Page 29 of Keeping Happily Ever After

He nodded and laughed before taking a deep drink of his soda. “Never been better.”

“I bet.” Jason O’Neil, another of his crew, and one of the guys Jeremy was closest with, chose that moment to walk in. “Bella’s back in town.”

“Ohh yes,” Natalie chimed in. “You’re so quiet about her.”

“I am not.”

He wasn’t; they just hadn’t asked.

“We have a few minutes now,” Natalie said. Jason plopped in the couch next to her and crossed his arms. “Tell me everything. I heard she’s going to be doing a movie with Stephanie Starz. That’s crazy.”

“How did you know?”

“Everyone knows.”

“It’s true.” Jason nodded in agreement. “Everyone knows.”

Natalie pushed up from the couch and stretched her arms over her head with a groan. “I can’t sit anymore.” She folded herself in half and wrapped her arms around the backs of her legs, completely oblivious to the man sitting behind her, whose eyes had opened wide. Jason was clearly both trying to watch Natalie, and at the same time, tryingnotto watch her because it might be considered inappropriate.

He looked to Jeremy in help, but Jeremy just shrugged and tried not to smile. He’d seen the way Jason looked at Natalie. He was interested in her, that much was clear. At least to Jeremy. But he was pretty sure it wasn’t fully clear to either Natalie or even Jason, who, as far as Jeremy could tell, didn’t have much confidence with women.

“It’s a small town,” Natalie said, her voice muffled from her position. Her arms whipped up quickly and landed on the floor in front of her as her legs jumped back into a pike. “I mean, I barely even know anyone and I heard about it.” Natalie had moved into town and taken the job as the rookie at the station a few months earlier.

He hadn’t considered that she might not know many people. Jeremy felt a twinge of guilt that he’d been so distracted with Bella that he hadn’t thought to introduce Natalie to anyone.

The idea caught him off guard and made him chuckle. Maybe he did care more than the others.

“Rumor has it that she’ll be in LA for months.” Natalie moved through a sequence of poses and moves while both Jason and Jeremy watched in wonder.

“What are you doing?” Jason asked. “That is the craziest thing I’ve ever seen.”

From the inverted position she held, Natalie tilted her head and peered out at him. “You’ve never seen yoga before?”

“Of course I’ve seen yoga before.”

Jason shook his head and looked to Jeremy, who offered, “Bella does it, too. But it’s totally different. She mostly sits on the floor and stretches. This is…”

“It’s definitely a more active type of yoga,” Natalie said from an upside down position. “It gets my blood moving so I don’t fall asleep. Bella probably does more of a gentle practice.”

“I don’t know what she’s practicing for,” Jeremy said with wonder. “But the two of you are both very…bendy.”

She laughed and contoured her body into a different position. “You guys should try it.”

“I don’t think so.” Jason shook his head and settled back on the couch.

Maybe Jason didn’t want to try it himself, but Jeremy couldn’t help but think he didn’t mind watching it at all.

“What about you, Jer? It’s good for stress. You might like it.”

“Stress?” Jeremy put his drink down and crossed his arms up behind his head. “What makes you think I’m stressed?”

Natalie pulled herself up into a lunge and pointed her arms out in either direction before answering him. “Well, I couldn’t help but notice that you didn’t comment when I mentioned Bella’s movie and that she’d be gone for a long time.” She shrugged a little and bent her knee deeper into a lunge. “I just assumed that would be a little stressful. I mean, I’ve never had a boyfriend but I can imagine that if I did, it would suck to be apart for so long and—”

“Wait.” He sat up, dropped his elbows to his knees and stared at her. Jeremy couldn’t help but notice that he wasn’t the only one who’d picked up on the comment. Across the room, Jason was trying not to look interested. “You’ve never had a boyfriend?” He was aware that her personal life was really none of his business, and she hadn’t really offered up many details, but despite the fact that it was nosy and he really had no business prying too much, he’d much rather steer the conversation away from his own life.

She grinned. “We’re not talking about me right now.”

“We could be.”

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