Page 40 of Just One Silver Fox

“Absolutely,” Sonia agreed, knowing she’d been in that camp herself.

“Maybe what would make your yoga podcast different would be an interest in the whole person, not just the physical side of things.”

“Yoga does that.”

“But you do more of it.”

“I don’t know,” she said, still thinking about the threat of discovery.

Nate put down the glass and pushed it away. When she met his gaze, his eyes were bright. “Let’s talk about your concerns about your family a bit.”

“We don’t have to.”

“Given my experience with hostile forces, I might have an idea or six.” He raised his brows, obviously trying to make her smile. Sonia did. “And you’re the one who became a therapist.”

“It’s not that I don’t want to talk about it,” she said. “It might just be too much information. We don’t have to bare our souls here.”

“But we can evaluate strategies and maybe come up with some ideas in the spirit of friendship.”

“True.” It was tempting to confide more in him.

“When you’re facing an enemy, there are a couple of tactical choices.” Nate counted them off on his fingers. “One is to hide. It’s maybe the first reaction and it’s not a bad one. The problem is that you can’t do it forever. Sooner or later, you need food, water, ammo, or other resources, and you end up revealing yourself. You have to be ready to be discovered when that happens, maybe with another plan.”

Sonia nodded agreement.

“Two, you can attack. You can just go at them and not give it up, just keep going forward regardless of the cost.”

“That might not end well for everyone,” Sonia said, kind of liking the idea of charging her family and blowing them all away.

“Or the cost could be too high.” Nate held up another finger. “Third is subterfuge. Hide or attack might be the obvious choices, but you can make it unclear which course you’re following.”

“You can be sneaky,” Sonia said with a nod of understanding.

“Exactly. You can make every indication of retreat, then attack when your opponent is complacent, for example. The mix is more likely to succeed, to my thinking.”

“I have this feeling that you have a plan.”

He smiled. “What if you hide in plain sight?”

“I don’t understand.”

“You’ve made some choices to start a new life. You changed your name. You moved. You broke off contact with them. You’ve kept a low profile for years. All good. You can’t just keep your life on hold forever, though, and doing the podcast is something you’ll be good at. So, you’d be stepping out of the shadows, so to speak, but in a controlled environment. If your family aren’t in New York and they aren’t members of F5F and they don’t watch fitness podcasts, they might never see or recognize you. Do any of those conditions apply?”

“No,” Sonia had to admit, her hopes rising.

“Then I think it’s a brilliant compromise and the perfect choice.” Nate saluted her with his glass. “And I know you’d be an amazing online teacher.”

She’d loved Cassie’s suggestion in the first place but fear of discovery had made her decline. Nate was right, though—it was a limited risk, and the reward for following her instinct would be well worth it. Especially if she could use the podcast to help and inspire others with similar experiences to her own.

There was one detail, though. “But Katia might see,” she said. “She’s in town and she knows I work at the club.”

“So, it wouldn’t give her new information. Will she tell the rest of your family?”

“She promised before that she wouldn’t. She likes to forget inconvenient promises, though.”

“Has she told them before?”

“No.” Sonia frowned. “Something seems to have changed.”

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