Chapter 5

Chapter Five

Stace

"Who are you looking for?" Rivera asked me the third time I glanced around the gym.

"No one," I lied. I was looking for Hunter. I knew she was teaching a class today because I'd looked at the schedule and saw her name. She'd also been added to the gym's roster of teachers along with a gorgeous picture. No bio, though, which was frustrating.

I could easily find her social pages, but that wasn't the point.

Rivera and Coop shared a look.

"You've been twitchy this whole time," Coop said, setting down her weights and picking up a heavier set for bicep curls. Her short brown hair was pulled back in a half-ponytail and she had her glasses on. Sometimes we called her the tiny terror because she might be short, but she was deceptively strong. Wouldn't have gotten through training if she wasn't. Rivera was about my height and wore her long dark hair pulled back tight. Remnants of her military background. She'd never enlisted but had been raised as an Army brat and it had rubbed off on her.

I couldn't have asked for two better women to be my friends and sisters at the firehouse.

But right now? I needed them to mind their own business.

"I'm not twitchy," I said, staring at myself in the mirror and pretending to be checking my form. My arms had really come a long way in the last few months that I'd been putting in the work. I didn't have any serious goals, I just wanted to see what I could do if I trained hard. Seeing results was so satisfying.

Hunter's yoga class had started. I'd been hoping she'd walk by, but either I hadn't seen her, or she wasn't here. I'd have to catch her on the way out, which meant I'd have to really stretch out my workout.

Rivera and Coop watched me for the rest of the workout, but it was easy for me to keep track of the time.

"I'm going to stay and do some stretching and foam rolling," I told them when they'd finished and were ready to leave.

They shared a skeptical look but didn't say anything as we said goodbye and that we'd see each other for training on Monday. In addition to our shifts, we had meetings and mandatory trainings each month. It was nice to get everyone together and bond while we kept our skills sharp.

So I wasn't a total liar, I did do a longer stretching routine and some foam rolling. My muscles were going to be so grateful I had decided to hang around and loiter so I could catch a pretty girl.

At least I hadn't crashed her class. That would definitely be taking things too far. Not that I hadn't considered it, since Torrin was doing yoga now. Maybe I could convince him to go to one of her classes and do some recon for me. Would that be too much?

I had my phone in my hand to send him a message when a sound made me look up.

One of the gymbros was making way too much noise during his sets and needed to tone it down. I was just about to give him a glare when something else caught my eye.

Hunter. There she was, wearing a pair of tangerine yoga pants and a pink bra under a white tank. She looked like a piece of delicious candy.

Her hair was up, but it was done in some elaborate braided and twisted way that looked like it must have taken hours. She was speaking with someone else who had a yoga mat slung on her back, so I waited.

The other person said something that made Hunter laugh. They waved and left. Hunter took her phone out of her pocket and leaned against the wall as she checked it, frowning.

I did a quick check of my appearance with my phone and raked my hair back from my face. Seeing her after my workout wasn't the best, but the first time we'd met had been at a fire, so I didn't have much to live up to.

Grabbing my water, I crossed the space and stopped right in front of her. She looked up when my shadow covered her.

"Oh," she said, blinking those gorgeous blue eyes at me. "Are you stalking me?"

"I don't think so. We just both happen to be in the same place at the same time. Happens every day."

Her eyes narrowed. "Seriously. Did you come here to see me?"

I held my hands up and stepped back. "Seriously, this is my regular workout time. My friends had to go and I was just finishing up."

Her phone went off and she read a message and let out a frustrated sound that was almost like a growl.

It was very cute.

"Everything okay?" I asked as she swiped the message alert away and looked up at me.

"Just my parents being my parents," she said.

"I'm sorry," I said. "What's going on?"

She stared at me for a second, as if trying to figure out if I was joking or not.

"You're a stranger. You don't care about my issues with my parents." She crossed her arms.

"Just because I'm a stranger doesn't mean I don't care about other people. And you seem upset."

"I can't tell if you're fucking with me or not," she said.

I grinned at her. "I'm not fucking with you. Do you want to maybe get some pie and talk about it?"

