And fondly. The yoga pants made her ass look amazing and some of the poses were downright erotic—at least when it was Allie doing it in front of him. More than once he’d come home to find her working out and had been unable to keep from working her out in another way.
“Yoga, huh? I better go check on her.”
“It’s not gonna work to calm her down,” Lydia said. “She can’t relax. She’s like a frickin’ hummingbird. She can’t sit still, she can’t just chill. I liked her better when she was sleeping all day.”
A hummingbird. Not a bad analogy. “She’s been having a hard time.”
Lydia just looked at him for a long moment. “Lots of people have hard times.”
“Yep. And some of them handle it by going to bed for several days, some handle it by keeping busy, and some…” he paused meaningfully, “…handle it by running away.”
Lydia turned to the stove and banged her spoon on the pan again. “Just make sure she doesn’t break my machine or she’s buying me a new one.”
Got it. They weren’t going to talk. That had been working for them for almost a year now.
He headed for the living room, hoping to find Allie in the bridge pose.
But he pulled up short in the doorway.
She was most definitely not doing yoga.
She was punching and kicking. Hard. She was gasping for air and sweating and looked like she’d been at it for a while. She also looked like she was worked up enough to keep going.
He propped his shoulder against the doorway and watched for a few minutes, not wanting to get in the way of this. It looked like kickboxing wasn’t new to her. Besides, she was wearing yoga pants and an exercise bra. Only. It wasn’t yoga, but he couldn’t help but appreciate the view.
Finally she stopped and put her hands on her knees, bending at the waist and pulling in long breaths. Clearly she didn’t know he was there, so he took time to drink in the sight of the curve of her back, the way tendrils of hair escaped her ponytail and clung to her wet skin, the way her breasts lifted and fell as she breathed.
After a minute, she lowered herself to the floor and then sprawled on her back, knees bent, still just breathing. Her eyes were squeezed tight and she flung an arm over her face. There was something about her, something about how she was pushing herself, something about all of this that felt…wrong. Something was off. He should have been concerned about her working out so hard. She’d just gotten over being sick. In fact, she wasn’t even done taking her antibiotics yet. Surely she should be taking it easier than this.
He started into the room, but just then Allie pounded her fists onto the floor beside her. “Fuck!”
Eyebrows up, he watched her push to her feet, stomp to the Wii and change the game disc. A moment later, she stepped back, pushed some buttons on the controller in her hand and then started shooting the crap out of the bad guys that were jumping out from behind buildings and cars on the screen.
She blew up a couple of buildings, used a rocket launcher on a truck, and shot several more men before she got nailed by one of them.
She stood, staring at the screen, panting.
“Allie?”
She swung to face him, visibly startled to find him there.
“You okay?”
She just stared at him, breathing hard. Then she shook her head, let out a little sob and stumbled toward him.
He caught her against his chest. Her arms wound around him tightly and she buried her face in his neck. He just held on.
Hands splayed big across her back, he held her. And when it became clear that she was crying, he held her tighter. Her tears were hot against his skin, her body shook and all he could do was stand there, squeezing his own eyes shut and rubbing up and down her back.
He had no words. And he hated it.
It felt like two years had passed by the time she loosened her hold slightly and the shaking in her body calmed.
Minutes later, the crying seemed over, but she clearly didn’t want to move out of his arms. Which was just fine with him. He bent and scooped her up. She didn’t protest, didn’t even gasp. She just cuddled closer as he started for the stairs.
His own shaking didn’t start until they stepped into the bedroom. She