Tales from the Yoga Studio by Rain Mitchell Page B

holding up his hands in front of his eyes. “Don’t do that again. You scared the shit out of me!”
    â€œA big guy like you? You’re easy to scare!”
    And then, payback for showing off, proving that it’s the little, unpredictable things that get you in life, she trips over her own feet as she’s walking toward him. He’s at her side in half a second, holding her by her biceps.
    She looks up into his eyes. “I did that on purpose,” she says. “Just to see if you’d catch me.”
    â€œI have amazing reflexes,” he says. “And I’m happy to see you’re human after all. In the middle of that contortion, I was starting to wonder.”
    Contohtion .
    â€œI am so, so human,” she says. “You have no idea.”
    His hands slide down to her waist, and he leaves them there. “I like human,” he says.
    It’s stupid, really. She doesn’t know him at all. Knows almost nothing about him, in fact. But she sees some kind of honesty or trustworthiness or something in those beautiful eyes of his that makes her feel more happy and open ( welcome in, universe! ) than she’s felt in a long time.
    â€œI really, really hope you mean that,” Katherine says.
    He bends down and kisses her on the mouth, his arms completely encircling her body, and Katherine feels such gratitude, she hears herself sigh, the way she sighs after doing ten sun salutations in a row.
    She’s so lost in the moment, she doesn’t realize that the little knocking sound she’s hearing isn’t her heart, but Chloe, tapping lightly on the glass door to the studio. When Katherine makes eye contact with her, Chloe opens the door just a crack.
    â€œUmmm, I hate to break it up,” she says, “but I’ve got a class in half an hour.”
    Katherine laughs. “Don’t worry. We were about to leave anyway. Mr. Ross is a client. This is strictly professional.”
    â€œIt looks it! What profession?”
    â€œWhere’s Barrett? ” Katherine asks. “I thought she was on the desk this afternoon.”
    â€œShe’s taking care of Lee’s kids. They went out to the park, and she called to ask me to fill in. I guess Lee and Alan are having some meeting with their accountants or some businesspeople. They didn’t make it clear.”
    Katherine feels her stomach drop. She’s getting a strong feeling this has something to do with YogaHappens.
    â€œDid she say when she’ll be back?”
    â€œShe said she’d let me know. It all sounded a little mysterious.”
    Not mysterious enough, as far as Katherine’s concerned.

    S ince Lee has prescribed so much down time, Graciela has been visiting her mother out in Duarte more often. Depending on the time of day, it takes her between an hour and an hour and a half to drive each way. It’s not like she loves being in the car, but she’s moving, and at least she’s not sitting around the apartment bickering with Daryl and putting all her energy into trying not to eat. If she starts gaining weight on top of everything else, she’s really going to be miserable.
    She tells herself this is the reason she’s been spending so much time with her mother, but there’s so much more to it than that. Her stepfather died of lung cancer eight months ago, and her mother, never the world’s cheeriest person, went into a depression. She spends most of her time sitting in front of the TV watching soap operas on Telemundo or, as she’s doing right now, talking back in Spanish to the complainants on Judge Judy .
    â€œÂ¡Tas mintiendo, perra!” she scoffs.
    Graciela has taken it upon herself to clean her mother’s little house, one room each visit. She figures that by the time she’s worked her way through the whole place, her mother might be feeling better and actually appreciate her efforts. And tendon problems or not, it’s a hell of a