Page 61 of Cosmo

“Why only the balls of my feet?”

“You’ll see in a minute. Try it.”

He got his feet partially on the mat and raised up on balls of his feet, teetering there until he got his balance. “Like this?”

“Yeah. Practice that a bit before tomorrow night. Now, move a minute and I’ll show you what comes after that.”

Liam got off the mats and watched as Goldie got on them, lifting to the balls of his feet for a few seconds, perfectly balancing on the mat. “Okay, this is the advanced course. But I’ve seen you move, and I think you can get this one pretty fast.”

Goldie slid his feet a little wider apart before he bent his knees inward, letting them knocked easily together and Liam watched as they both hit the pads at the same time.

Where his knees had landed was right on the opposite edge of the pad from his toes, Abs got in front of him to hand him two bottles and then lay down on the floor, his head near Goldie’s knees.

Flipping both bottles at once in the air and catching them so the pour spouts were pointing to the floor, Goldie held them over Abs’ face, pretending to pour a shot into his mouth.

After he rose back to his feet and moved off the mat, he waved over the thing and told Liam, “Your turn.”

“Wait, you want me to do that? You cannot be serious!”

Murphy soothed, “They all felt the same, Cosmo. I swear, it’s not as hard as it looks.”

Liam shook his head, sure he’d make a fool of him at best, and at worst, pull or break something important.

Setting the balls of his feet on the mat, he spaced them as he’d seen Goldie do and he glanced over at the group.

Abs had his fist in front of his mouth, eyes narrowing, like they were about to close so he wouldn’t have to watch. Hippy smirked, Haze smiled, and Goldie gave him a nod.

The others simply watched.

He bent his knees inward as far as they would go and dropped them to the mat, feeling a little thudding pain as he did so, but it wasn’t bad. Abs handed him the bottles quickly and lay down like he’d done with Goldie.

“Flip ‘em,” Murphy instructed.

Flipping both at once, he’d done it, but only a couple times had he actually caught them.

“You don’t want them smacking me in the face, if that’s a motivator.”

Abs was perfectly still, unflinching as he lay smiling up at him. “I don’t want to, but if I do, know beforehand that I’m sorry.”

“I trust you.”

Trust. That was something that had been scarce in his own life. To trust anyone meant to let down a guard he’d carefully built with walls so thick, it would take a year of tunneling to get through them.

A man was placing his trust in Liam. It was becoming almost commonplace for him. These men, the feds, all placing trust in him he’d yet to earn.

Abs’ pretty face he tried too hard to add edge to with his black lined eyes and pale cheeks. He gripped the necks of the bottles tightly, then decided then and there he was in this, good or bad, trust earned or not.

Lifting his arms, releasing the grip on the bottles, he watched them both spinning in a circle and he willed both hands to catch them.

He did. Perfectly caught with the spouts down and he held those spouts over Abs’ mouth, pretending to pour him a double shot.

After that, Abs got up enough to hug him around the neck and the others descended on him with more hugging and pats on his back.

Standing at last, he gloated a bit. “I always knew I could do it.”

Hippy got in close to whisper, “Don’t be too confident. You have to do that on a bar.”

Remembering that, Liam lost some of his gloat and worried a little more. “Damn.”

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