“Oh dear God,” he whimpered as a bead of sweat dripped off his nose.
Beckett seemed to be faring a little better, so on the last sun salutation she had the class hold chair pose. The groans were music to her ears. “That’s right. Sink lower into your hips,” she said, placing her hands on Beckett’s hips guiding him to lower.
“Good,” she smiled when she felt his legs begin to shake. “Now straighten your arms.” She skimmed her hands up his arms until they reached straight for the ceiling. “Engage here,” she said, dancing her fingers over his trapezius muscles.
His breath was coming in short gasps now. “Keep your arms reaching up but lower your shoulders.” She tried to keep the smile out of her tone, but knew she failed when he shot her a glare around his shaky arm.
She heard a couple of groans echo around the room and knew they’d all had enough torture. “Great job. Let’s fold forward and shake it out.”
The groans of agony turned to sighs of relief, at least until she announced that hip openers were next.
Class ended with the Pierce brothers in sweaty heaps on their mats.
“I feel like I got hit by a meteor,” Jax whispered into his mat. “A really hot one.”
“I feel like a rubber band that was stretched until it tore in half and now it’s completely useless,” Carter sighed.
Beckett, still sprawled across his mat with his eyes closed, grinned. “I feel like a wet washcloth that was wrung out and thrown on the floor.”
“I’m so glad we didn’t let the girls come tonight.” Carter rolled onto his side.
“Summer and Joey wanted to come?” Gia asked, as she picked up the mat sanitizer.
“They would never let us live this down. They’d be looming over us taking pictures for Blue Moon Gossip or The Monthly Moon,” Beckett guessed.
Gia thought it wise not to mention the fact that she’d seen both Fitz and Taneisha whip out their phones after class.
“How do people just get up and walk out of here?” Jax asked, opening an eye to watch the football players bounce out with as much energy as when they arrived.
Gia dropped a cold water bottle in front of each of their mats. “It gets easier,” she promised.
Beckett dragged himself into a seated position and swiped the bottle over his sweaty forehead. “Thank you,” he said, before guzzling the contents.
“That Fitz is one flexible freak,” Carter groaned, trying to work his way into a seated position.
“The image of him in that yoga diaper is going to haunt me for the rest of my life,” Jax said, covering his eyes.
“Gia, I swear, next poker night we’re going to talk to him about his yoga wardrobe,” Carter promised. “I had no idea he was inflicting this kind of visual abuse on your class.”
“And, Gia, I promise you that I’m going to clean this up, but I have to do this. I can’t stop smelling myself.” Jax promptly dumped the bottle of water over his head.
“Jesus, Hollywood,” Beckett said, slapping his brother on the back of the head.
“He needed to do it,” Carter argued. “I wouldn’t have let him in the truck smelling like that.”
“Get a freaking towel at least.” Beckett threw his sopping wet sweat towel in Jax’s face.
“That’s disgusting. You smell worse than me!” Jax threatened to dump the rest of his water over Beckett until Carter punched him in the ribs.
“Get a fucking towel,” he ordered.
Jax crawled over to the towel bin. “Do you have anything in a body-size?” he asked.
“Gianna, maybe now we could have that talk,” Beckett suggested.
“Right. The contest,” she said, purposely misunderstanding Beckett’s overture. “I’m surprised none of you asked who won. So who feels like a winner?”
When none of them said anything, she smiled. “Good.”
Jax paused his floor and mat scrubbing to look at her. “It was a three-way losers tie, wasn’t it? Man, I had no idea yoga would be so …”
“Horrible?” Carter supplied.
“Painful?” Beckett offered.
“Amazing?” Gia interjected.
“Most of the above,” Jax decided.
“Yoga has a way of highlighting both your strengths and weaknesses,” Gia told them. “For instance, Jax, your flexibility is great.”
“Thanks,” he brightened. “I took a bunch of Pilates classes with this actress I dated a few years ago.”
“The one with the …” Carter held his hands to his chest like he was clutching a pair of watermelons.
“No, that was Didi. I think those would have hindered her in any actual physical activity.”
Gia rolled her eyes, but continued. “Carter, you have incredible upper body strength. Those arm balances you did today aren’t beginner’s poses.”
“What about my strengths?” Beckett asked, watching her closely.
“Awh,” Jax cooed. “The middle brother’s feeling left out.”
Beckett gave Jax a boot with his foot and sent his brother sprawling across his soggy mat.
“Your endurance is great. You could do sun salutations all day.”