Page 130 of Oh, Puck!
We saved everything tonight.
Well. Nearly everything.
Epilogue
Declan
There are exactly three things I swore I'd never do when I moved to Beachside.
Care about anything. Fall in love. And yoga.
I'm currently zero for three, folded into something the instructor on the lawn below keeps calling "downward dog," while the woman I love laughs into a moving box behind me.
"Your hips—" Josie can barely get the words out she's laughing that hard. She's got a stack of sundresses clutched to her chest and tears streaming down her face. "Declan, your hips are supposed to goup."
"Theyareup!"
"They are not up. You look like a deck chair someone stepped on."
"This is the last time I help you do anything."
"You're not helping! You've packed one box and it was the box with my underwear in it. You spent forty minutes on it!"
"That wasquality control. Half of those have mysteriously gone missing over the past three months, and as your boyfriend I felt personally responsible for—"
"You're the one taking them, Declan! You have a drawer full at the mansion!"
Below the balcony, the sunrise yoga class flows easily, twelve serene people moving in perfect unison on the hotel lawn. The Pacific Ocean is glittering gold behind them, and for some unknown reason, I'mstillattempting to follow.
I bend down again, but my hamstring grabs. Somewhere in the arrangement my knee also makes a sound that no twenty-nine-year-old professional athlete's knee should legally make.
"Remind me again why people do this?" I grunt, nearly tipping all the way over.
"Oh no," Josie whispers, delighted. She whips her phone out and points it at me. "Do the warrior one. Do it. This is going on the team account."
"I told you already, put the damn phone down."
"Or you'll do what exactly?"
I abandon the pose, straighten up to my full height, and turn around "Put the phone down, Josie, or I swear to God I'll bend you over that box of your very-important underwear and remind you exactly whose hips work fine."
"Ooh." She doesn't even flinch, just tilts her head, considering it like a menu item. "Now I'm scared."
"I'm serious."
"So am I. Spank me, Captain." She spins and shakes her ass at me. "I'm waiting."
"That's not—" I drag a hand down my face, fighting the grin threatening to break through my very serious, very threatening expression. "That's not how threats are supposed to work. You're supposed to be scared."
"Iamscared." She presses a hand to her chest, biting back a laugh. "Terrified. Look at me shaking."
"Fine." I cross my arms, which is difficult to do with any authority when your hamstring is still twitching. "No spanking, then. Noanything. I'm withdrawing all sexual services, effective immediately."
That gets her. Josie lowers the phone an inch, narrowing her eyes like I've just declared war. "You wouldn't."
"Try me."
"Declan Morrison, you would last exactly six hours. Now come on, I still need to pack all these boxes."
