Page 104 of Summer with the Single Dad

“But they have some serious competition. A lot of people want that land.”

“I can imagine.”

“The guys who run the distillery want it because they’ve outgrown the space they have now. The women who run the winery want it for … I don’t actually know. Same with the ladies who run the cidery. And those are just the ones we know are submitting a proposal. I’m sure there are many more.”

“What’s stopping someone with a bunch of money from coming in and just buying the bid?” Jordana pulled up in her sporty little hatchback and waved at them from behind the steering wheel.

“Well, if that was an option, I’d win the bid. I have loads of money. But Clint refuses to take any of it. He’s so prideful.”

“Or he just wants to keep business and personal separate. You guys haven’t really been together that long. He might worry you might think he’s using you.”

Brooke nodded. “You’re probably right.”

Jordana approached them, all cheery smiles beneath sun-kissed freckles and chic tortoise-shell sunglasses with dark lenses. “What are we talking about? You both have such serious faces.”

“Bonn Remmen’s land and everyone vying for it,” Brooke said. She glanced toward the studio where people from the previous class were beginning to file out, their mats tucked under their arms and Zen expressions on their faces.

“Oh, there’s so much talk of that everywhere I go. Always someone chatting about it in the grocery store lines.” She wrinkled her cute button nose. “And for some reason, people think I have a bead on what’s going on just because Sunflower is my great-grandmother.”

“Wait, who is Sunflower?” Justine asked.

“Sunflower Patrick is my great-grandmother on my mother’s side. My kid and I live on her property in a small house on the back of the field,” Jordana replied.

“But what is so special about her besides the fact that she has a pretty flower name? Is your great-grandmother wise beyond her years?” Justine asked with a cheeky smile.

“She’s also an island Elder,” Jordana said, matching Justine’s grin.

Then it all clicked into place. “Ahh. She’s one of the deciders.”

“She is. But she’s very tight-lipped about everything. She doesn’t discuss council matters with me. Unlike Jolene Dandy, the woman knows how to keep from running her mouth.”

“Who’s Jolene Dandy?” Justine asked.

“The Island Mouth,” Brooke and Jordana both said at the same time.

“Biggest gossip, and usually wrong,” Jordana added.

Brooke motioned that they should all stand up and head inside, so they followed her, waving at Lotus behind the desk.

“I met Keturah Katz on Friday and kind of ended up telling her some of my very close-to-the-chest secrets. I’m not even sure how it happened. She’s not going to tell everyone though, is she? She told me she wouldn’t.” A frisson of unease dripped like cold sweat down Justine’s back as she unfurled her new yoga mat next to Jordana’s mat.

“Keturah is a vault,” Jordana said with an affirming headshake. “That woman knows everyone’s secrets. Including some of mine. She will never spill the beans.”

“It was spooky how she managed to get me to open up after only about ten minutes. She startled me by knocking on my car window, then asked—or more like demanded—a ride home. Then by the time we pulled up to her house, she knew more than I’ve told people who have known me my whole life.”

They all sat down on their mats, facing Lotus’s mat at the front of the yurt, and began to do some of their own independent stretching. Pigeon pose called to Justine. So she tucked one leg and extended the other, leaning forward until her forehead touched the earth.

“I’m convinced Keturah was a spy either in her younger years or in a former life,” Jordana said, pulling off an impressive camel posture. “The way she so effortlessly pulls information from people. The FBI could use someone like her.”

Brooke and Justine both snorted.

Lotus walked in, asking everyone to bring their conversations to a close.

“Have a great class,” Brooke whispered to both of them before everyone settled down for their first savasana of the day.

“You too,” Justine replied in a hushed voice before she closed her eyes and let the breathing and calm take over.

Unlike last time, there were no tears when they did hip openers, but the emotions that flooded her were strong. They were also mostly all happy. And she embraced those feelings of joy, despite the mutterings of condemnation in the back of her mind. She was on the path to forgiveness. Forgiving herself more than anything, so she would not let the voice in her head ruin her day.

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