Moonlight in the Morning (Edilean 6)

“Why didn’t you stay in the restaurant today?” she asked. “I would have liked to actually meet you. Again, that is.”

“You’ve met me as much as anyone has. And besides, if I’d introduced myself, maybe you wouldn’t have liked the look of me and not come tonight.”

“I shouldn’t have.” She expected him to ask why, but he didn’t.

“Tell me about your workout.”

“Those two women!” Jecca said. “Hey! Maybe I’m not supposed to tell. Women’s secrets, that sort of thing.”

“I’m the town doctor, remember? You can tell me anything. And maybe it would help me with future patients who come in with muscle strain from their classes. What did you do? And where is it held? In the woods by candlelight?” There was hope in his voice.

“Promise you won’t laugh.”

“I never make that promise. I take laughter anywhere I can get it.”

“Good philosophy,” she said, then took a breath. “We pole danced.”

“You what?”

“Pole danced. Tomorrow it’s belly dancing.”

Tristan didn’t laugh. “You’re serious?”

“Oh yes, and I have the aching muscles to prove it. There’s a big room in the basement that’s carpeted with what they said was triple padding. Whatever it was, it wasn’t enough. In one end of the room is a huge flat-screen TV with super video equipment, and one of those bookcases that holds a thousand DVDs. Smack in the middle is a fireman’s pole. And that’s it.”

“No chairs?”

“Not one. Mrs. Wingate said that every day Lucy chooses a different workout disk, and they do it. Tristan, I went through them, and you can’t believe what they have. There’s every kind of dance from Brazilian carnival to hula and ballet. Even the yoga is called Power Yoga. And they have kickboxing.”

“I can’t imagine my Miss Livie straddling a fireman’s pole. You are talking about . . . ?”

“Strippers,” Jecca said. “What those women can do! I blush at it.”

“So, uh,” Tristan said, “did you try it?”

“Of course. I’m half their age, so I thought that I could easily do what they were doing. But I couldn’t get anywhere near the height on that pole that they did. And swirling around it . . . Impossible!”

“I have the most wonderful images in my mind.”

“Of Mrs. Wingate? Or is it Lucy in your visions?”

Tristan chuckled. “And it’s belly dancing tomorrow? You think maybe I can—”

“No, you can’t join us.”

“Are you sure? Maybe—”

“There’s a sign on the door NO MEN ALLOWED.”

“I can see that it’s been too long since I’ve been in the basement of that house.”

Jecca rubbed her arms. “I’m going to be sore tomorrow.”

“Turn around and I’ll rub your shoulders.”

She hesitated.

“I can’t do much with just one arm,” he said.