her hair. “Okay, this one involves some punches and knees to the groin, so we’re going to be very careful. We’re just going to simulate those until we have pads.”
“Trying to preserve future generations of Jennings?”
“Among other things. Grab my arms. Good.” He instructed her to pull herself in at the waist, swing her hips to the side, make a fist, and strike the groin.
After she completed this he said, “Now pivot and reach around my neck, interlocking your hands.”
She did as he asked, peering up at him. They were inches apart. His hands clenched at her sides.
“This is nice right now,” she said. “But it’s the last thing I’d feel like doing in the middle of an attack.”
“It goes against instinct to get closer to the threat, but it works. Now’s when you drive your knee upward into the groin once or twice. You’ll want to do all this quickly, catch him off guard. An attacker won’t be expecting this—that gives you the element of surprise.”
They went through the motions. There were more moves to this one, but she was a fast learner, so it didn’t take long. In a short time she had two defensive moves down pretty solidly. It was rewarding, teaching her to protect herself.
He thought back to his conversation with the gym owner. Jim had asked if Wyatt would be interested in teaching a course, but he wouldn’t be around long enough to do so. Too bad, because that was something he’d always wanted to do. Teaching women to defend themselves was a worthy cause. His schedule just didn’t allow for it.
“I think that’s enough for today,” he said as she drank from her water bottle.
“Just one more?”
“You need to work on the ones I just showed you. Practice them for a few minutes every day if you can. Maybe midweek we can go to the gym and spar for real—if you have time with all the wedding stuff you’ve got going on.”
“Now that Mia’s here, she’s taken all that on. But what about your search? I have Thursday off. And I get off Wednesday at three—that’s a little late in the day to get started, I know.”
Wyatt had been giving that some thought the last few days.
“About that . . .” He stepped closer and took her hand, running his thumb along the soft skin on the back of it. “I’d like to have you along, but I don’t know about the nights, Gracie. The camping.”
Understanding dawned on her face. “Things have changed a little since last time.”
“We’ve definitely crossed a certain line. And as much as I might want to share a sleeping bag with you, it’s probably not the smartest idea.”
“Did I say you could share my sleeping bag?” she teased. “But yeah, you’re right. We’ll have to work around that somehow, the overnight part.”
He stepped closer and set his hands gently at her waist. “Let’s practice the frontal hold.”
“Is that a thing?”
“It’s a very good thing.” He pulled her closer until their faces were inches apart. He took in the beautiful planes, the perfect little nose, the lush lips, slightly parted and ready for him.
“Would now be a good time for me to practice that knee move?”
“Only if you want me to stop.”
“Hmm.” Grace stretched toward him like a flower toward the sun. “Never mind.”
Chapter Thirty-Three
The next week passed in a blur. It was a good thing they’d hired Miss Della’s granddaughter, Jada, to help out around the inn because the wedding preparations ended up absorbing extra time. The bridal party had one more dress fitting. There were extra errands and last-minute glitches. Grace and Molly pitched in wherever they could to take the stress off Levi and Mia.
On Tuesday evening Grace slipped away to practice the defense moves with Wyatt at the gym. As promised, he didn’t take it easy on her. He was formidably strong and difficult to escape. She was worried about hurting his shoulder, but he insisted he was fine. As they executed the moves he was very encouraging, always praising her efforts.
She had the moves down, and he continually pushed her to use all her strength, to be bold and aggressive. He even had her shouting as she went through the motions. She felt silly at first, but something about using her voice freed her up to be more forceful. Their demonstration gathered a small crowd, and afterward several people expressed interest in learning self-defense.
Unfortunately, due to the wedding preparations, Grace had to call off the