Ripped - Cassia Leo Page 0,31

eyes as she snatches up the mats and tosses them onto the concrete patio. “Whatever you say, big man.”

“Dude, why do you keep calling me big? You’re gonna give me a complex.”

She shakes her head and takes us straight into a sun-salutation pose. “Inhale deeply through your nose… And exhale through your mouth… That’s it.”

“I forgot to tell you yesterday that you and Yuri almost got me in trouble when I got home from Trestles. Lindsay smelled the smoke on my clothes and thought I was toking again. Luckily, I spent my entire first day back laying on the perfect-husband routine pretty thick. Saved myself a ton of grief and ended up getting a BJ instead. So everything turned out better than expected.”

She bends over to touch the ground, spreading her arms and feet to form a pyramid with her body. “Downward-facing dog,” she says, not bothering to acknowledge my attempt at conversation.

She was also pretty quiet yesterday when I tried to ask how Yuri was doing after being around all the action at Trestles. I tried asking Yuri, but he gave me the typical response, assuring me that he was okay, but I know it had to be difficult on him to be back among the action.

“Is Yuri coming to Portugal or is he staying behind to man the shop?” I ask, because Yuri and Lena can’t keep pretending that everything is okay.

I know I should just let it go and focus on my own goals and problems, but I need Lena to be at her best. Plus, worrying about my best friends is not how I should be spending the weeks leading up to Pipeline.

“No, he’s staying behind. He… He…”

I stand up so I can have this conversation without my ass sticking up in the air, but Lena stays bent over. “He what?” I ask.

She sighs as she stands up, brushing the grass off the front of her yoga pants. “He put on a good show for you, but he hated being at Trestles. He’s just… really not taking it well.”

“Not taking what well?”

She looks up at me, her brown eyes widening, as if I should know what she’s getting at. “This. You and I working together while you’re on the fast track to a championship. He thinks it means something.”

“What? What does he think it means?”

She shakes her head. “I don’t know. I think he thinks I work better with you than with him. Or that you’re doing better because he’s not around to drag you down. He’s just being weird. And then…”

I wait for her to continue, but she shrugs off the thought and bends over to get back into position. “Then what, Lena? Are you guys having problems? What the fuck’s going on?”

She sits down cross-legged on the warm grass and I take a seat next to her. “He wants to travel around Asia for a year after the tour is over in December.”

I try not to let my disappointment show on my face. I’ve gotten used to having Lena as a trainer this year. I don’t know if her training style is what pushed me over the edge into top-seed territory, but I know I like hanging out with her more than my old trainer, Remy. She’s cool as fuck and much easier on the eyes.

“Look, if you’re thinking of staying here for me, you don’t have to do that,” I say, imbuing my words with as much honesty as I can, considering it feels like a load of bullshit. “I mean, yeah, I’ll miss having you around, but I can find another trainer before January. Shit, after all my wins this season, I’ll have trainers lining up to work with me. Don’t stay here for me.”

She looks me in the eye for a moment, a crease forming between her eyebrows. “I don’t want to go. I want to stay here and train you until…” She drops her gaze to her hands, which rest in her lap. “I want to start a family.”

I sigh as I realize my suspicions about Lena were true. “You have to tell Yuri,” I say, shaking my head as I lean back on my hands. “You can’t hold something like that inside. Secrets like that are like poison. Trust me.”

She plucks a few blades of grass and rolls them between her fingers. “Can I ask you a question?”

“Shoot.”

She glances at me a couple of times as she seems to be working up the nerve to ask. “Do you ever