“Bet.” Her eyes lit up. “Can I do the doohickey?”
“The inversion table?” I laughed. “Yeah. Just don’t stay upside down too long or you’ll make yourself sick.”
She pulled her legs up under her crisscross. “Do you think Uncle Si will do it?”
“I don’t know. He didn’t seem too happy when he left.”
She turned toward me. “I think he will.”
“Why do you say that?”
“Because that’s how Uncle Si is. It takes him a little while to warm up to something. You have to give him time to ruminate on the idea and then he comes around.”
I laughed. “Ruminate?”
“I learned it in English class. I think it works here, don’t you?”
I nodded, impressed. “It absolutely does. Ruminate.”
She offered me a handshake. “Want to bet on it?”
This was a thing she’d been doing lately—betting on everything. From if there would be a snow day the next day towho would get the next text to who would win the next round of Uno.
“Sure.” I shook. “What’re the stakes?”
Her dark eyes lit up. “McFlurries. From McDonald’s.”
I shook my head. “You know I don’t eat there.”
She coughed the words “french fries” into her hands.
I laughed. “All right, all right. It’s my occasional vice. Fine. If you win, you get a McFlurry. If I win, I get french fries.” Either way, I’d end up buying. She was a broke thirteen-year-old.
“Deal.” She bounced in her seat. “This is going to be the most epic sleepover of all time. Three months.”
“If Silas says yes.”
She smirked. “He will.”
For her sake, I hoped he did. She needed this. Maybe if I could get him alone, I could help him see how important this was to Anna. I chewed my lip. No. I was the wrong person to talk Silas into anything. He always clammed up around me. I’d have to trust that Holden had done the best he could.
We rolled into the parking lot a few minutes later.
“I just love your studio sign.” Anna’s hands folded against her heart.
I smiled. “Your momma did good work, didn’t she?” When I started the exercise studio two years earlier, Sophie had been right there with me. It was her idea to name it The Downward Dog. When I’d told Momma, she said it sounded like the name of a bar. But Sophie and I knew that anyone who knew anything about yoga would get it. And those were the people I wanted to attract. We were right. They’d found this place right away, and those who came were loyal. As we grew, we added classes other than just yoga. Actually, our barre classes were the most popular and my personal favorite.
I smiled up at the sign Sophie’d designed. A neon pink cord that spelled Downward Dog—but the letter N was awoman in yoga clothes in the downward dog pose. We’d converted half of an old warehouse into the most charming little gym around. The owner of the building, Mr. Greerly, an old retired veteran and machine shop owner, even let us paint our half Barely There pink. The other half of the structure was a plain white on the outside—the inside sat vacant, storing Mr. Greerly’s old machine shop parts. My dream was to one day make enough to actually buy the entire building. Right now I could only afford to rent my half.
Anna was out the door as soon as I put it in park. She punched in the code and opened the door.
As she disappeared inside, I yelled after her, “The tension is still off. Be careful going backward!” Just another thing Billy had promised he’d fix.
I grabbed my purse and the packet of divorce papers Mr. Llewellyn’s secretary had given me before I left his office. I’d discreetly asked for them, and she’d promised they always kept things confidential. I didn’t know how I was going to afford Arlo if Billy went down fighting. But I wanted to get the ball rolling. I did not want to be married to Billy one minute longer than I had to.
Inside the studio was roasting.
“Are you kidding me?” I strode across the slip-control padded vinyl floor and punched the buttons to lower the thermostat. Peyton had left it full blast once again. I’d have to send out another message to all my instructors, reminding them to turn the heat down after their class unless there was another session coming up that day. If I singled Peyton out, she’d get her feelings hurt, and I did not have the energy for that.