"Pie?"

I nodded and leaned a little closer. "Yeah, pie. It's too late for coffee, but it's always a good time for pie. There's a place right around the corner that's open twenty-four hours."

Hunter raised her eyebrows, still waiting for me to admit I was joking.

"Come on. You look like a woman who's in need of pie."

I presented her with my arm to escort her and she bit back a smile.

"Give me ten minutes and I'll meet you out front," she said.

Progress. That was progress.

Thirty minutes later we were both seated at the diner with slices of pie in front of us. Hunter had ordered strawberry and I'd gotten a slice of their lemon meringue. It was such a classic and so lemony it made your face pucker. Cups of tea sat steaming in front of us in thick scratched mugs.

"So," I said when she had taken her first bite. "What's going on with your parents?"

Hunter chewed and swallowed and went for another bite. "They want me to go to law school." I'd expected her to tell me to mind my own business again.

Pie was magic sometimes. She was clearly enjoying it and I was enjoying watching her. I had a bite of my slice and savored it. Perfection.

"Let me guess, they're both lawyers?"

Hunter pointed at me with her fork. "You got it."

"And you don't want to be." It was a statement more than a question.

She shook her head and cut another bite of pie. At the rate she was going, she'd need another slice.

"I've never wanted to be a lawyer. Never. But I went along with it until I was in my junior year of undergrad. They were on me about the LSAT and looking at law schools and I told them that I wanted to take some time off after I graduated. I wasn't sure if they'd keep paying for school if I told them it wasn't going to happen. So I waited and put them off until I graduated and said that I would never be going to law school. Five years later and they haven't let up. Well, my mother hasn't."

She sighed and put down her fork, as if she wasn't going to finish her slice of pie.

"There. That's it. Not interesting."

Waves of hostility rolled off her, but I knew most of them weren't directed at me.

"Only child?" I asked.

She glared and then the hostility turned toward me.

"Yes. Why?"

I nodded. "That explains it. Your parents don't have anyone else to dump their wants and ambitions on, so all of that is sitting on your shoulders. That can't be easy."

Hunter looked stunned.

"What?" I asked after having another bite of pie. If she didn't finish hers, I was going to have it. You just didn't waste pie like that.

"Nothing," she said. "I'm guessing you aren't an only child?"

That made me grin. "Nope. Oldest daughter by a few months. Although, I was an only child for a few years. Don't really remember it though."

She picked up her fork again. "Are you from a family of firefighters?"

"Well, my dad worked as a dispatcher for a long time, and my mom is a labor and delivery nurse. So they were already in that world. My brother is a paramedic and then my youngest two brothers are twelve and seven, so who knows what they'll do with their lives."

Her eyes went wide for a second. "Three brothers. That must be a lot."

An understatement. "It is. But I love them. Even when they're impossible."

Being a sister was one of my favorite things in life.

Hunter was quiet for a while, poking at the rest of her pie with her fork.

"You're lucky." Her voice was soft and sad. It made me want to crawl across the table and hug her. This woman needed hugs, immediately.

Hugs would come later. We were doing pie right now.

"I know. Believe me, I know."

We both lapsed into silence and I could tell that she was lost in the storm of negative thoughts in her head.

"Do you teach yoga full time?"

She glanced up. "No. I do a number of things."

I waved my hand for her to continue. "Such as?"

"Do you do the firefighting thing full time?" she asked instead. Okay, we could talk about me.

"No. It's volunteer. Part time. Usually about twenty-five hours a week that I'm on call. The rest of the time I work at an animal shelter."

Hunter let out a snorting noise. "Of course you do."

I sat back, forgetting about my pie. "What does that mean?"

"Firefighter, dog rescuer, it just fits." She gestured at me.

"I'm trying to decide if that's a compliment or not." I couldn't tell how she meant it.

"It's a neutral statement."

I'd have to take her at her word.

"Are you going to finish that?" Those last few bites on her plate were taunting me.

"Can I have a bite of yours?" she asked.

I pushed my plate toward her. Hunter didn't know that I never shared pie. Ever.

