“Hello, Sofia. And nice to meet you, too, Kate.” She looked slyly at J.D. “What did J.D. tell you about me?”
“All good stuff,” she said. “Actually, I’m glad we bumped into each other. If you guys don’t have anywhere to be, we should go have a chat with the others.”
“Others?” Anna Victoria asked.
“Yeah, we can come with you.” J.D. winked at her. “Trust me.”
With a shrug, she followed J.D. and Kate toward the parking lot behind the diner. Half of the space had been converted to a dining area with picnic tables scattered around. They headed over to one of the tables where a couple of women were sitting down, chatting and laughing as they sipped their drinks.
“Look who I found!” Kate exclaimed.
“Hey, guys,” J.D. greeted. “Oomph, it’s been a while. All your kids are growing like weeds!”
Two of the women held children in their laps. One of them was a pretty blonde woman who was wrangling a rambunctious older boy. “Tell me about it. I can’t keep my eye off Devon for a second or else.” She grimaced, then looked up at Anna Victoria. “Hello there, have we met?”
“Oh, sorry!” J.D. said. “Girls, this is Anna Victoria. Anna Victoria, these are the girls,” she announced with a chuckle.
“Hi, everyone,” she greeted.
“That’s Catherine, Devon’s mama,” J.D. began. “You’ve met Catherine’s husband, Matthew.”
“It’s lovely to meet you, Mrs. Lennox,” she said.
“Please, it’s Catherine,” she said. Her accent was posh and refined. “So, you’re Anna Victoria. You were at the ranger station, right? I’ve heard about you from Matthew.”
“I owe your husband a lot. I’m sure he’s told you how he helped me get my job.”
J.D. continued. “And beside her is Christina,” she nodded to the other blonde.
“You’re twins.” Her gaze ping-ponged between them.
Christina laughed. “At least our husbands aren’t here, though I still can’t believe people think they’re twins.” Catherine nodded in agreement.
“Christina is married to Jason Lennox, Matthew’s twin brother,” Kate explained.
Anna Victoria was introduced to the two remaining women—a pretty, petite brunette named Georgina Lennox who was also married to a Lennox brother, and Amelia Grimes, who held a sleeping, angel-faced baby boy named James.
“Where’s Dutchy?” J.D. asked, glancing around.
“You know, I haven’t seen her around.” Christina tapped at her chin. “But I’m sure she’s busy with work. Anyway,” she scooted over and motioned for Anna Victoria to join her while J.D. sat next to Georgina. “J.D. tells me you’re a fitness instructor.”
Her head whipped toward J.D. “You told them that?”
“You got your B.A. and all the certifications. And you led me through that awesome yoga workout. You’re an instructor, hon.” J.D. proclaimed. “This is the idea I was telling you about at the park last week. I talked to the girls,” she gestured at the women at the table, who all nodded along, “and we want you to start yoga, Pilates, and fitness classes. We’ll be your first clients, and eventually you can open up classes to other people in Blackstone.”
“But Blackstone’s a shifter town,” she protested. “Everyone here’s super fit. Would anyone even want to take classes with me?”
“I’m not a shifter,” Georgina said. “And neither are Catherine and Christina.”
“I could use some exercise,” Catherine said. “Soon I’ll be running after a dragonling who can fly.” She nodded at Devon, who was now trying to grab at all the glasses on the table.
“And I haven’t been to yoga in forever,” Christina added. “My job’s demanding, and the nearest studio is all the way in Verona Mills. I don’t have time to drive there and back.”
“Even though I’m a shifter, my neck and back still ache after a couple of hours at the drafting table,” Amelia said. “A yoga workout could help me out.”
“But where would we have it?” Anna Victoria bit her lip. “I don’t have a place.”
“We can do it at the castle,” Catherine said. “It’ll be great.”
“The castle?” Anna Victoria asked. “There’s a castle here?”
Catherine chuckled. “Yeah, Blackstone Castle. There should be enough space in the ballroom and it has a gorgeous view of the mountains. Just tell me what you need. Mats or towels or whatever, and I’m sure I can find some in storage somewhere.”
“It’ll be great,” J.D. assured her. “Imagine, charge each one of us a reasonable amount for the class, you can earn some good money.”
Anna Victoria was speechless. If she could get a couple of people to pay a minimum amount that could be enough to earn some extra cash. And then maybe eventually she could quit the job at the ranger station. “Th-thank you guys. I’ve only ever taught during my certification exams, but I won’t let you down.”
Everyone seemed happy and encouraging, and she asked them about what else they wanted to learn and their expectations. She felt giddy at the thought that she was actually going to do something she was good at and get paid for it.
“I’m starving. I’m going to go and get some food,” she declared a while later. “I might head over to the pretzel stand. Can I get you guys something?”
When no one asked for anything, she got up and headed back toward Main Street. Hmmm, where was that pretzel stand? They had only briefly passed by it, but she remembered it might have been in front of the hardware store.
Turning back toward Main Street, she saw that it was even more crowded than it had been earlier. So, she decided to take a shortcut behind the book store and loop around.
She clutched her coat tighter as she darted between two buildings. There were no street lamps to illuminate the empty lot, but there was enough reflected light from Main Street that she wasn’t completely blind. Even so, there was an eerie quality about being alone out here.
A shiver ran
