HANDLE WITH CARE (The Ludzecky Sisters Book 5) (2 page)

Twenty people had come for class. The April weather had become milder, so business was picking up, too. She went to the front where a circular mat held the props she’d need. Again, she dropped down on a blanket and went into full lotus position, each leg crossing over the other. “Hello, everybody. And welcome to the new session of
gentle yoga.”

Damn
, Max thought, trying to check everybody else out and not be obvious about it. This was the easy class? He hadn’t caught that when he checked the webpage.

She started with breathing. He’d promised himself he was going to give this his best effort. He’d do everything she asked and see what happened. He glanced to the side. Hell, this was Tom’s first class?
He sat on a bolster, too, as she’d instructed, but his knees were way closer to the floor than Max’s. The competitor in him didn’t like being shown up.

“Close your eyes,” she said soothingly. “Breathe in, breathe out.”

Geez. He kept his eyes open.

But he did follow the breathing routine. It didn’t feel half bad.

After that exercise came
openers
, she called them. His thigh muscles
ached when he was on his back like everyone else and tried to put his knees out to the sides. Since it hurt, he raised his head. Almost everybody else was accomplishing the pose. Next to him, Tom seemed relaxed and happy.

And that was only the beginning…

An hour later, Max felt like a last-round draft pick. Most of the poses she’d demonstrated, he could only attempt. When some of the standing
ones required strength, he thought he’d made it to the end zone, but then he couldn’t stretch his legs to do them naturally. At the close of the class, she told them to lie comfortably on the mat for final resting pose, called some foreign word. At first, he couldn’t even do that, until she came to his side, gently lifted his head and put a folded up blanket under it. Then she slid the bolster
under his knees. He practically collapsed into both. The full support was blissful to his saturated muscles.

Too soon, she said, “Now let yourself wake up…move fingers and toes…go to your right side, use your hands to sit up. Turn and face me.”

Reluctantly, Max did what she instructed. “Go into an easy seated pose, like this: put your hands together…bow your head…say
namaste.
It means
the divine in me honors the divine in you
.” When they were finished, she asked, “If you wouldn’t mind putting the props away after each class that would be helpful to me.”

Max and Tom were still sitting when she approached them. “Hey guys, did you enjoy your first yoga class?”

Tom stood immediately, but he had to use his hands, at least, to get up from the floor. “It was great, Sofia. I
feel like a million bucks.” Reaching out, he touched her arm, squeezed. “I might want to take more than one class a week.”

“That will help your flexibility.”

A smile. This one male. “Catch you later.”

When he left, Max watched him walk away. He was tall and a lot less muscular than Max was. Sofia dropped down in front of him. “How do you feel, Max?”

“Pretty much like I got hit
by a three-hundred-pound linebacker. Ten times.”

“It wasn’t that bad, was it?”

“Tell that to my screaming thighs.”

“Then you did too much.”

“Not according to everybody else.”

Her dark blond brows furrowed. “This isn’t a sport where you compete with others. Only yourself.”

“I don’t understand that.”

“It’s your own body that counts. How you can stretch and strengthen
it. How you can center yourself while doing poses. I watched you during the session looking at other people. That’s not good. You’ve got to go inward.”

“I’m as extroverted as they come.”

“Which is okay. So are my sisters. They can manage focus and inner calm. Well, sometimes. Ana had been the worst, but now that she…” She trailed off. “Never mind.”

“I got three brothers. We never seem
to be still.”

“It’s okay that you’re outgoing. But do you honestly think your lack of flexibility is healthy for you and, I assume, your players?”

“That’s kind of why I came. The guys have had some injuries lately. And I can tell they don’t move fluidly. I thought of what you said about the football players who took yoga.” Actually, he’d researched them online and they swore by it.

“Do you stretch before each game and practice?”

“Yeah, and before lifting. But obviously, it isn’t enough or, probably even the right way. Hell, I can feel it isn’t.”

“I’d have to see you in action to determine that.”

“God!” He chuckled. “You’d have to wear sackcloth and cover that hair. Even in a braid, it’s beautiful. And distracting.” As soon as he said the words, he remembered thinking
she wasn’t pretty. But now, in her own environment, she glowed.

