two, one,” Gemma said to the class.
I breathed along with her instructions from the hall, trying to ease the anger and frustration spinning inside me. I hated knowing that Flynn was right. Obviously, I’d stopped speaking to Gabriel for a reason. Obviously, Gabriel still had the capacity to hurt me.
Yet I wanted him too much to keep him at bay.
At the sound of light footsteps approaching, I lifted my forehead from my knees, looking down the hall to see Daphne walking toward me.
She stopped in front of me, her perceptive gaze skimming my face quickly before she turned and slid her hips down the wall to sit beside me, mirroring my pose with her knees pulled up. She rested her chin on her hands folded over her knees and angled her face to look at me.
“What’s up?”
Daphne had this way about her. When she first arrived at Walker Adventures as a guest last year, I’d liked her immediately, although she came across as rather buttoned up and prissy, even prim at times. As I’d gotten to know her, I’d discovered she was fiercely loyal and kind, and she had a silly side that only came out around those who knew her well. She’d been through her own trial by fire when she lost her son to a rare form of brain cancer when he was only five years old. In spite of that, or perhaps because of it, she tended to charge at life, and she held those close to her in her embrace and was fiercely protective.
Flynn had fallen for her so hard, my poor brother had scared himself. I trusted no one more than Daphne to protect his heart the way she did. Her gaze contained a tender gravity, and I knew she would understand.
“Flynn and I had an argument. It might’ve been my fault,” I mumbled.
She blinked, her lips curling very slightly in a smile. “Or perhaps it was his fault. He does have that kind of—” Lifting her chin off her hands, she gave an airy wave. “You know, like a brother-knows-best kind of vibe. With me, it’s man-knows-best, and it can be annoying. Did you want to slap him? Happens to me now and then. Although I would never do that.”
A laugh rustled in my throat, and I leaned back against the wall, straightening my legs and rolling my ankles in circles. “I know you wouldn’t. He does know best, or he likes to think so. I didn’t appreciate him talking with Gabriel about us.”
“Ah,” she said with a sage nod. “I advised him against that. He said he felt it was necessary because he didn’t want Gabriel to be stupid.”
“Stupid?”
“Yeah, by breaking your heart again. If he did that, Flynn would be caught in the middle. He doesn’t want to make a choice between you and one of his best friends,” Daphne said matter-of-factly. She straightened her legs as well and removed an elastic hairband from her wrist. She continued talking while she slipped her fingers through her hair and twisted it into a ponytail. “Flynn loves you, and he’s worried that you and Gabriel sort of share similar baggage.”
I groaned and leaned my head against the wall behind me. “Great. So he’s talked to you about this too?”
She divided the ponytail and gave it a tug to tighten it. Dropping her hands, she looked at me again. “Of course. He tells me everything. He does have enough sense to know I won’t tell him everything you tell me, though.”
Shifting close to her, I wrapped my arm around her shoulder and gave her a squeeze before leaning back again. “You’re the best almost-sister-in-law I could have.”
Her cheeks went a little pink. “Same.”
“How about we discuss when you and Flynn are actually going to get married?” I teased lightly.
Daphne’s cheeks flushed even pinker. “I don’t know. I haven’t had time to plan it.”
“Well, we need to get to planning for Cammi and Elias.”
“Oh, I know,” she said slowly. “I am so happy for them.”
“Elias is so much more mellow these days,” I commented.
“Regular sex will do that,” Daphne offered frankly just as the door to the yoga room opened.
Gemma glanced down at us, her lips twitching with a smile. “Agreed.”
We burst into laughter as we stood. We waited while the guests left the room and then walked in. I put my shoes away in one of the little cubbies Cat had set up. We all had our own yoga mats now.
Gemma’s honey-gold curls glinted under