Page 10 of Stay this Christmas
Eliza shook my knee. “We can fix that, though!”
I dropped my hands, buoyed a little by her optimism. I’d figured she would poke some fun about me becoming as snoozy as my patients at the retirement center she liked to callSiestaVillage before she rushed in to help. She usually doled out her love with a big side of affectionate teasing, but maybe I’d underestimated her.
“All you need is a game plan,” Eden said.
“Spoken like a true coach’s wife,” June said beside her.
From Eden’s sweet smile, she still got a thrill out of the reminder. Married less than six months and newly pregnant, she could have been the poster child forMarital Bliss.
Except for the morning sickness, which sounded like a whole big bag of misery.
Leaping up, Eliza clapped her hands. “That’s it!” She rummaged around behind me in Eden’s desk and sat down again, a notebook and pen in hand. “We’ll help you come up with a list of things to do.”
“Like a bucket list?” I asked.
“Sure, but not, like, for your wholelife. Let’s say, before your birthday.”
I choked on a laugh. “That’s less than a month away.”
She flashed a cheeky grin. “Then we know you’ll work really hard at it.”
“But they have to be thingsyouwant to do.” Eden spoke to me, but her eyes were on Eliza like she wanted to put our youngest sister in a time out.
“Step one: kick Trevor to the curb.”
“That’s a given now.” I didn’t even bother to correct his name. Trevor, Travis, it didn’t really matter if neither of us were actually invested in this pseudo-dating we were playing at.
“Do you have anything else in mind?” June asked.
I hesitated, words stuck in my throat. I’d thought of things I could do to break free of this rut, but actually saying them out loud would add a new pressure to actuallydothem. Especially with Eliza waiting to write them all down.
But it was either this, or continue down my path to becoming the world’s saddest thirty-year-old.
“I want to take a yoga class.”
“Ooh,” she cooed up at me. “Does this have anything to do with—”
I lifted a hand to cut her off. “No. I suggest it to my patients all the time, lately. It’s natural I’d want to give it a try, too.”
Anyway, that was how I’d justified it to myself. Therewerebenefits to yoga. This had nothing to do with Sam. It was all in the name of self-care.
She clamped down her smirk, scribbling a line on the paper. “Okay. What else?”
“Classes could be good. I want to learn something new.” Village residents were always rotating through new activities and interests. They said it kept them young, and I had to agree. Some retreated to familiar routine, but the ones who chose variety and new experiences seemed happiest. I’d been choosing routine for way too long.
“I could teach you to make soap,” she offered.
“That’s kind of putting her back in her comfort zone, isn’t it?” June asked.
Eliza shrugged. “She doesn’t know how.”
I liked the idea of totally customizing soap bars, but I already had someone willing to make my vanilla-spice soaps for me. The things I wanted to try were in a whole different sphere from arts and crafts.
“I’ve been thinking about rock climbing.”
Eliza’s eyes lit up again, but I just shook my head at her.
Yes, Sam had been on my mind lately, but this wasn’t abouthim.Not precisely. From all I’d heard, he’d changed jobs as often as he’d moved, hopping from one adventure to the next. Mountain climbing to wilderness rescue to swimming in oceans—he’d been out there all this time reallyliving, and I’d been…not doing that.
