Who could balance after hearing, “By the end of the week, one of you will be dead!” Was Sheridan just messing with her? Probably. She had been really pissed at Gabby for following her and then bringing up Amanda.
At the front of the class, Jasmine was doing the move Ralph Macchio had done at the end ofThe Karate Kid, the one that had finally taken down the blond guy who was really adorable onCobra Kai. She needed to watch the latest season of that with the kids.
As Gabby stood on one leg and tried to hold the other out, her balance started to go. Come on—Be More! Do More! She could muscle her way through this. Just stiffen and clench. Left leg on the ground. Right leg in the air. Compartmentalize. Control. Standard operating procedures. Dead drops. Parent pickup. Conferences. Dinner. Elder care. Her mind clouded with everything she needed to balance. She tried it again.
Was Markus really doing this stuff?
“Squeeze your inner thighs,” Jasmine said. “All of these exercises are working your pelvic floor. A strong pelvic floor is the basis of a strong relationship.”
“Really?” There was something else she was missing.
“Do you want to find your G-spot, Gia?”
“I was just joking about that. I know it’s a myth.”
“It does exist. And so does balance.”
For a second, Jasmine held Gabby’s hand, just barely. She clung to that support for dear life. She could do with a helping hand.
Jasmine let go of Gabby’s hand and stepped away. “Trust yourself, Gia. You need to trust yourself before you ask someone else to place trust in you.”
Which just made her think of the report she was writing on Markus. No one should trust her.
“Gia, you can—”
Gabby wobbled, and panic shot through her like electricity. Her left leg started to go. She had no balance without support. She let go of her foot and started helicoptering her arms, but she was too off-kilter by the time she got her other foot on the ground.
On her way down, she reached for something, anything to hold herself up. She got a handful of tent flap. Instead of holding her up, she felt the tent give way.
“NOOOO!” Her scream cut through the relaxing harp music.
With the heaving and the creaking of metal and the chiming of sound bowls skittering across the wooden floor, the tent began going sideways. It was coming down on top of them like that parachute in her elementary school gym class, except this could hurt. Gabby froze for a moment.
Luckily, they all were able to make it out before the tent came down. It sort of slow-collapsed.
Outside, Gabby stood on the sand and viewed the disaster with the rest of the class. In the end, the tent looked like a hat that someone had sat on.
Once Jasmine verified that everyone was safe, she shuttled them all to the spa to recover from the drama.
Gabby hung back with Jasmine. “I’m so sorry about that.”
“You haven’t done much yoga, have you?” Jasmine didn’t sound angry.
Gabby flashed a guilty look.
“It’s just an observation, not an accusation.”
Gabby didn’t have the energy to pretend, so she went with her only other option: honesty. “I don’t know if you know, but I have a couple of kids. I bought a gym membership, but that’s about as far as I’ve gotten on my fitness journey. I was hoping I could just stay in the back of the class and stay under the radar.”
Surprise flashed across Jasmine’s face. “I didn’t know George had kids.”
Gabby blanched. Damn it. Trying to recover from her slip, she said, “Well, they aren’t his. Yet. Not until we get married. Then he’s going to be a stepdad.”
Stepdad—saying it out loud made it real. Releasing it into the air let some of the pressure off. Blended families could work. She saw them on TikTok all the time.
“I haven’t seen the kids on Instagram.” Jasmine seemed to be thinking aloud.
“Oh, I don’t post the kids. Too many low-vibrational people on the internet,” Gabby said in an attempt to relate.
