Page 48 of Ten Rules for Faking It
Oddly enough? She did.You’ve got this. Even if you don’t, pretend you do.
“Okay,” Rob said after he’d led them through a series of yoga poses. He was surprisingly agile and flexible for such a big guy. She didn’t know if Chris was because if she wanted to not fall over in front of him, she needed to keep her eyes glued to the instructor.
“Feet planted shoulder-width apart. You want to keep your core tight but your body loose.” Some of the words were drowned out by Everly’s heartbeat as it picked up its pace, beginning to thunder in her ears.Breathe. Just listen to the instruction. Just listen to his voice.Every time she inhaled, she caught a hint of Chris, and it wrecked her focus.
Rob walked them through a cross punch, a hook, uppercut, and jab. He made the movement look fluid and easy, but Everly felt clunky.
“You’re doing great,” Chris whispered from beside her, following the motions with the ease of someone well practiced.
She glanced his way, stared at his profile for a minute, missing Rob’s instruction for combining the moves.
“What relaxes you?”
“What?”
He stepped closer, still punching the air. “Think of something that relaxes you. There has to be something you can think of that settles you the way tapping your fingers does. Picture that. Forget about everything else.”
Wait. What? How did he know about her tapping? Rob continued to model the movements, increasing the pace. When he began walking through the classroom, Everly focused all her attention on what she was doing.
Right, right, left. Step forward, uppercut. Rob nodded when he approached.
“Nice job. This guy distracting you?” He grinned at them, giving Chris a friendly shove.
Chris blew out a noisy breath. “Shut up, man.”
Rob ignored him. “Because I could show you how to drop him to his knees with just a couple of moves.”
Despite the fact that sweat was starting to drip down her back, her heart was going too fast for what she was doing, and she was ultra-aware of Chris beside her, she laughed. “I’d like to learn that.”
“Hey!” Chris stopped punching and stared at her.
Everly’s mouth dropped open. She dropped her own fists, bringing one to her mouth to hide the grin, then gave up. “I didn’t mean for you, necessarily.”
Chris stared at her, his lips twitching with amusement. “Really?”
Feeling an unexpected wave of bravery—maybe from endorphins—she put her fists back up and smiled at Rob, then looked at Chris. “Not unless you make me mad.”
Rob laughed. “I like her. She’s feisty.”
Everly’s breath caught. She was?Feistywasn’t a word she applied to herself. She liked it.
“If you really want to kick his ass, or anyone else’s, let’s adjust your stance. Another time, we can work on disabling a guy for the hell of it.”
Rob corrected her position, telling her to angle her hips in a slightly different way, how to stabilize her feet, then moved back to the front of the class.
“Okay, we’ll work through some kicks, put it all together, and then we’re going to work on sparring.” His voice easily carried over the music.
“You know him?” Everly asked, enjoying the thrum of energy vibrating through her body.
“My neighbor and friend.”
Ahh. Likely the reason we get so many free passes given to the station for doing a live event.
The kicks were more fun than she’d expected, but the combination of jab, jab, cross punch, kick, kick took more work. By the sixth time, she got it down and felt a burst of satisfaction pump through her blood.
“Nice job. You’re a natural,” Chris said, wiping his forehead with the back of his forearm.
She snorted out a laugh and was breathing too heavily to feel embarrassed by the sound. Instead, she gave herself a moment by grabbing a drink. She could do this.You are doing this.She hadn’t made a fool of herself at all. Maybe she’d come to another class. Stacey would love this.
