouldn’t have surprised her. Except, what had happened at the aerial course? It was the only time she’d seen him as anything other than his stoic self. Something in that moment had tossed him on his side, and she couldn’t figure out why. Though, it was hard to analyze much of anything when he’d wrapped her in his arms, the firm muscles acting both like a protective shield and a soothing blanket at the same time. She could still feel his warm breath kissing every sliver of exposed skin on her neck. And then there was the actual kissing last night. The kissing she couldn’t get out of her head even if she tried. But why would she have tried? It was one of the best moments of her entire life. Though, not one they’d gotten to talk about. After their ice cream last night, Eric whisked the guys away for a little poker game in the lobby—his version of a bachelor party—and Nate was gone by the time she’d woken up this morning. This afternoon’s yoga class was the first she’d seen him all day.

“Everything okay?” Nate’s voice snapped her back to the present.

“Um,” she began then stretched it into an awkwardommmbecause she needed a beat to figure out why everyone was in a standing position, and she was still rolled up on the floor in Happy Baby. It was all his fault. If he hadn’t kissed her senseless last night, she still wouldn’t be replaying it in her head like a film a football team studies to learn their opponent’s every move. Heck with that—his kissing was worthy of a place on the silver screen. “This stretch is just my favorite. That’s all.” Not a lie, though not a reason to remain on the floor while the rest of the couples carried on.

“Here,” Nate said, extending a hand for her to grab—a hand at the end of an arm she’d just spent an indeterminate amount of the class daydreaming about. She wondered if the class had gone from ordinary to hot yoga, because it was certainly getting warm in here.

As she slid her palm into his, the warmth of his skin melted her like putty, heat sprinting up her arm like it had been struck with a match.

Yep. This was definitely hot yoga.

“Now let’s recenter with a deep inhale, stretching our hands high above our heads and bringing our minds back to this present moment and away from anything that’s distracting us.”

Stella was all for bringing her mind back to places where it belonged, though she did miss the feel of her hands in his. She forced her chest to expand at least twice its usual size because the deeper the breath, the better she could recenter, and the less likely her mind would wander off to places that made her body simultaneously chill and burn.

“Now, at the beginning of class, I noticed a couple that was really in tune with one another, really embracing what this class is all about,” the instructor said from atop the raised stage at the front of the room. “They did a perfect Boat for Two, a pose that’s only perfected when a couple works as a team. And I’d like to invite them to the front, if they’d agree to do it.”

“Is this our big moment, baby?” Johnny whispered to Angie as he practically vibrated with excitement.

“In your dreams,” Max mumbled with a smirk that some might have found cocky, but he was the one here today with the certified yoga teacher as his partner. If he was smug, it was warranted.

“You two, right here,” the teacher said, pointing at…

“Us?” Stella squeaked in a voice like one of those dog whistles people could hardly hear, except the instructor musthave been part canine, because she nodded and waved them along. “Seriously?” Her eyes darted around the room. There was obviously a camera around here somewhere. Something to capture this moment and let it live on the internet for all eternity. Something people sent to their colleagues and anyone needing a pick-me-up so they could laugh until they cried.

“Of course,” the instructor said with a nod, as serious as anything. So, maybe this wasn’t some elaborate viral moment prank? “You two make a wonderful team.”

That was true in many ways. In fact, she’d thought as much just this morning. But for this? Not so much.

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