She took her time getting the perfect bite with crust, pie, and the meringue topping.

"Oh, that's good," she said. "So is the strawberry, but the lemon is better."

"You should get another piece. I'm going to."

She hesitated and I watched her have a little internal fight with herself.

Then she nodded. "Okay."

Hunter

If you told me that morning that I was going to end up eating two slices of pie at a diner with the firefighter who carried me out of a building last month, I would have said you had the wrong woman.

Pie wasn't really my thing, but she'd been so earnest about it when she asked that I couldn't find it in me to refuse.

Sure, the pie was good, but sitting across from her and getting to see all those upper body muscles on display was better. Not constantly staring at her as she talked and moved and existed so close to me was a challenge, but I was up for it.

There was a brightness about Stace. I'd never seen someone who smiled and laughed so freely. Like she'd been born with sunshine in her veins. Maybe she had been. Created by the same force that nestled a dimple in each one of her cheeks.

For someone who had such massive arms, her hands were surprisingly graceful as she wielded her fork.

While she told me more about her family, I was content to listen and observe.

It wasn't hard to tell what was important to Stace. In case you thought about asking her, she'd tell you before you even got the question out.

"Hey, you might have actually seen my brother, Torrin," she said after an anecdote about how close the two of them had been growing up.

I nodded slowly. "I did meet Torrin. He intervened when a random guy was being unpleasant." That was the mildest way to put it.

Stace grinned. Wasn't she tired of smiling so much? Didn't her face hurt?

"Yeah, Tor told me about you. I mean, I didn't know he was talking about you, but he said he's gotten into yoga. He's a good guy."

I finished my second piece of pie and almost thought about getting a third, but if I really wanted something else, I could have cookies at home.

"He's been a gentleman," I said. "Those are pretty rare these days."

"Single too. In case you were wondering," she said, the smile not leaving her face, but shifting. Becoming a little more tentative.

"Oh," I said. "I'm a lesbian so…" I trailed off.

Stace's smile shifted again, making her eyes crinkle up and her dimples pop. "Me too."

"I didn't want to assume, but…" She burst out laughing.

"Yeah, I'm not exactly hiding. You'd think I was the first person in my family to come out, but Torrin beat me to it. He started saying he liked boys and girls when he was ten. I didn't come out until the ripe old age of twelve."

So they were both queer. Interesting.

"How did your parents take that?"

Stace snorted. "They started their own chapter of PFLAG in our town. I'm pretty sure no one in history has had it as easy coming out as me and Tor. That sounds like bragging, but I know how lucky we were."

Of course, her parents had been wonderful. Stace was one of those people you just knew who had been raised by loving parents by looking at her for five seconds.

"I'm guessing it wasn't like that for you."

I'd just talked about this to Eloise. How my parents had not been supportive and ready to wave a rainbow flag.

"It was fine. A lot of people have it worse," I said.

Stace reached across the table and took my hand to squeeze it, but I flinched back and knocked my fork on the floor.

"Sorry," she said, wincing. "I shouldn't have done that."

"No, it's okay," I said, wondering why I'd reacted like that. Wiggling under the table, I got the fork without injuring myself, but my cheeks were hot with embarrassment.

"I'm sorry. I didn't… I should go," I said. The server definitely wanted to turn over the table, even though it wasn't that busy in here anymore.

"Of course," Stace said. "I'll um…of course."

She wanted to see me again. It was written all over her face as she frowned. My stomach clenched as I tried to ignore how disappointed she looked. I didn't owe this woman anything. Sure, she'd saved me, but that was her job. She saved people all the time, not just me.

"Thank you for the pie." She had paid the bill before I could think to reach for it.

"You're welcome," she said. Wow, she could not hide her emotions at all and it was getting to me. Stace was too open. Way too open.

"I teach on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays at the gym." Why was I telling her this? If she really wanted to know my schedule, she could look it up. Or ask her brother, apparently.

"You know, I've been thinking about adding yoga to my workout regimen. Maybe this is the universe telling me to do that," she said with a grin that leaned on the side of flirtatious.

