“Tell you what,” Hailey suggested, slipping her fingers around one of the twins’ small hands. “Why don’t I just hang around a bit and help out until your husband arrives with his own set of very capable hands?”
Although Becky looked grateful at the offer, she felt it only right to respond with a protest at first. “I wouldn’t feel right about taking you away from all your other commitments.”
“Oh, you’re not,” Hailey was quick to assure the woman. She wasn’t just being polite. She genuinely liked the nurse and wanted to do whatever she could to allow Becky to take full advantage of the class. “Everything that happens here is all part of my commitment,” she told Callum’s wife. Looking down at the perpetually moving duo, she couldn’t help smiling. “Your girls are beautiful, by the way.”
Becky laughed. “I’m kind of partial to them myself,” she responded. “I just wish they’d slow down a little bit. They’re into everything—usually at the same time and in opposite directions. For a while Sasha was the quiet one, but now there’s absolutely no difference between them. If anything, she’s seems to be trying to make up for lost time.”
“Well, this class might just take a tiny bit of the edge off their energy and hopefully tire them both out enough for you to be able to recharge your batteries,” Hailey told her. And then she reconsidered her words. “Or at least to catch your breath.”
“Oh, if only,” Becky said wistfully with a heartfelt sigh. “But by then, I’ll have to be back at work,” she confided.
Just then, the entrance to the Mommy and Me class opened. As if on cue, Becky and Hailey both turned toward the door. Each was expecting to see Callum come walking into the room.
The next second, Hailey felt her pulse leap a little. Instead of Callum, she saw Dillon coming in.
Hailey immediately regretted that she hadn’t worn her more attractive athletic attire. Thinking only of mobility and comfort, she’d put on an outfit that she had to admit had seen better days. The only consoling thought here was that the light blue outfit she had on had come to look this way because she had worn it while doing one of her many workouts. For the spa’s first month, she wanted to look like a hands-on manager who used the facilities herself. She felt that this made her look more approachable, as if she, her staff and her patrons were all one big family.
“Dillon,” Becky said the moment her brother-in-law had joined them. “What are you doing here?”
The second he had reached them, Sasha and Luna began to climb all over him as if he was a living, breathing jungle gym.
Moving carefully so as not to dislodge his tiny climbing monkeys, Dillon dropped down beside the nurse that his brother had had the good fortune of marrying. “I’m here to tell you that Callum sends his regrets but he’s been unavoidably detained at a building site. He sent me to temporarily take his place until he’s able to get here himself.”
Becky looked at her brother-in-law a little skeptically. “Are you sure that you know what you’re in for?”
Placing a protective hand on the twin who had managed to climb up onto his forearm, he gently guided the little girl back to the floor. “Haven’t a clue,” he confessed. “Callum said something about this being a gym class for toddlers. How hard can it be?” he asked, although he was beginning to see that maybe he had underestimated the assignment.
“It’s not a gym class,” Hailey told him, flashing a smile as she stepped in to greet him. “It’s a yoga class for moms and their kids.”
“Moms?” Dillon repeated. That wasn’t what Callum had told him. “Then why am I here?” he asked, confused.
“It’s also for dads,” Hailey quickly told him.
Dillon still looked a little skeptical. That didn’t sound right to him. “Yoga for dads?”
“Yes. It’s really very beneficial,” Hailey assured him. She was trying hard not to laugh. Not at his stance, which admittedly was a bit awkward, but at the way his nieces seemed to regard him as a piece of equipment. “Yoga has been found to really help you relax. I don’t mean you specifically,” she quickly corrected herself. “I mean people in general.”
Out of the corner of her eyes, she could see the rather amused expression on Becky’s face. She couldn’t help wondering if that was in response to Dillon looking like a fish out of water, or if there was another reason for the woman’s amusement.
She had to admit that having the little girls climbing all over him did look pretty funny. The fact that he endured it without protest spoke well of him.
“And Callum knew this?” Dillon asked, looking at his sister-in-law. “That this was a yoga class?”
“He did,” Becky confirmed, doing her best to try to maintain a straight face.
Dillon sighed, resigned. “Well then, I guess I can give this a shot.”
“Good for you,” Hailey said, pleased as she tried to cheer him on.
Dillon’s expression indicated that he wasn’t all that sure about what was about to happen, but he had committed himself to this and he wasn’t about to backtrack, at least not in front of witnesses.
Because he’d been somewhat forewarned about the nature of this class, Dillon had stopped in the locker area to change out of his suit and into a pair of shorts, a comfortable pullover and