For some reason, his flattery made her scowl. “I’m more than my hair, Max.”

What the hell? “I didn’t mean to say you weren’t.”

She stood abruptly. “Be careful when you get up. Scoot your legs to the side and use your hands to jackknife your body. Then come to standing. Her voice had lost its warmth.

He tried to follow
her directions, but basically he climbed clumsily to his feet. When he faced her, he cocked his head. “Did I say something wrong? I wasn’t coming on to you about your hair.”

She took in a deep breath and let it out slowly. “No.” She seemed to consciously relax. “It’s a touchy subject.”

“Why?”

“I don’t talk about it much. I prefer not to. So, can you come back soon? As I told Tom, if
you take more than one class, it will more than double your progress.”

“This week?” He thought about his date Thursday night, the football meeting with parents on Wednesday. “I’m pretty busy.”

“Okay. I guess I’ll see you when I see you.”

He wondered why he’d wanted her to press him, persuade him to come more often. Huh, he usually hated game playing—of the emotional kind.

“Earth to Sofia.”

Sofia’s head snapped up. Six of the Ludzecky girls sat around the dining table in Magdalena’s condo, which now was occupied by their youngest sister. Mags had moved in with Logan. And more. Which was why they were here, sans a sister.

“You been starin’ into space, sista.” Elizabeita often took to using slang when she was with the family.
Sofia wondered if it was all show, that Lizzie had to play the role of the baby when they were together.

“Yes, Lizzie?”

“What do you think of what Nia said?”

She hadn’t heard it. “Um?”

Nia smiled. “They’re teasing me that Magdalena’s going to walk down the aisle before I am.”

Now, that announcement had been a surprise. Logan had asked Mags to marry him right away. He’d decided
he wanted it without fanfare, maybe because his ex-girlfriend was expecting a child in a few months. His child.

“I think you and Rafe will tie the knot when you know the time is right. When his universe settles in again. How is he?”

Rafe Castle, Nia’s guy, had lost his mentor and surrogate father only four months ago. When Sofia had last seen him, he was his usual kind and friendly self,
but the evidence of his grief resided in his eyes, and his aura was depressed.

“He’s getting better every day. We’ll move on in our own time, as Sofia said.” Nia glared at Lizzie. “Troublemaker.”

Elizabeita turned her gaze back to Sofia. “You were staring off into space for at least a minute. Who’s the guy? The cute vice principal?”

Who Sofia had a date with at the end of the week.
“Not exactly.” Usually, she didn’t invite her sisters into her business—they’d never leave, for heaven’s sake—but her thoughts were definitely not about Gus Carney.

“Ah.” This from Ana, whose eyes danced. She’d been playful like this for weeks, since she’d remarried her ex. “Who is it?”

“Okay. I wanted to tell you anyway. I need some advice.” She put the clippings they’d gotten off the
Internet down on the table. They were making a scrapbook of the successful business ventures of Logan and Magdalena, since the couple had said they’d refuse gifts for their wedding.

Ana sobered. “Go on, honey.”

“This is about the head of the PE department at the high school. I didn’t expect to see him again until September, but he came to my yoga class last week.”

Paulina’s eyes rounded.
“A jock at yoga? Was he good at it?”

“No, he wasn’t. He could barely stretch out his legs. I’m sure he’s strong, but it was overshadowed by his lack of flexibility.”

“Why on earth did he come to your class?” Nia asked.

“I challenged him the day I went to school, when Opal was sick. Remember, Ana?”

“Uh-huh.” Ana sipped her tea. Everybody was having a glass of wine but her.

“There was a fight in the hall just as I got there. He broke it up. We went to the teacher’s cafe to wait for Gus, who’d taken the kids to the office. We kind of got into it.”

“You got
into
something?” This from Caterina. “I don’t believe it. That’s like saying God got
into it
with the angels.”

Sofia laughed. They liked to tease her about her calm nature. Usually, she avoided conflict.
“He made some snide comments about yoga when we had coffee and tea. I pointed out how football players could use the practice. He disagreed. So I invited him to a class to try it out.”

“And he was a bust.” Elizabeita threw up her hands. “God, I love it when men are put in their place.”

