Page 25 of Catch and Release
Willa held Shawn’s gaze for a split second before he nodded and left the room. She grabbed an armchair from the corner and brought it to the edge of Ida’s bed before sitting down and launching into how yet again, her class was not well-attended.
She told Ida about her plan to make a flier and try to work with the staff to better market her class, and then she dove into her plans for the sunrise class on Saturday. Ida, ever the patient listener, asked a few clarifying questions, but mostly let Willa speak uninterrupted. And Willa, hoping to take her mind off whatever pain she might be feeling, rambled for as long as she could.
“Well, honey, it sounds like you’ve thought this through,” Ida said.
“Thanks, Grams,” Willa said, before asking, “Are you in any pain? I can help you with some stretches that might make it better.
“What kind of stretches?” Ida asked, looking concerned.
“Nothing crazy,” Willa said with a smile. “But I used to teach a few yoga classes for seniors back in San Francisco. I even helped a few of them work through pain and stiffness after falls like yours. You can lay down the whole time.”
“Alright, then. Might as well try it.”
Willa stood up and gently pulled Ida’s legs forward, straightening them as much as she could. Then she folded them in and turned them to the right side, then the left side. She never pushed, and a few times she paused at the sound of a slight intake of breath from Ida. But Ida never told her to stop, so she repeated the motion over and over until Ida loosened up a bit more.
Then she folded the right leg, while keeping the left extended, and swapped them. Over and over she did these simple movements, trying to help loosen the stiffness in Ida’s body. After a few rounds of that, she pulled the folded right leg over, twisting the spine and intensifying the stretch, before doing it on the other side. Willa repeated these movements, hoping to provide additional mobility to Ida and help her work through residual pain.
“What’s going on here?”
Willa had just moved onto Ida’s upper body, circling her wrists and adding slight pressure to forearms, when Shawn walked in glaring at her. Still sweaty from his run, hair tousled, he was carrying a teapot and a saucer for Grams.
“Sheesh, Scoob, who peed in your cheerios?” Ida said. “She’s stretching me out, and it’s making my limbs feel looser than they have in years, so put that scowl away and bring me my tea.”
A muscle twitched in Shawn’s jaw as he approached his grandmother’s bed and set the tea on her bedside table.
“Are you sure you should be doing that?” Shawn asked, his glare only slightly softer as he looked at Willa.
God, she was going to get whiplash from him.
The way he stared at her with sweetness one minute and like a landlord evicting her from his house the next was enough to make her dizzy. Anger surged in her at the thought that he’d believe she would ever do something that would hurt Ida, but as she caught his eyes, she saw something beneath the cold glare: fear. She knew what it was like to love your grandparents dearly and worry about them constantly.
“I used to teach yoga for seniors,” Willa said, maintaining eye contact with him. “I know what I’m doing.”
With a tight nod, he turned around and left the room, leaving Willa both irritated and flustered.
“He worries about me,” Ida said, startling Willa out of her stupor. “It was hard for him when his grandfather died. Lord knows, I won’t be around forever, either. But Shawn will do everything in his power to make sure I’m around as long as I can be.”
Willa took a deep breath, squaring her shoulders and continuing with the stretches.
“I understand. I would have done the same for my grandparents.”
“Oh sweetie,” Ida grabbed her hand. “They loved you. So much.”
“I know,” Willa said, her eyes burning.
If she’d known moving back to her family home would be this emotional, she might have avoided the hassle of it all. But then again, she was emotionally raw when she got here in the first place, so that wasn’t helping matters.
“You should probably be stretching every day, Grams,” Willa said, shoving aside thoughts of the grandparents she missed so much it ached. “I can help you when we get back from our walks every day.”
“If you say so, dear,” Ida said. “And you’re still coming with me to Bingo tomorrow night, right?”
“Wouldn’t miss it.”
8
It had been a long day at the bait shop.
Tourist season was always equal parts fantastic and nightmarish. The money Shawn earned in the summer months was at least five times the amount he earned during the months in the off-season. But some days, he wished he never had to interact with tourists. He’d become an expert in tourist personas, and he had them perfectly categorized.