by Lucy Score
“Never mind,” Gianna said into the phone before hanging up. She launched herself at Beckett, wrapping her arms around his neck and planting a smacking kiss on his cheek.
He chuckled and lowered her carefully to the ground.
“Thank you, thank you, thank you,” she chanted. “Mr. Mayor saves the day,” she announced to the crowd. He gave a mock bow, acknowledging the cheers and whistles.
Gianna unlocked the front door and started herding students inside.
“Isn’t that lucky that you found Gia’s keys?” Willa said sweetly. Her waterfall of pale blonde hair was pulled back into her trademark braid and she was wearing a Blue Moon Boots tank top.
“I must have left them at his office when I stopped by,” Gianna said cheerfully.
Willa’s curious expression was making Beckett sweat.
“Oh,” Willa smiled. “Were you there on business?”
“Oh, no. I just left my shoes there last night,” Gia answered, holding the door for Willa.
Gianna obviously had no idea the train wreck she was setting into motion, Beckett thought as panic gripped him. It had been funny when it happened to Carter, hilarious even. But to be in the sights of Blue Moon’s diabolical Beautification Committee himself? To be a target of their overt and ridiculous matchmaking attempts?
It was no longer a laughing matter.
“I see,” Willa said, eyes glittering.
“It was just dinner,” Beckett said quickly. “Pizza. We had pizza.” He was babbling. Lawyers didn’t babble. At least, not good ones.
“The kids loved it,” Gia said, beaming up at Beckett.
Beckett wished Gianna would just go inside instead of looking at him like he was some kind of Greek god.
“How sweet,” Willa said. Her phone was already out and he had a sneaking suspicion she had captured Gianna’s greeting on camera. “I guess I’d better get inside. Have a great day, Beckett,” she called over her shoulder.
Beckett felt his blood pressure spike and was about to stop Willa to set the record straight when Summer and Joey jogged down the sidewalk.
“We’re not late, are we?” Summer asked, gasping for air.
“I didn’t know you two were coming!” Gia said. “What a nice surprise! You’re right on time. Just go on in and pick your spots. If you need a mat they’re on the shelves along the wall.”
“She bribed me with lunch,” Joey said, glaring at Summer’s departing back. “You should come, too.”
Gianna blinked. “Well, sure. I’d love to.”
Joey glanced up at Beckett. “You coming?”
He shook his head rapidly from side to side.
“Beckett’s had his fill of yoga for the time being,” Gianna explained, winking up at him. “He suffered through two hot power classes.”
“Hot power yoga?” Joey looked scared.
“Don’t worry,” Gianna reassured her. “Lunch Hour Yoga is a relaxing vinyasa class.” She gently prodded Joey through the door.
“Vin-what-a?”
“Thanks again, Beckett,” Gianna shot him a sweet smile over her shoulder. “You’re my hero of the day.”
He stood rooted to the spot, staring at the glass feeling a mixture of panic and defeat. His phone signaled in his pocket.
“What?”
“That’s not a very Mr. Mayory way to answer the phone,” Carter answered.
“Sorry. I just had a … conversation with Willa.”
His brother’s gleeful chuckle further rankled Beckett. “She works fast. I take it you haven’t seen Facebook yet?” Carter asked.
Beckett swore and pulled the phone away from his ear.
“What am I looking for?” he asked, switching to speakerphone.
“You’ll know it when you see it,” Carter returned cryptically. “I gotta go. Good luck.”
“Good luck?” Beckett muttered. Good luck with what?
Shit.
Blue Moon’s Gossip Group was faster than a Ferrari on the drag strip. Two minutes ago, someone — presumably Willa — had posted a picture of Gianna in his arms exactly where he stood.
Could Blue Moon have a new first lady? It looks like Beckett Pierce might finally be off the market.
The previous post from the night before announced that Beckett and Gianna were sharing a “quiet family dinner.”
His phone rang again and he bobbled it.
“I didn’t interrupt you two working on your wedding registry, did I?” his younger brother snickered.
