“You’re early,” she says as she drags a towel across her forehead. A light sheen of sweat highlights the curve of her collarbone, and her already tight spandex seems to be hugging her toned frame even tighter. I force my gaze to remain on her eyes, although it takes more restraint than I’d like to admit.

I shrug. “Since you were a little on the fence about giving me lessons, I didn’t want to be late. Besides, I like watching you.” She rolls her eyes at me, and I laugh softly. “Please, you clearly like watching me too. I felt your eyes on me the entire time during the preseason game.”

Her face flushes, a soft pink blooming across her cheekbones that somehow makes her look even more gorgeous—and gives her away.

“I was watching closely enough that I saw how slow you are on direction changes,” she fires back, and I wince because I know she’s right. But there’s something endearing about her noticing these details, about the fact that her eyes were following me that closely across the ice.

“It’s always been a weak spot for me. I’ve been working on it, but I still have some room for improvement.”

“I think I can help,” she says, although she doesn’t look me in the eye when she says it, her gaze focusing somewhere just past my shoulder. “Honestly, I think all athletes should do yoga.”

“Really? Why’s that?”

“Every sport is physical, obviously. And strength training and cardio and all that is great and necessary, but none of it really addresses an athlete’s flexibility. That’s arguably just as important as their strength and endurance. More so, in my opinion.”

I nod, caught off guard by the passion in her voice. This isn’t just a side job for her—it’s something she truly believes in.

“What even is yoga?” I ask her, genuinely curious to hear her perspective. “I mean, obviously it’s stretching and stuff, but what’s the actual point of it? Besides flexibility.”

“It has a lot of purposes, but it’s really up to the person practicing it what they want to get out of it. For some people, it’s about range of motion. For others, it’s about balance and core strength. And then for some people it’s just a way to get quiet and be in their bodies every now and then.”

I suppress the flirtatious comment that immediately springs to mind. “Wow. You sound passionate about this.”

Hannah looks me in the eye for the first time since I got here. “Because I am. Yoga is a huge part of my life.” She clears her throat, pointing toward the back of the studio. “You can get changed in the locker room. It’s over there.”