Breathe: A Novel (30 page)

Suddenly, I jumped up. “Wait! Don’t tell me!” It was my turn to take a risk. To show Andy that I could be vulnerable, fun, spontaneous. “I’ll be right back!” I jumped up and scrambled into my shoes.

Frantically, I dashed into the tent, searching for the bowl of fruit I had seen on the coffee table. Gone! I grabbed a caterer.

“Hi. I really need an apple. Know where I can get one? Somewhere? In your truck? Anywhere?”

The uncomfortable undergrad in a maroon bow tie said, “Yes, ma’am,” then disappeared. I grabbed a toothpick from the bar and waited. And waited. The crowd was beginning to thin by the time he came back and handed me the apple.

“Thanks!” I said, already busy scratching my message into the small piece of fruit. “Ouch!” I pricked my finger, wrapped it in cocktail napkin, and got back to work.

Done!
I ran back outside.

Andy was gone.

I looked down at the scratched up apple. What was I thinking? I dropped back down on the bench, sucking my finger. Why hadn’t I just told him how I felt? He was probably loading his girlfriend in his truck for some
Old Yeller
right now. Who was I to come between them, anyway? I was standing up to leave when—

“There you are,” Andy said. “I went to get some coffee. What ‘cha got there?” He looked at the apple in my hands. I tossed it to the side.

“Nothing.”

“Amending the soil there?”

I hesitated. I had to do this.

“I’m glad you found someone.” I tried to sound pleased, because I wanted to be happy for him. I did.

“Found someone?”

“Yep. She’s really beautiful. It’s good. I mean great. I’m sure she’s amazing. You deserve it. Her.” I sat down again and kicked the grass with my feet.

“Alex, if you mean the woman with dark hair that I was sitting with, that’s my sister Janie.”

“That’s . . . Janie?” I wanted to do a few cartwheels. It was his sister! I laughed with relief.

When you think you know, you don’t.

It was time to stop fearing the worst.

“Missed you, crazy woman,” he said, smiling at me. “Think I’m ready for my friend back, if you’ll have me?”

I looked at him. “But what about all those things you said on the roof?”

“I was hurt and angry, Alex. But without you, life is much too predictable,” he smirked.

“Alex! Are you out here?” It was Haley, stumbling toward us with her arm looped though Tripp’s, wine sloshing all over both of them.

Andy turned back to me, “Now
that
I see.” We looked at each other. “Make a run for it?”

“Yes.” I jumped to my feet. Andy took my hand.

“Where to?” he asked.

“Your place.” I smiled.

“You ready for that?”

I slid my hands under his jacket and around his waist. He pulled me toward him, and when I felt his lips on mine, I let myself be wrapped in earth and warmth and true connection. It felt like we had always been this way.

“Well, alright,” he said, his smile touching mine. “Let’s hit it.” He bent down to pick up the apple as we jogged toward a low-lit pathway at the edge of the lawn.

We heard Haley giggle, “Now where did they go?”

Surrounded by hedges, we stopped. Andy held the apple up to the moonlight.

“I loof goo?”

“Yes. I do. Now take me home!”

“Loof goo too, Oregon.”

Andy swooped me up, kissed me, and threw me onto his back, my legs draped in blue silk around his waist.

“Hyah!” I yelled, digging my heels into his thighs.

And he burst through a gap in the hedges.

Kate Bishop is the collective spirit of three friends with a shared passion for writing, yoga and a good, old-fashioned (or New Age) love story.
B
reathe
was inspired by their experiences both on and off the mat and was born of a genuine desire to throw some love, light and laughter into the mix.

Kristin Tone graduated from Bowdoin College with a B.A. in Psychology and received an M.A. in Education from Lesley University. She taught both yoga and elementary education and was adjunct faculty at Antioch University. Talie Kattwinkel earned a degree in Women’s Studies and Creative Writing from the University of Arizona. She currently specializes in bodywork and healing. Bridget Evans attended the University of Maryland where she studied education. She taught in the Marin County school system for ten years and co-created OUTWORD, an outdoor writing program for children. She is also a yoga teacher. All three women are mothers of small children.

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