“How do you think that will affect your teaching in the fall?” Caterina asked. “I hate to think about
him giving you a hard time.”

She stared at her sisters, focusing a bit longer on Ana, who’d confided her most private experiences to Sofia in order to get past them. Sofia could be that brave. “I wasn’t thinking about that. I was, um, picturing his pecs. And his abs. And his tight butt.”

Paulina choked on the wine she’d just taken a sip of, and Nia practically fell off the chair. Everybody
else was open-mouthed. Caterina managed to say, “Is this our sister who seems immune, let’s say, to the corporeal nature of men?”

“I’m not immune. Usually, a man’s body isn’t as important to me as his spiritual makeup.”

“Does the jock
have
a spiritual makeup?”

“Not nice, Lizzie,” Sofia chided. “Everybody has one, but some are more developed than others. I think his is buried under
all those muscles.” She giggled. “God, I can’t believe I’m talking about him this way. I’ve only been with him a few times. But he upset my chakra right away.”

“And that’s bad?” Nia wanted to know.

“Yes, because his physicality intimidates me. He’s nearly twice my size, I hardly come up to his shoulder, and he takes up a lot of physical and psychic space.” She shook her head. “What’s happening
to me? I prefer more internally focused men.”

“You didn’t with Damien.” Ana made the statement soberly.

“Yeah, I guess, and look how that went.”

“I still hate him for what he did to you.”

“Lizzie, you were ten years old.”

“Later, when I realized he dumped you because you were sick, I started to hate him.”

“None of us were too fond of the jerk,” Paulina put in.

Ana focused
on Lizzie. “Elizabeita, you have to be more forgiving.”

“Are we talking about Damien or Jared?”

“Both.”

“Sorry, Ana, but I’m never going to accept Jared again. He cheated on you.”

Ana looked to Sofia. Sofia understood the question in her eyes. “I think it would be okay.”

They all talked at once.

“What would be?”

“Ana, what’s wrong?”

“What does Sofia know that we
don’t?”

Ana pushed the clippings away. “I confided in Sofia that my problems with Jared were deeper than any of you know. It’s hard to talk about, but I’ll just say it out loud.” She glanced at Nia and Paulina. “And don’t you take any blame for this. After the guys died, I moved out of my house. For three months.”

“That—” Of course, Lizzie spoke.

She held up her hand. “No, don’t interrupt
me. After a reasonable amount of time, Jared wanted me to come home. But I couldn’t let go of you guys. That’s not the worst of it, either. When I did get home, we couldn’t get close. I know you’re going to say grief does that to people, but this lasted for months.”

“So he turned to somebody else? And blamed you? How low can you go? Fuck him.”

“Lizzie, shut up.” Ana seemed surprised at
herself for uttering the harsh words, but went on anyway. “He says he was weak, and stupid, and it was all his fault. He never blamed me.” She ran a hand through her hair. “We both made mistakes, and he’s suffered over this for two years. So have I. All that time, I still loved him and was in agony over our split. I was so angry, so afraid I’d go back to him, I had to say mean things to all of you.
And not confess my part in it.”

Everyone was silent.

Finally, Ana added, “You can talk now.”

Sofia stood, walked around the table and hugged her sister. “That was very brave of you.”

The others chimed in. All except Elizabeita.

Ana’s gaze narrowed on her little sister. “Lizzie, you’re entitled to your feelings about Jared. But I’d like you to try to get over them, especially
now.”

“Why, because you’re married?”

“No, baby, because I’m pregnant.”

Max watched Lauren Talbot, an administrative intern at the high school, come into the restaurant. Her hair, simply cut, swung to her shoulders; the dress she wore flared at the knees as she walked in kill-me-right-now high heels. When she reached the table, he stood and noted the gold at her neck,
wrists and ears. “Hi.” He kissed her cheek. What was that? Some kind of sexy perfume. He pulled out her chair. His mother had taught all four of her boys to be polite.

“Would you like a drink?” He nodded to his. “Not beer, of course.”

“I’ll pass on that.” The waiter approached them. “I’d like a glass of the driest chardonnay you have.”

She sat back, and he noticed though her makeup
was perfect, her dark eyes were tired. “Bad day?”

“Another fight after school.”