Disapproval pumped off of him in waves so strong that Gia was surprised that no one else seemed to notice.
“So, Gia,” Summer said from the other end of the table. “How’s the studio going so far?”
Beckett’s attention redirected to her.
“It’s going well,” Gia cleared her throat. “The student retention from Maris’s classes to mine has been great and I picked up a few new ones.”
“I heard Fitz takes class there,” Carter said, reaching for the salad.
An image of the skinny Bill Fitzsimmons in his yoga briefs popped into Gia’s head and she bobbled her water glass. “Fitz is a regular,” she said diplomatically.
“A regular naked weirdo,” Beckett offered.
Gia laughed. “Beckett knows first-hand. He took a class last week.”
“You took a yoga class?” Joey asked in disbelief, her brown eyes dancing.
“What’s so unbelievable about that?” Beckett asked indignantly.
“Wait, wait, wait. Let me get a mental picture of Beckett om-ing,” Jax snickered.
“I’d like to see you take that class,” Beckett said mildly. “You, too,” he said to Carter who was chuckling.
“I wouldn’t want to humiliate you in front of your constituents,” Carter teased.
“I think you’re both scared,” Beckett announced.
“Pfft, it’s yoga. You lay on the floor and stretch. No offense, Gia,” Jax said, shooting an apologetic glance her way.
“None taken,” she said sweetly. “Yoga’s definitely not for everyone. There are a lot of people who can’t handle it.”
Beckett kicked back, clearly enjoying not being the intended target of her manipulation this time. “Yeah, Jax, you and Carter don’t have the upper body strength that Fitz does. You’d just embarrass yourselves.”
“It can be pretty difficult,” Gia agreed in feigned earnestness. “I’d really hate to see one of you get hurt.”
Carter and Jax exchanged a look.
“You know, you guys have been trying to figure out how to decide who gets to brew the first beer in the brewery,” Summer began.
Joey caught on quickly. “Yeah. Why don’t you have a yoga-off and Gia here will decide the winner?”
“A yoga-off?” Carter sounded skeptical.
“Sure!” Joey said, grinning now. “Winner brews first.”
“When’s a good night for them to come in?” Summer asked.
Gia pretended to ponder. “How about Tuesday at seven?” The seven o’clock class was hot power flow.
Beckett winked at her. “I’m in.”
“Me, too, Mama!” Aurora piped up. “I wanna yoga with Bucket.”
Beckett reached over and ruffled her red hair.
“What do we do about Bucket’s unfair advantage?” Jax asked.
“Yeah, Bucket already took the class,” Carter argued.
“Gia can come up with a new routine for the class,” Franklin offered. “That way no one has an advantage.”
“That sounds fair to me,” Summer chimed in.
“How do we decide the winner?” Carter questioned.
“Gia can judge,” Joey decided. “She’s the unbiased expert.”
“I guess it’s settled then,” Gia said, pretending not to feel the weight of three Pierce brothers’ gazes on her.
After dinner Phoebe and Franklin volunteered to take the kids for a walk over to see the horses, and the Pierce brothers disappeared together to check out the construction progress on the second floor of the little barn.
The exodus left Gia, Joey, and Summer to handle the clean up.
“I still say they did it on purpose,” Joey grumbled, towel drying the pot that Gia handed her.
“All three of them have to go check out my new office as soon as the dish soap comes out? Suspicious.” Summer agreed, tucking the salad bowl away in a cabinet.
“I wouldn’t mind seeing your office,” Gia said, dunking one of the lasagna dishes in the sink.
Summer wrinkled her nose at the remaining dirty dishes cluttering the counter. “We did fifty percent of the dishes. I think we can leave the rest for the boys,” she decided. “We’ll just go over there and kick them out.”
“Let’s refill and head over,” Joey said, pulling the stopper out of the wine bottle.
Gia and Joey topped off their glasses while Summer debated on a second glass of wine or another chocolate chip cookie. The cookie won.
“These are sinful,” she told Joey as they trooped out the door. “Do not leave them in my house. I swear I’m the only person in the world who goes vegetarian and gains weight.”
“I’m not taking them home with me,” Joey argued. “You live with two grown men who still eat like they’re fifteen. I live alone.”
“Fine. But I’m only allowed to have one more ... tonight,” Summer clarified.
They found the men checking out the fresh drywall on the second floor of the bright red barn next to the house.
“Gentlemen, we left fifty percent of the dishes for you to do. We didn’t want you to miss out on your fair share of the cleanup,” Summer said sweetly.