"You'd be welcome," I said, trying to keep my face neutral. Encouraging her would only lead to more disappointment. For her. I wasn't touching all of that sunshine with a ten-foot-pole. If she wanted to come to my yoga class, I couldn't stop her.

Stace held the door for me and then walked me to my car.

"Now I'd like to ask you to send me a message so I know you got home safe, but I don't have your number." She paused, and that was my opening to give her my number, but I wasn't going to do that.

Her smile fell again, and I wanted to get away from her and her overly expressive face. Too much. She was much too much. Too bright, too sweet, too everything.

"I should get home," I said again, and she nodded, taking a step back.

"Yeah. Drive safe."

"You too."

She waited until I had pulled out of the lot before getting into her car.

Of course she showed up at my class the next day. Of course she did.

Torrin was absent, so it was just her. She filled the doorway and looked lost. I tried not to smile at how cute she was.

Too cute for her own good. Too cute for my good as well.

She had a mat and I went over to give her the same new student talk that I gave everyone else. Not an easy task considering the amount of thigh she had on display. Acres and miles of it peeking out from a tiny pair of shorts paired with a matching tank.

I stumbled over my words as my brain kept yelling at me to stop staring at those thighs. They could crush me and I'd be only too happy to let her.

Lusting after Stace's thighs was not conducive to teaching yoga, so I closed my eyes for a second to get a grip on myself.

More students arrived and stole my attention away, but I let them. I couldn't give Stace that much focus. This wasn't a private yoga session.

I heard a few giggles from some of the women and turned around to see that Micah was here today. He looked up from setting out his mat and gave me a little wave. Micah was an interesting person. Firstly, he was one of the most objectively beautiful men I'd ever seen in my life. With wavy red hair that always seemed styled but probably wasn't, crystal blue eyes, a perfect jawline, straight nose, and cheekbones you could slice yourself on, he was a knockout. Not to mention his body looked like an anatomy chart. If I had any attraction to men at all, he would have made something happen for me.

Even though I was absolutely and completely secure in my lesbianism, it was nice to have it tested and confirmed so easily with someone like Micah.

Oh, and he didn't wear a shirt for classes. Just a pair of athletic shorts.

You wanted to hate the guy for being so aesthetically perfect, but he was also a complete sweetie on top of it. With his looks, he would have had every right to fall into a superior personality to the rest of us mere mortals. But no. He was sweet and kind and always had a ready (devastating, if you were attracted to men) smile.

"Who's that?" Stace said and I jumped. She stood close to me and had leaned down to speak in my ear. Completely unnecessarily close. Like we were sharing a secret.

"That's Micah. He's one of my regulars who came from my old studio." More than a few people had, which made me feel too many emotions at the same time so I had to stop thinking about it.

"Is he a model?"

She wasn't the first person to ask that question.

"You'd think so, but no. He's a phys ed teacher and he coaches. Why so interested?" I turned and looked up at her, wanting to take a step back. Did she have to crowd me like that?

"Not for me, obviously. But he's Torrin's type. Do you know if he's queer?"

I shook my head. I hadn't talked to Micah enough to make that determination.

"Okay, well, I wouldn't be a good sister if I didn't do my due diligence," she said, gathering up her stuff.

"What are you doing?" I asked.

"Going to make a friend," she said, flashing a smile that would have made me stumble if I'd been walking. Even still, my knees became less solid for a moment and I had to catch myself.

Like it was nothing, she took a spot right by Micah and introduced herself. He was a little shy, but with a few words, she had him smiling and talking to her. A few of the other women in the class were watching with a mix of shock and envy. Stace even got him to laugh.

I was so busy watching them together that I forgot I had an actual job to do, so I rushed to start my playlist and remember the sequence I'd planned to go with it.

Everything was going fine until I let myself check in with Stace as I walked around the room. She was doing the poses, but her form was off. So off. Her back was rounded way too much in her downward dog and she was going to wrench her neck if she kept doing upward dog like that. I called for everyone to keep going through their opening sun salutation and stopped next to her mat.

"Can I give you an adjustment?" I asked in a low voice.

