Page 65 of Sweet Passions at Bayside
“They’re the five layers of being,” Violet explained. She waved at Dean, Drake, and Rick. “You guys run like your life depends on it, and that’s great for keeping your physical body in shape.”
Emery put her hand on Dean’s thigh. “I do like Dean’s shape.”
“Not half as much as I adore yours.” He pulled her into a kiss.
“That’s great,” Violet said. “Anyway, you run, but what do you do for your subtle body? Your casual body?”
Dean nipped at Emery’s neck. “Trust me,allof her bodies get great workouts.”
“That’s right,” Emery said softly. “But…”
Dean arched a brow. “Seriously? You’re going to dis my skills in front of everyone?”
“No!” She laughed. “Notthoseskills! You’ve got great skills in that department.”
“TMI, Emery,” Rick said.
“Most bearded guys are skilled,” Serena said.
Drake glared at her. “How would you know?”
She lifted one shoulder and pushed a marshmallow onto her stick. “I dated a bearded guy one summer in college. He was pretty amazing.”
Drake’s knuckles turned white around the neck of the guitar. Dean took it from him before he broke it and began strumming another tune.
“We weren’t talking about sex,” Emery explained. “We were actually talking about meditation and how sometimes we can meditate so deeply it’s hard to come out of it, while other times our minds are too chaotic to even begin to find mindfulness. And I said that my go-to image for relaxation is the koshas. If you can visualize a circle with five layers, that’s pretty much what it looks like. The outer circle is your physical body, and as the layers get closer to the center, each one is made of increasingly finer grades of energy, until you get to the innermost circle and you find what some people refer to as yourtrue self.”
Dean had seen the image she’d described before, but he couldn’t place where. As Emery explained the meaning of each layer, he tried to remember where he’d seen it.
“I think we should try to reach your innermost layer tonight,” Rick said to Desiree.
“Shh,” Desiree warned.
“That would be experienced as happiness and delight.Sheer bliss.” Emery popped up to her feet and grabbed her backpack. “Des, can you and Serena hold up towels so I can change out of my wet bathing suit?”
“Sure.” Desiree and Serena pushed to their feet and held up the towels to shield her from the others.
Dean stole a glance at Drake and Rick, who were pointedly looking away. This was Emery in action. He bit his tongue and blew her a kiss when she looked over, reminding himself that in Emery’s mind, these were her most trusted friends.At least she asked for towels.
“Actually,” Emery said, moving out from between the towels. “I’ll go change in the ladies’ room.”
A knot Dean hadn’t realized had formed unfurled in his gut. “I’ll walk you up.”
He set down the guitar and reached for Emery’s backpack. His other arm circled her waist as they headed for the path that led up toward the parking lot and the bathrooms.
When they were out of earshot from the others he said, “You didn’t have to do that because of me.”
“I didn’t,” she said, and put her head on his shoulder. “I did it for us.”
Dean didn’t know much about layers, or what needed to happen internally or externally to a person for each layer to pass for having been fully experienced and nurtured. But he was pretty sure the all-consuming happiness burrowing down and taking root in his soul counted as having found hissheer bliss.
Chapter Twenty
“LOOKS LIKE OURflexibendclass has spectators today,” Magdeline whispered, pointing to a small group of elderly men peering in through the glass doors. She ran her hand along her polyester-pant-covered hip and pushed out her chest. “We are thehotladies of LOCAL, after all. Everyone is talking about how much younger we look now that we’re doing flexibend.”
Emery chuckled. She was working with Rose today, or at least Rose was her main focus, as this was one of their one-on-one sessions. Magdeline and Arlin accompanied Rose to each of their thrice weekly sessions, gently reminding Rose to sit up straight, breathe deeper, relax her shoulders, and other loving nags, like sisters might. They cheered Rose on with every ounce of progress she made. And Rosewasmaking progress. Not only was she carrying herself differently, sitting up straighter, holding her head up higher, and moving more comfortably, but her eyes were brighter, and most importantly, she was breathing more easily.
“Okay, sexy ladies. How about we concentrate on aligning our spines and do some deep breathing to show those handsome men what you’re really made of?” Emery pointed to three sets of blankets she’d folded and set on the floor. One for each of the three incredible women who had already stolen a piece of her heart.