“Fuck you, Jax,” Beckett growled. He stalked down the street.
“Now don’t tell me the gossip group got it wrong.”
“There is nothing going on between Gianna and me.”
“Oh,” his brother said innocently. “So you didn’t have dinner last night?”
“It wasn’t a date. The kids were there.”
“A nice, quiet family dinner,” Jax quoted.
“I wish you were here so I could punch you in the face,” Beckett muttered. He crossed the street to cut through the square.
Was it his imagination or was everyone looking at him? he wondered.
His brother’s laugh told Beckett that his threat wasn’t being taken seriously.
“So if nothing’s going on, what were you doing making out with her on Main Street?” Jax asked.
“She was thanking me for dropping off her keys.”
“That’s a really friendly thank you. I’m starting to feel shorted. Fitz didn’t thank me like that when I picked up the twenty he dropped at Karma Kustard yesterday. How did you end up with her keys?”
“She left them at my place when she stopped to get her shoes,” Beckett snapped.
“She left her shoes at your place?” Jax’s gleeful tone grated Beckett’s last nerve like lemon juice in an open wound.
“Ask him if they’re going steady!” Beckett heard Carter yell in the background.
“Don’t you assholes have farm things to do?”
“We’re multitasking,” Jax snickered.
“Yeah, well, why don’t you multitask someone else? I’m busy.”
“Busy making out in front of a crowd.”
“Nothing is going on!”
“Uh-huh. So you haven’t kissed her?”
“How did you —”
Jax whooped on the other end of the line.
“I hate you both,” Beckett snarled and hung up.
13
Blissfully unaware that nearly every conversation in town was about her, Gia led the class through another slow sun salutation. She padded between the rows of students, adjusting shoulders here, tweaking foot position there.
“Inhaling and lifting into up dog,” she instructed and breathed with her class. “Keep those glutes tight, Joey.”
She didn’t bother hiding her smile as Joey shot her a glare. Gia loved reluctant yogis.
“With an exhale, roll back on the toes and push those hips back, back, back for down dog. Let’s take a few deep breaths here and settle into the pose.”
She had a dozen students today. Not bad at all for the lunch hour class. Attendance had been better than she’d hoped right off the bat. A benefit of purchasing an existing studio.
She would grow it. She already had ideas. New classes and time slots, private lessons and parties. Blue Moon would be her home and her students would be her neighbors and friends.
She thought of Beckett. Tall, smoldering, with a dry wit and wicked eyes. Where would he fall? Neighbor or friend? As exciting as it would be to explore that attraction, it was a line neither should cross. She had Aurora and Evan to focus on. And Beckett’s distrust of her father added another layer of confusion to the mix.
Maybe someday she would find the partner she always desired. And maybe she would find him here.
“Let’s come into tree pose,” Gia told the class. “In tree we root down so we can lift up.” She returned to her mat and joined the students in the balance pose.
While some proudly stretched their ar
ms overhead, others — including Joey —wobbled and toppled.
“Don’t worry if you’re shaky.” Gia told them. “Wobbling and even falling is part of the process. If you never fall, you aren’t going far enough.”
She spotted Summer sinking down to her mat to sit.
Gia had everyone else switch the pose to the other side before approaching her. “Everything okay?” she asked Summer quietly.
“I was seeing spots,” she said grimly. She brushed an imaginary speck of dirt from her lavender tank top.
Gia handed her a water bottle. “Do you want me to call Carter for you?”
Summer shook her head. “No. It’s nothing. I’m just feeling a little off today.”
“Sometimes our bodies have uncomfortable ways of telling us to take a break,” Gia said. “Make sure you’re listening.”
“Loud and clear. I think I’ll just sit here for the rest of class,” Summer decided.
“Good call,” Gia nodded. “We’re almost finished.”
She moved everyone to the floor for a few deep stretches and ended class the way she always did, with everyone resting in corpse pose. A morbid name, but it was the best way to send everyone back into the world — fully relaxed and aware of their own mortality.
