Page 58 of Sliding Into Love
Now,thatwas interesting. Ethan had known Isaac well enough in their youth to know his tone was more telling than his answer.
“So why did they trade you?” Jen’s pale blue eyes narrowed. “Mitchell wasn’tthatgood.”
“Well, actually,” Isaac started, but Ethan interrupted before the pitcher shared information that wasn’t his to share.
“He probably talked their fucking heads off,” Ethan muttered, annoyed, but with a hint of their old, friendly ribbing.
It was weird. But notbadweird.
Isaac beamed at him.
“Wait, do you know each other?” Derek said at the same time Harkness spoke.
“Language, Ford.” She’d appeared out of nowhere and had changed into clothing more suitable for a baseball field, dark athletic pants with a team t-shirt, and a red Hawks hat sat neatly atop her silver bob.
“Hawks!” she barked in all her commanding glory.
All the players halted their warmups and gathered before Harkness.
“I don’t know how Mr. Marshall ran practices, but what I see now, I don’t like. Too much separation. We must worktogether. Together, we’re better. Remember that.”
Biting the inside of his cheek to keep from speaking, Ethan still had to restrain himself from rolling his eyes. He understood why the woman was Laura’s best friend.
“Today,” Harkness continued, “we’re going to start with something a little bit different.” She gestured to a large pile of black rolled rubber cylinders piled in the shape of a pyramid. “Everyone, take a mat and meet me in the outfield.”
Mat?
No, she wouldn’t…
“You don’t think she’s going to make us do yoga, is she?” Ethan said under his breath to Derek.
With a grimace, Derek replied, “Dude, I think she is.”
“Fuuuck,” Ethan groaned. Muscular he might be, but limber he was not. But how hard could yoga be? “I assume you know what’s going on?” Ethan asked Isaac, who’d dropped his mat beside him.
“Not a clue,” Isaac replied, folding his legs into a pretzel.
Surreptitiously, Ethan tried to copy the pose and nearly fell on his face in the process.
“Since we’re all here, I’d like to lead you all through a beginner mind-body yoga session. We’re going to begin by standing at the front of our mats, inTadasana, or mountain pose. Please ground yourselves through your feet, and inhale.”
That didn’t sound too bad. He could stand on a mat and breathe.
Forty-five minutes later, Ethan was drenched in sweat, aching in places he hadn’t even known had muscles. And on top of that, Isaac Reyes, of all people, had managed to manipulate his body with seemingly no effort, holding poses and breathing like it was nothing.
Even inimitably cheerful Derek was scowling and sweating after the torture session.
The rest of the day was unlike any other he’d experienced in his twenty-odd years of playing baseball in some form or another. Harkness was authoritative, but unlike Marshall, she did not belittle or pit the team against each other. Her methods wereexhausting,though. Ethan could barely hobble to his car after the horrible yoga session Harkness had proclaimed would be their new warmup, and she requested the team spend time doing “mindful meditation” on their own time. Ethan shuddered at the thought. Close proximity to too many pieces of his past left him raw, and he wanted nothing more than to see Ivy, to wrap her in his arms and apologize, then bitch about his day with the new coach.
How domestic and mundanethatsounded.
It also soundedamazing.
Without thinking, Ethan climbed into his car and drove on autopilot straight to Ivy’s apartment. Once he’d parked on the street in front of her building, he realized he should’ve called her first. He tried, but it rang once and went to voicemail. A text came in a few seconds later.
Can’t talk. it’s story time at the library.
I want to talk. Please. I’m sorry. Can I come over later?
