Page 28 of Just a Heartbeat Away

She grinned at him, her head tilted. “You know, I’ve heard of it. Have you ever tried yoga? It helps with aches and pains.”

“Oh Lord, I knew you’d be a yoga person.” He shook his head.

Via laughed again and straightened the cuff of her blue silk shirt. Blue like her boring, lonely aura. She swallowed down her frown. “Are you one of those men who insist that yoga is only for women?”

He looked affronted. “Definitely not. I just think yoga is for...bendy people. And trust me, I’m not one of the blessed.”

“You might surprise yourself. I go to this great community yoga class in Crown Heights. There’s plenty of...un-bendy men. You might like it.”

“Are you inviting me?” His blunt face looked more confused than intrigued, and Via found her stomach was suddenly trying to lurch in two different directions.

“Oh. Well, it’s open to the public of course.” She turned back awkwardly to face front.

“You know, I’m kind of surprised that Principal Grim has never had us do yoga before.”

Her shoulders loosened just a touch when she realized that he wasn’t weirded out by her basket-case quasi-invite. “Actually, that’s a really good idea.”

“Wait! No.” He looked utterly horrified. His mouth dropped open and his hands rose in front of him. “That’s not what I was saying. Not at all. I definitely don’t want to do yoga at these meetings. I was just saying—”

“Don’t be modest, Sebastian,” she teased. “That was a great idea. I can’t wait to run it past Principal Grim. I’ll bet she’ll have us wear yoga clothes to the next meeting.”

“What the hell are yoga clothes?” If possible, he looked even more horrified.

She bit the inside of her cheek. “You know, leggings, tank tops, that sort of thing.”

He lowered his chin and pinned her with a stare. Via realized, with a tight little tap to her heart, that his light eyes were somewhere between gray and green. She hadn’t noticed before. “You’re telling me that you want me to wear leggings and a tank top to a staff meeting at the school my child attends?”

“You’d have a problem with that?” she deadpanned.

He broke first, chuckling. “Me? No. Although I think some of these ladies would have to burn out their retinas to get rid of the image of me downward dogging in a pair of leggings.”

Via laughed again. “Seb, I think some of these ladiesdreamabout you downward dogging in a pair of leggings.”

His eyebrows shot up at the same time as her cheeks caught on fire.

She had not just said that. Nope. No, she didn’t. That was someone else. Some passing idiot who was on her way to move to Alaska and stick her head in a snowdrift for the rest of her life.

She was flirting with him, she realized with something close to shock rocking through her. She couldn’t remember the last man she’d flirted with, besides Evan of course. It was...not the right path to walk down. In fact, her eyes danced around the room quickly, trying to see if anyone was looking at them. Had anyone noticed the pink she was sure was in her cheeks? The breathy way she’d just been laughing? Oh God. She was at a staff meeting populated with womenpantingfor Mr. Dorner gossip. She needed to ice-bucket this moment. Stat. And she knew the perfect way to do it. She straightened in her seat and pulled her phone out of her pocket.

“Before I forget, Serafine wanted me to give this to you.” She held out her phone with Serafine’s contact info pulled up.

“Oh.” Sebastian’s brow furrowed as he realized what Via was handing him. “Ah. She wants me to reach out about furniture making?”

Via cocked her head to the side, back on even footing. He was flustered. “No, I think she wanted you to have it for social reasons. A date? It’s okay if you don’t want to take it.”

“Right.” He stared down at the phone, just a touch of color in his cheeks. “Mind if I ask you how, uh, old she is?”

Via cocked her head to one side. “She’s thirty.”

“Right,” Sebastian repeated and seemed to be weighing something in his mind. He cleared his throat and waggled the phone. “You mind if I text the info to myself?”

“Sure, that’s fine.”That way I’ll have your number, too.She didn’t say it out loud, of course. She paused and tried very hard not to ask. “You think you’ll call her? Just curious.” She shrugged and hoped it looked casual.

“I don’t know,” Sebastian replied as he handed the phone back. “How does she feel about kids?”

“What do you mean?” It was cute that that was the first thing he thought of when considering calling up a woman. Very cute.

“I just mean that I’ve recently had some...miscommunications with women about Matty. And I’m not really interested in connecting with somebody if they aren’t cool with his place in my life.”

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