Page 33 of Hooked
“I won’t post any pics of you without your permission. It’s a hard and fast for me. But I will totally insinuate shit without tagging you. Just so you know.”
He chuckled. “That’s fine, Tayla. I don’t mind.”
“Are you on Insta? Facebook?”
“Nope.”
“Snapchat? YouTube?” She took a few ninja pics of Jeremy bending over the table. She was only human, and he had a great ass. “Do you post any rock climbing videos or stuff like that?”
“No videos. No snaps. No faces or books.” He straightened from setting the table. “I have an Instagram feed for the shop and a website for the shop. That’s it though. Nothing personal.”
Tayla blinked. “Wait, what?”
Jeremy laughed. “I’m a dinosaur, but it’s by design.”
“Nothing? Not even a weird LinkedIn profile you don’t remember activating but somehow it’s still there?”
He narrowed his eyes. “Okay, I might have one of those.”
“I think everyone does.” She climbed on top of a log and walked the length of it, feeling like she was back on her elementary school playground. “Logs are fun.”
“I’m gonna leave that joke alone and tell you rocks are more fun.”
She wrinkled her nose. “You’re going to try to get me rock climbing, aren’t you?”
“You know, people at all different fitness levels can start—”
“Whoa there.” She held up a hand. “I’m plenty fit, my friend.”
Tayla had been wanting to try a few yoga poses on the log, but she wasn’t exactly in the right clothes. She toed off her shoes and moved to mountain pose. She closed her eyes, centering herself and feeling her energy from the soles of her feet on the curve of the smooth wood and up her spine. Her breath expanded her lungs and flowed out, opening her senses.
She stretched her toes and shifted her weight to her right foot. Were her jeans stretchy enough? She’d try a dancer pose and see.
Tayla lifted her left foot and stretched her arms, her left moving back to hook her thumb around her big toe and the right stretching forward. She lifted her heart and released her breath as she opened her eyes. The lake spread out before her, a smooth mirror reflecting the green hills and darkening sky.Wow. She hadn’t been expecting the wonder.
“Beautiful.”
She turned her head to the side and caught Jeremy with his phone up. “Are you taking my picture?”
“Trust me when I say you’re going to want a copy of this one. You look incredible.”
She released her foot and stretched her arms out and up, re-centering her feet and aligning her spine, her hands coming to rest in front of her heart. “It’s beautiful here.”
“You know, the gates open at dawn all summer. If you ever wanted to come up here to practice, no one would bother you.”
She jumped down off the log and immediately felt the dirt coat her toes. Shit. She’d forgotten she was in the natural world and not the friendly yoga studio on 7th Avenue. “I’ll keep that in mind.”
She dusted off as best she could and walked over to the blankets with her shoes in her hand. “Told you. Plenty fit, thank you very much. I just have no need to climb rocks.”
He threw his head back and groaned. “With your sense of balance, you’d probably be amazing on a bouldering wall.”
“So you want to give yoga a try?”
Jeremy spread his hands out. “Sure. I could stand to be more flexible.”
Dammit. He’d called her bluff. She’d been sure a Metlin boy would consider yoga too girly for his big manly body. “Okay, I’ll keep that in mind.”
He bent down and lit the candles on the small table. “Sensing a possible theme for our second date.”
