Come To Me (Dare With Me #3) - J.H. Croix Page 0,7

fun to be a statistic—yet another teenage girl fending off inappropriate sexual advances from an adult coach.

My parents didn’t know how to fix that little mess. All in all, between the situation with my coach and then injuring my back the following year, my promising college sports career collapsed. The saving grace was I found yoga to help with my injury. I loved it, and I loved teaching classes. Between that and riding horses, another holdover from childhood and a bright spot, I carved my own path, a path that led me to Alaska by chance.

Now, my parents acted like I was a million miles away and took it a little personally that I’d chosen to move away from Portland. They felt guilt for not understanding my struggles earlier, all of it compounded by what happened with my coach. I knew they genuinely didn’t expect me to change who I was for them, but it had become this tangled, messy baggage in the aftermath of how things played out. For reasons I couldn’t easily articulate, I knew I needed the distance and a fresh start to find my footing in life. Alaska was giving me that.

I hurried into my yoga studio, casting a quick look around. It was a shared rental space that hosted my yoga classes, exercise classes for physical therapy patients, and dance classes. I loved the space as it was open and bright with a beautiful view out the windows toward the mountains.

Students started trickling in not long after I got everything set up and unlocked the doors. I found that the morning group tended to be the students who were serious and wanted to start their days with yoga. I loved it because it got me to start my day that way too.

My day was busy between my morning class and then heading home to let the horses out into the pasture and do some training with Charlie. After my mishap, I wasn’t riding him outside of the fenced area. I was working with him in the small lunging ring. He had basic training, but his spunky personality meant he needed more work to curb some bad habits.

My other job was doing freelance graphic design work. I’d started doing it in Portland for friends on occasion. It wasn’t anything I ever wanted to do full-time, because I couldn’t imagine sitting at the computer for that long, but I enjoyed making signs and promotional materials. It was a steady supplemental income and a great contrast to my other work. Today, after I finished up, I worked on some small graphics for myself to post locally, promoting my yoga classes to tourists

After that, I returned to town for my evening yoga class. The first to arrive: Diego with the crew from the resort. Today’s group included Diego, Grant, Flynn and Daphne, along with Elias and Cammi. This group of men was supercharged with testosterone and sexiness. But then, Alaska men seemed supercharged in general, carrying themselves with an easy type of masculinity, not from working out, but from living rugged lives where they stayed active.

When Diego crossed over to collect a mat from the shelves on the wall, he stopped beside me. “I hope you haven’t gotten thrown off again.”

When I met his eyes, his mouth kicked up at one corner, sending my belly into a series of wild flips. I shook my head. “Oh, no. I don’t think I’ll be taking Charlie on the road again for a while. He has a rambunctious streak.”

“Clearly,” Diego replied with a solemn face. I didn’t miss the teasing glint in his eyes, and my pulse revved in response.

I was blessedly distracted by another student. I started the class, telling myself over and over not to spend too much time focusing on Diego. I made a habit of moving around the room whenever I taught class, but I found my eyes lingering on him, again and again and again. It didn’t help that the man was practically a living, breathing sculpture.

After class, I was chatting with Cammi and Daphne when Daphne said, “You should come.”

“Come to what?” I asked.

“The grand opening.”

“Reopening,” Cammi corrected, her cheeks flushing slightly. “Now that it’s been a few months, and I’ve had time to put my stamp on Misty Mountain, I’m doing a grand reopening this weekend.”

“We’ll all be there,” Elias said as he stopped beside us.

“Of course, you will,” I teased.

Elias curled his arm around Cammi’s shoulders, speaking to the room at large, “Anyone you