Sexy wives were seriously disruptive to good sun salutations. "Think Caro will mind if we take a quick detour to Tahiti?" He had connections - they could probably be there in ten minutes.
She chuckled, stretching her arms to the sky. "Not if we bring her back some pretty yarn."
Yarn shopping was most definitely not what he had on his mind. He sighed, heading back into warrior pose. Yoga in the park with his wife wasn't too bad of a consolation prize.
Maybe it would help him deal with the ripples moving in the Sullivan pond, too.
Nat leaned forward in a graceful swan dive, pasting her nose to her knees.
Jamie did the same and waved to his knees from two feet away.
His wife chuckled. "Want to talk about it?"
Yoga chatting was a new phenomenon - the product of parenting necessity. He slid a leg back into lunge. "Talk about what?"
"Nell. Lauren says she's struggling with Beth again."
Yeah. Which was really weird. "A rogue witch could land on Nell's lawn sending flaming fireballs to the sky, and she would put out the fire and hand them a cookie." He leaned back into the contortion known as reverse warrior. "And someone who can't even produce a reliable fire globe has her stomach churning."
He didn't get it.
Nell floated into handstand again. "She's afraid."
That made even less sense. "Of what?"
"I'm not sure yet." The troubled look in his wife's eyes was way more disturbing than the foot arching to touch her head. "I don't think she is, either."
That wasn't at all comforting. "How do we fix it?"
Nat brought her feet down into a backbend that would have snapped him into six pieces. "Maybe we don't."
That didn't compute. Sullivan family rules - you didn't leave someone in the muck alone. Jamie sat down, done with the pretzel part of his afternoon. "I was hoping you'd tell me which bad dude to go fight."
It was tough to be a superhero without a target.
"Maybe she just needs to be afraid for a while." His wife folded into lotus beside him, emanating calm - and quiet sadness. "Fear can be a teacher too."
It sliced at him to think of his big sister wandering in the shadows. But the woman at his side had taught him a lot more than a decent triangle pose. He slid his fingers into Nat's and took a deep breath. Pictured Nell in his mind. And sent a message out to the universe.
My big sister? She doesn't walk alone.
Chapter 14
Nell eyed the trio coming through her back gate. Her brothers had been suspiciously happy to drop by and pick up Beth this morning.
She snorted as she spotted cookie crumbs on Devin's t-shirt. Rumors of snickerdoodles had been making the rounds - ones that lived with the witch who swore she didn't eat cookies.
Be nice. Jamie's mental voice came accompanied by a sizable eye roll. I don't think she eats many, and Dev got her last two.
Nell wasn't born yesterday. Got there first, did you?
His grin could have been swiped from the Cheshire cat. Yup. I deserved them - Kenna got up at the crack of dawn again.
The crack of dawn arrived at about 7 a.m. these days. Wimp.
Devin cleared his throat and darted eyes at the woman standing quietly beside him. "We going to get this show on the road, people? Some of us have stuff to do today."
Jamie elbowed his brother. "That's not what you said while you ate her last cookie."
Great. The Moe and Curly show. On purpose, no doubt - they liked to leave her holding the bag of grown-up behavior. Nell smiled at Beth, whose nerves were obvious now. Time to skip the small talk, as ordered. "If you need a resupply on the cookies, just let me know. Ready to get started?"
Visible relief came along with the quiet nod.
Nell led the way to a patch of grass covered in a simple canvas sheet. Nat's idea. She took a seat on the eastern edge and gestured with her left hand. "I'll be handling air today. We usually have fire calling from the south, if that works for you."
More relief as Beth sat and folded her legs. "That's how we