Page 37 of Say I'm Yours, Firecracker

Shame shouldn’t take up space in my brain, I fucked Finn in a hall with no privacy for fucks sake. I should not be ashamed that I took pleasure from him. But in a room full of strangers…God I felt like a horny idiot.

We continued with the flow of class, barely touching each other, soft whispers of his skin on mine as he tried to give me space. When we had shifted into the cool down phase, Finn on his haunches and leg spread wide bracketing my body, I let him rub my shoulders.

He didn’t speak as we finished and rolled our mats up to hand back over to Cal for cleaning. She beamed at us and commended us on a job well done. I tried not to cringe thinking about the job she was referring to.

Jenny met us at the shake bar back up near the front of the building. Her hair swayed as she bounced around behind the bar, filling blenders with customer orders.

“Hi, you two!” She yelled while starting three blenders in rapid succession.

We both gave her a murmured reply, something close to a hello. I climbed onto the bar stool and stared at the granite top.

“Rough yoga?” She laughed, and we both looked at each other.

“I’m really sorry.” Finn whispered just loud enough that I could hear. “I should have looked at the schedule closer.”

I laughed, because heabsolutelyshould have. But also, I felt like this broke some of the tension riding between us. Finn joined me, and we laughed together. Jenny beamed at us, “Y’all are the most adorable couple.”

“Oh we…” I started.

“Jenny…” Finn interrupted.

She lifted her arms in front of her, “Sorry, sorry. I know, it’s complicated.”

I raised my brows at him, how much of our lives did he share? It’s like this place was his family. Like Billy’s was mine.

I stared at him while he casually spoke to Jenny and Kip, who joined in on the ribbing. They conversed so easily, Finn’s shoulders were relaxed, his smile easy and open. The burly man I met at Dusk ‘Til Dawn, replaced by this carefree version.

“He’s something, ain’t he?” Jenny slid onto the stool beside mine with a pink shake, and slid it my way. “Strawberry, right?”

I nodded, and my brows kissed in the center as I stared at the shake. It didn’t look the same as what Kip handed Finn. It looked colder somehow.

“Finn brought in strawberry ice cream the other day for you.” She shrugged like it was a totally normal thing to request at a gym. “Said it was your favorite. And dad loves Finn, so ice cream stayed, even if you didn’t come.”

I couldn’t bring the straw to my lips, my jaw hit the floor for a second. Who did that? Finn, that’s who. He really was trying, in the ways he knew how. Like a milkshake instead of a protein shake that he knew I wouldn’t drink.

“Thank you.” I said to her, and she chatted away as I drank the shake. Either she was trying to distract me from my swirling thoughts, or she loved to talk. She told me all the dirt on the people who came through. Who to avoid, who to make friends with. As if she knew I was coming back.

Jenny stood to answer the phone at the check-in desk, Cal breezed through, swatting Jenny’s bottom and telling her to get moving.

“What did you think of yoga this morning?” Cal asked as she got closer.

“It was something.” I replied, “I didn’t realize anywhere in town did Kama Sutra yoga.”

She winked and said, “Oh, we do a lot of ‘out of the normal’ classes. You should come back for prancing with puppies!”

“What in the world is that?” I asked through giggles. It sounded absolutely ridiculous, and exactly like something I’d sign up for.

“It’s less than Zumba, but enough to get your heart racin’. Plus we get with the local shelter and they bring in all the adoptable dogs to dance with us.”

“You’re kidding!” I said, forgetting all about my milkshake.

“It’s a lot of fun, we have a pretty good turn out for it too.” She grabbed her empty cup and tossed it in the trash. “Y’all should come.”

When I turned, Finn was watching us with a big smile on his face. Which I returned, because I’d never felt this good at eight thirty in the morning. They were so welcoming and no one said a word about my many slip ups during yoga.

Pun intended.

“I should get you back.” Finn declared. “Work stops for no one.”

---