She chatted with her students as they exited, making sure to spend a moment with each one to catch up on their lives and to thank them for coming. By the time the studio cleared out, Joey had scooted over to Summer’s mat and the two were deep in conversation.
“Are you feeling any better?” Gia asked, joining them.
“I am.” Summer’s blond ponytail bounced emphatically.
“We can always take a rain check on lunch if you want to go home and rest.”
“Actually, lunch sounds really good,” Summer countered. “Joey, can you still spare some time for food?”
“I suffered through an entire yoga class. You have to feed me,” she announced. “Just as soon as you call Carter.”
Summer made a face. “I have a complicated health history,” she explained to Gia.
“As a fan of your blog, I’m aware. Do you think this is anything to be concerned about?”
Summer shrugged her slim shoulders. “I don’t think so. When I was diagnosed with adult Hodgkin lymphoma I was tired. So tired all the time. I just thought I was overdoing it at work. But then the weight started to come off and there was this weird swelling in my neck and armpits,” she sighed. “Oh, and then what really freaked me out was drinking wine and feeling a stinging in my lymph nodes.”
“That’s a good indicator of something being really wrong,” Gia agreed.
“This is different. Definitely tired, but I feel more like I’m coming down with a bug.”
Joey shushed her and slapped a hand over Summer’s mouth. “Don’t say that around here,” she hissed. “You haven’t lived through flu season in Blue Moon. Every second-generation hippie and their mama tries to pour lemon ginger tea down your throat. They put up public hand sanitizing stations all over town with homemade cleansers that make you smell like licorice and cow shit.”
Gia could just imagine.
“Natural cold and flu remedies! Great idea, Joey,” Summer said. Gia could see her wheels turning.
“Always on the lookout for article ideas,” Joey told Gia. “Watch out or she’ll drag you with her.”
“Joey, you’re on a roll,” Summer said, eyeing Gia, “I bet you have a ton of them for health and fitness. I’d love to pick your brain sometime.”
“Sure,” Gia agreed. “I’m happy to help.”
“Great. Now, let me text Carter because I’m an open and communicative girlfriend now,” she said, looking pointedly at Joey. “And then we can go for lunch.”
“Good. Now that that’s settled, where are we going?” Joey demanded.
After Summer texted Carter, answered his phone call, and scheduled an appointment with her doctor in the city, they settled on Franklin’s restaurant, Villa Harvest, for lunch.
Summer was still muttering about everyone overreacting while they perused their menus.
“So what does a yoga teacher eat?” Joey asked Gia. “This one over here went vegetarian as soon as Carter got his hooks in her.”
Gia laughed. “I’ve got two growing, picky kids at home. We follow the eighty-twenty rule and throw in one pig-out fest a week.”
“Eighty percent meat, twenty percent cheese?” Joey asked hopefully.
“Uh, no.”
“Don’t mind her,” Summer said, closing her menu. “Joey carries beef sticks in her glove box for emergencies.”
“Speaking of beef sticks …” Joey’s eyebrows winged upward.
Summer choked on her water. “Real smooth, Joey. Well, we’re committed now.”
“What Summer is beating around the bush about is we want to know if you’ve been enjoying Beckett’s beef stick.”
It was Gia’s turn to choke. “My, you all sure are friendly around here.”
Summer snickered. “It goes with the territory. Have you been added to the gossip group on Facebook yet?”
“Gossip group?”
Joey slid her phone across the table to Gia. Facebook was open to a picture of her with Beckett when he dropped off her keys at the studio. Gia blushed crimson to the roots of her hair.
“First lady? Off the market?” Gia dropped the phone. “The whole town can see this?”
“Not the whole town,” Joey said, taking pity on her. “Just any adult who’s a Blue Moon resident past or present.”
“So my father? Phoebe? Beckett? This is not how I wanted to make a fresh start,” she groaned, covering her face with her hands.
“Soo…?” Summer looked at her expectantly.
“Soo…?” Joey asked as she chewed an aggressive bite of breadstick.
“What?” Gia asked through her mortification.
“Is it true?” Joey rolled her eyes.
