Page 20 of Playing for Keeps in Starr's Fall
“And you?—”
“And Liz Cranbury,” Elaine finished, pointing to a woman in her fifties wearing high-end sportswear and a friendly expression. She tucked a tendril of frosted blonde hair behind her ear as she gave Maggie a smile.
“Great to have you here.”
“Thanks,” Maggie said. She was feeling less nervous than she’d expected to, which was a good thing. She rolled out her mat next to Liz’s and stepped onto it gingerly. It had been a long time since she’d done any Pilates, and Liz and Zoe both looked like experts, although Annie appeared as if she’d been brought here under duress.
“Her doctor recommended it,” Liz explained in a stage whisper. “For stress.”
“Oh dear…” Maggie glanced at Annie, who was, it had to be said, looking a little doleful. “That’s too bad.” She wondered what she was stressed about; judging by the way the chat flew around this town, she’d probably find out soon enough.
“All right, ladies,” Elaine called, moving gracefully to the front of the class. “Let’s start with a few cat and cows.” She glanced at Maggie, eyebrows raised in query, and Maggie gave a little nod. She knew how to do a cat and cow.
She came onto her hands and knees on her mat, arching her spine down and then up, “broadening through her collarbones,” as Elaine encouraged in a gently sonorous voice. As she continued to move, she felt something in her start to loosen. She’d forgotten how much she liked this, and not just that, but she’d forgotten how tobein her body. For too long she’d been existing entirely in her head, and what an anxious, unhappy place that could often be.
As Maggie went into her “first downward dog of the day,” muscles she’d ignored for too long stretched and the tension that had bracketed her neck and shoulders for the better part of a year started to ease. She moved into a cobra, feelingalmostas sinuous as Zoe next to her, who was looking extremely supple and so very young. As Maggie went into a plank, she felt every single one of her forty-one years.
She moved through the rest of the class, enjoying the stretches and exercises, feeling pleasantly tired and yet also energized by the end of it. And for forty-five whole minutes, she hadn’t thought about anything much, which felt like a relief as well as a miracle.
“After class we always go get something to eat,” Zoe informed her with a smile once they’d finished and were all rolling up their mats. “We move around town—The Rolling Pin, The Starr Light, even The Latest Scoop.” She gave an abashed grin. “That’s the ice cream parlor I manage.”
“Oh, right…” Maggie had enjoyed the Pilates class, but did she really have the energy to socialize afterward? “I probably should?—”
“It’s The Starr Light today,” Elaine informed them. “They have a two-for-one brunch special.” Her tone invited no argument. “Rhonda does a fabulous eggs Benedict.”
Everyone was slinging their bags over their shoulders, tucking their mats under their arms. It would be churlish in the extreme to refuse, Maggie felt, and it wasn’t even that she wanted to, but…
“Coming, Maggie?” Elaine asked, a very slightly imperious note to her voice, even though she was smiling.
“Yes, coming,” Maggie replied meekly as she fell in step with Annie, who was still looking morose.
Outside, the day was bright and clear, the village green sparkling with frost, the air cold enough to freeze in Maggie’s lungs. It was early February, but spring still felt a long way off.
“How’s Barb, Annie?” Liz asked as they walked along, her voice full of compassion.
Annie sighed. “She’s definitely declining. I wish I could say otherwise… hell, I wish I couldpretendotherwise, but I can’t.” She pressed her lips together. “The truth is, what with managing the farm, I’m afraid I might have to put her in a home. I can’t trust her to be okay on her own, and the carer only comes for a couple of hours three times a week.”
“Oh, Annie.” Liz rested a hand on her shoulder. “I’m so sorry.”
“Barb is Annie’s mom,” Zoe murmured to Maggie. “She has Parkinson’s.”
“I’m so sorry…” Maggie murmured back, although she knew it was really Annie she should be saying this to, and Zoe gave a sympathetic grimace. Maggie’s dad had died of Alzheimer’s several years ago, so she had some idea of what Annie was going through—the slow agony of watching a loved one slip away memory by precious memory and knowing there was absolutely nothing she could do about it. Matt’s death just a little over a year later had made her feel even more alone.
But why was she going into this doom spiral of thoughts? “How long have you lived in Starr’s Fall?” she asked Zoe.
“All my life,” Zoe answered with a laugh. “Although I went to art school in Hartford for a few years, and then I moved to New York for all of six months when I was twenty-two. I wanted to become an important artist, do the whole Greenwich Village thing, but I couldn’t take it. I might have run riot in high school, busting to get out of here, but I finally realized I’m a small-town girl at heart.”
“That’s a good realization to have,” Maggie replied with a smile.
“And what about you? Where did you move from?”
“Greenwich, but I grew up outside Philadelphia. I guess I’m a suburban girl, but I’m trying to be small town.”
Zoe laughed. “Small town is best,” she agreed.
Maggie nodded and smiled back. She felt as if she’d cleared a hurdle—a semi-normal bit of chitchat! She’d even laughed and made Zoe laugh. These things were definitely getting easier.
The grilling, however, was yet to come.
