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I frown, my stomach cramping at the thought of something awful happening. “You know I won’t be mad as long as you tell me the truth.”
He looks up at me with a pained expression. “I stayed up late reading.”
My shoulders relax, and a smile tips up the side of my mouth. “Ah. Was the story too good to put down?”
“Yes!” He groans, slapping his palm against his forehead. “They were in the middle of a battle, and I couldn’t stop reading. I was too excited to sleep.”
I laugh. “I completely understand, baby. Just remember, it’s not okay?—”
“To stay up on a school night, or my brain won’t be able to learn anything new.” He rolls his eyes, but his grin is wide. That became my only rule when I figured out how voracious of a reader Cody is. I don’t mind him staying up to read; I just hate when he’s dragging the next day because he didn’t get enough rest. “I’m not ready to go back to school yet, Mom. I love it when we get to spend time with just us.” There are only a few more days of winter break left before we both have to go back to our regularly scheduled activities. I’m far from ready to don my teacher hat once more.
“Me, too, baby. So, how about you try to rest for a little while longer, and then we can go over to the diner to get pancakes.”
“That sounds awesome!”
I lean over to kiss him on his forehead. He snuggles deeper under the covers and closes his eyes. The likelihood of him falling back asleep is minimal, but he’ll try his hardest. Cash jumps onto the bed and snuggles into Cody’s side.
I leave his room, closing the door so he won’t be kept up by my noise. As much as I love going through a flow with Cody, I need something a little more intense than what we normally do in the mornings.
After moving the coffee table, I unroll my yoga mat in the middle of the living room. I plug my headphones into my ears and start my meditation playlist. Deep breaths only get me so far while my mind wanders to the main stressor that’s been plaguing my brain.
It’s been four days since I slept with Nolan.
Fuck me, I slept with Nolan Ellis.
I still haven’t been able to wrap my head around that fact. It was the most intense night of my life, and I would be kidding myself if I said I didn’t want it to happen again. That’s the main problem I’m struggling with. I know that if I called him up, he’d be over here in a heartbeat. Hell, his threat when we got back to town was enough to make my knees weak. I stood there for a solid minute, trying to get my heartbeat under control enough to drive home.
That’s what has me so freaked out, though. Nolan is a force to be reckoned with. I’ve known it from the moment I met him. His flirty charm had me falling under his spell in a matter of minutes. Freezing him out was my only choice. I had to do whatever it took to protect myself from falling for his charm.
And then I went and fucked it up by sleeping with him. Jesus Christ.
I switch my music to my power flow playlist. There’s no way meditation is going to cut it this morning. As the heavy beat blares in my ears, I use every ounce of control I have and focus my attention on moving with my breath.
I stretch up tall before sinking into chair-pose. My muscles start to scream, forcing all my attention into holding the position. A deep breath has me releasing the pose to stretch out my tired muscles.
This is exactly what I needed and why I love yoga as much as I do. There’s no room for other thoughts when you’re carefully balancing your weight. It keeps me centered when my world feels like it’s spiraling.
When every muscle in my body has been stretched and pushed to the limits, I relax back into corpse pose and let my mind rest as well as my body. This time, I don’t have a single thought threatening to undo all of my work, and I can take a deep breath for the first time in days.
“Momma?” Cody’s little voice brings a smile to my face.
I hold my hand up in the air to wave him over. “Come join me in our favorite pose.”
His giggle announces his arrival, and I brace for the impact of his body. Oof. Cody’s chest crashes with mine, pressing all the air out of my lungs.
“I didn’t mean you could do corpse on top of me.” I tickle his sides.
“Moooom. Stop!” He cackles.
“Okay, okay.” I wrap my arms around his not-so-little-anymore body.
“You’re kinda smelly.”
I gasp. “You turd!”
Cody laughs maniacally and climbs off me. “I’m just telling you the truth.”
I jab him in the ribs. “Fine. I’ll shower, and then we can go get breakfast. Are you ready?”