“No! Beckett and I are not secretly dating. He and I already settled this.”
“And by ‘settled this’ you mean?” Summer snagged herself a breadstick from the basket on the table.
“Neither of us is looking for a relationship and we agreed that getting involved with each other would be a disaster.”
Joey’s eyes narrowed. “That seems like a pretty heavy conversation to be having with someone who’s just your landlord.”
“Unless it wasn’t just a dinner,” Summer speculated. “Maybe something besides a discussion about pizza toppings happened?”
Gia looked from Summer to Joey and back again. “Have you two ever considered starting your own interrogation service?”
“Quit dodging our thinly veiled insinuations,” Joey said, tapping her menu on the table.
“We’re all friends here,” Summer said, smiling sweetly.
Gia groaned. “Fine. We kissed.”
Summer squeaked and grabbed her hand. “I knew it!”
“And then we talked about why it would be a terrible idea to pursue anything together.”
Unimpressed, Joey crossed her arms. “Lame.”
“And then we kissed again and it was super hot and he ended up kicking me out of the house after dinner and I forgot my shoes because I’ve never had the bejeezus kissed out of me like that before. And I was married to a musician.”
Joey watched her thoughtfully for a moment. “I like her,” she finally said to Summer.
“Me, too,” Summer agreed. “So tell us more about this super hot —”
“Well, this just makes my whole day,” Franklin announced, swooping in from behind the bar in his green Villa Harvest polo. His salt and pepper hair was neatly combed and his smile was wide. “I heard there were three beautiful women here for lunch.”
“Hi, Dad,” Gia said, standing to greet him with the Merrill double kiss. “Looks like you’ve got a nice late lunch crowd in here today.”
Franklin nodded, looking around the dining room. “Business is good,” he said with satisfaction. “How’s the
studio?”
“It’s going great. I think you were right about making the move here,” Gia said.
“Always listen to your father,” he advised with a wink. “Now, if you lovely ladies will excuse me, I need to get back in the kitchen.”
Summer and Joey waved him off. “Your dad reminds me of a giant teddy bear. I just want to hug him all the time,” Summer said, watching Franklin hurry out of the dining room.
“He’s great,” Gia agreed.
“Yeah, yeah. He’s adorable. Now back to the super hot kiss,” Joey said. “I believe you said something about bejeezus?”
Gia stalled and the blush returned to her cheeks.
“Come on,” Summer said cajolingly. “We’re practically family. Franklin is almost the stepfather of the man I live with, who happens to be the brother of the Pierce you made out with. And Joey here has had the pleasure of kissing your Pierce and doing many other exciting things with Jax.”
“See? We’re practically related,” Joey nodded.
Gia glanced over her shoulder to make sure her father hadn’t returned. “Fine, but don’t even think that we’re going to gloss over that whole ‘Joey made out with two Pierce brothers’ thing,” Gia said, pointing a finger at the brunette.
“Deal,” Joey agreed. “Now spill.”
Their meals arrived and the conversation paused until the server left.
“So, was Beckett super sweet and proper?” Summer wondered, spooning up some minestrone. “He seems like he would be romantic.”
“No proper, very little romance, and so much heat I was worried about spontaneous combustion,” Gia said, diving into her salad.
“Was it all mouths or did his hands go roaming?” Joey demanded over a bite of her chicken parm sandwich.
“Roaming. Do you two always talk like this?”
“It’s her fault,” Summer said, pointing her spoon at Joey. “My first actual conversation with her, she asks how the sex with Carter is.”
“And how is it?” Gia smiled, happy to be on the asking end.
Summer’s eyes rolled heavenward. “If you could combine amazing, incredible, and earth-moving into one word, it still wouldn’t do Carter and his skills justice.”
Gia fanned herself with her napkin. “Wow.”
“So your musician ex can’t compete with that?” Joey asked.
Gia shook her head. “Nope. But he was great at disappearing when things got sticky.” She winced at the flippant comment. “That’s not fair of me. Paul’s a great guy and I knew what I was getting into when I married him.”