"Uh, sure?" she said, looking up at me from her downward dog position.

"Back straight," I said, gently putting my palm on her spine to get her to stop arching. "Shoulders down." It took a few tries, but we got her into a better position and then she moved through the flow and I helped her with upward dog. It was a tricky thing, to balance teaching the whole class while giving adjustments to one person, but I really didn't want her to hurt herself. Her body was an important part of her job and I'd feel awful if she couldn't do what she loved and I could have stepped in and prevented it.

I couldn't stay with her for as long as I wanted, so I had to move on, but I saved a small corner of my attention for her. If I was a newer teacher, I wouldn't have been able to manage it, but I'd been doing this for years, so I could.

At last we made it to savasana and I was relieved and drained. More drained than I had been in a while.

"Namaste," I said, bowing my head to everyone and then announcing that they could come to my next class. A few students said goodnight and asked a few questions before filtering out and going back to their lives.

Micah and Stace were still talking. He excused himself and came to thank me for the class.

"You're welcome. See you next time?"

He nodded, his cheeks pink from the workout as he picked up his mat and headed for the showers.

Then it was just me and Stace.

"Well? What did you think?"

She lounged on her mat with her hands braced behind her. Sweaty and with her hair in her face and looking incredibly sexy. Those thighs were stretched out in front of her, teasing me.

"I think that I don't know what the hell I'm doing and I haven't felt that way in a while. I didn't expect it to be so hard." Sitting up, she rolled one of her arms in a circle and winced.

"Do you have any injuries? I should have asked," I said, alarmed. She couldn't get injured in my class. I wouldn't allow it.

"No. Just regular soreness. My shoulder acts up sometimes. No big deal."

We needed to leave the room and I needed to go home, but neither of us was moving.

Stace grinned and then held her arms out to me. "Help me up?"

"Are you serious?"

That smile was flirty again, and I wanted to ignore how it made me feel, but I couldn't.

Instead I rolled my eyes and walked over to her, clasping her hands and pulling.

"Damn, you're heavy," I couldn't stop myself from saying.

"I bet you say that to all the girls," she said, not even bothering to help me as I tugged.

"Okay, either you put in some effort or I'm letting go," I said. This was like playing tug of war between me and a team of football players. One of us was going to lose and it was going to be me.

Stace sighed. "Okay fine."

Before I knew what was happening, she had pulled and stood at the same time until I lost my balance and fell right into her, our hands caught between us.

I let out a little scream and she laughed, a low sound in her chest.

"It's okay. I've got you. Remember?"

This wasn't the first time I'd been up against her chest, but this time she didn't have a bunch of firefighter gear on.

Blood rushed to my face as she took a step back but didn't let go of my hands.

"Hey, can I buy you a piece of pie?" Was that her thing? Buying girls pie as a form of seduction? That wasn't going to work on me.

"Not tonight," I said. "I need to get home."

I didn't, not really. But I needed to get away from her and her thighs and her smiles and the way she made me feel all hot and shivery at the same time.

"Sure. But maybe I could buy you pie another time this week? If you're not too busy."

"Are you asking me out?" I needed to know if she wanted to date me because I needed to set her straight. Not straight. I needed to tell her it wasn't going to happen.

Stace wasn't thrown by my blunt question. "Yes. If you're up for that. If you're not up for that, then I'd like to buy you a piece of pie anyway. I'll take you any way I can get you."

"Jesus Christ, Stace." Who said things like that?

She just kept smiling. Had this woman ever had a bad day in her life? "So. Pie? This week?"

Against my better judgment, I found myself nodding.

"Great. Put your number in my phone." She unlocked it and handed it to me. I hesitated.

"I could always just show up whenever you have a class on the schedule and wait for you. But somehow I don't think you'd like that."

No. I would not. I'd rather she just had my number.

Stace took her phone back and then mine buzzed with a new notification.

She'd sent me the pie emoji and a winky face.

"Mature," I said, and she winked at me for real and my knees did that liquid thing again.

"I'll see you later, princess," she called, slinging her mat over her shoulder and walking out before I could ask her why the hell she was calling me princess.