So Into You [The Jane Austen Academy Series #2] Read Free Page A

alone anymore."
    Not be alone ? She thought of Lizzie and Emma and even Edward. "But I’m not alone."
    "Well of course, dear. None of us is really alone —as Desikashar says, yoga exists because we are all linked."
    "Mom." A single word, a stern tone, to keep her mom’s mind from wandering. "What does this have to do with my tuition?"
    "Your father wanted to be here when we told you." She waved her hands by her ears in excitement. "We finally adopted!"
    "A baby?" The blurted word felt strange on her lips.
    "Goodness, Ellie, what else would we adopt? Yes! A baby! You know we’ve been trying since before you were born and there was always that talk of how we didn’t have steady enough jobs and the studio was always in danger of bankruptcy and we worried that we wanted the baby too much, that we weren’t accepting our path and you know how we feel about wanting too much, the universe won’t reward you so—"
    That buzz started again in Ellie’s brain. One that made her feel faint and fuzzy because her mom was going on and on about a baby. Going on and on the way Ellie was accused of going on and on when she was in a chatty mood only nothing her mother was saying made sense. How could her parents adopt a baby? They could barely care for themselves!
    Oh sure, they took good care of their minds and bodies the way yoga instructors did, and they were the best when it came to being hands-off and trusting her (which was really just trusting the universe, they insisted). But when it came to paying bills and showing up on time, they were nowhere to be found. It was one of the reasons why boarding school was so perfect.
    "—we received an opportunity to help open a new yoga studio and that’s when it all fell into place. That’s when the universe told us it was time."
    "A new yoga studio got you a baby?" Ellie must have misheard.
    "Our application for the adoption came through because the yoga studio is in the same city as the baby—in Guatemala."
    "You’re helping open a yoga studio in Guatemala?" Ellie repeated, as if it would force the words to make sense.
    "We did debate merely opening a studio there. But then we asked ourselves, was that the best demonstration of our intention?"
    "What intention?" Ellie asked, trying to keep up with her mother’s logic.
    "The intention to raise a family. We meditated on the matter and realized we couldn’t just open a studio in the country of our future child; we had to understand the country, the people, so we would know our child’s roots. We knew we had to visit."
    "So . , , did you visit?" Ellie asked, exasperated, to move the conversation forward.
    "Twice! We realized the full practice of our intention must be met. We had to move to Guatemala."
    The buzz in Ellie’s ears deadened to silence, a deep silence that seemed like cotton in her head. "Did you say you and Dad are moving to Guatemala?"
    "No, of course not."
    Ellie choked in relief. She must be losing it. She could have sworn she heard her mother say—
    "We’re all moving to Guatemala. Together."
     
    * * *
     
    Ellie walked. Out of her bedroom. Past Emma and Lizzie, who opened the door to Lizzie’s room the second they heard her come out. Down the hall. Out the main gate.
    Lizzie and Emma followed. Ellie explained what her mother had said. Or at least she thought she did. Words left her lips. Her mouth moved. But she barely heard her voice.
    The path from main campus curved past the gymnasium and into the woods, which grew dense as the trees drew closer and closer together, their branches tangling overhead. Burnt orange and red leaves crunched beneath her flip-flops.
    If she walked fast enough, if she could make the wind rush in her ears, then she could pretend she was riding inside the barrel of a wave crashing toward shore. Her mother said it took years and years of yoga and meditation practice to find true peace, but Ellie knew it only took a few minutes to paddle out into the ocean to find it.
    But there was no