Winner Takes All by Erin Kern

her coffee and tossed the cup in the trash. “Is he as hot in person?”
    “You already know he is,” Annabelle answered.
    Stella waved a hand in the air. “And the reason you don’t want to jump his bones is…?”
    Annabelle laughed. “Just because a guy is hot doesn’t mean I’m going to jump his bones.” But, yeah, she wanted to.
    “Then there’s something wrong with you,” Stella stated.
    Annabelle crossed her arms over her chest. “Okay, so how come you don’t want to jump his bones?” Even though it was meant as a rhetorical question, the thought of her tall, beautiful friend throwing herself at Blake Carpenter did something funny to Annabelle’s insides. Her stomach tightened unexpectedly.
    “I never said that,” Stella countered. “He just seems like more of your type. Besides, I’m not looking for a guy right now.”
    Ah, yes, her beautiful friend dated about as often as a groundhog came out during winter. She thought she’d remembered Stella going out on one date a few months ago, but she’d said the date hadn’t ended well.
    Annabelle gestured for Stella to take her place on the floor.
    Before she’d left Chicago, Stella had been a principal dancer for the Chicago Ballet. She’d been one of the best who’d had a starring role in just about every show she’d performed in. Then a fall during a pas de deux had torn Stella’s MCL and ACL. Surgery had repaired the damage, but the time off during her recovery had knocked Stella down a few notches. Not to mention her mobility hadn’t been the same. A year after her injury, she’d retired from professional ballet and moved to Blanco Valley after her grandmother had suffered from her second heart attack.
    Like Annabelle, Stella was her grandmother’s only caregiver. Another thing the two women had in common.
    Annabelle had never met a more kindred soul.
    Even though she swore she was happy, Annabelle sensed Stella missed ballet like an amputee missed their arm. Annabelle had a feeling her friend had another plan B in place after her retirement that didn’t include living in a Colorado mountain town.
    “How’s the knee today?” Annabelle asked. Last week, Stella had cut their session short, complaining about pain in her knee.
    “Better,” Stella commented. She yanked her hooded sweatshirt over her head and lowered to the floor. “Last week was a bad one for me. I had to use my ice machine for a few days.”
    “You should still be using your ice machine.” She gestured toward Stella’s leg. “You’re supposed to be wearing your brace too. You’re still prone to swelling.”
    Stella only rolled her eyes and moved her leg into position for her reps. She pretended otherwise, but Annabelle knew Stella suffered from a lot of pain. An ACL tear was a major injury that could take a lot of time to recover from. Most people suffered from pangs and stiffness for the rest of their lives. Stella put on a face of steel and made the world think her knee was fine. As though a forced early retirement had been in her plans all along and no big deal.
    That had to be about as true as Annabelle planning on a cheating husband and painful divorce.
    “Start with ten reps,” Annabelle told her friend. “Then I have some new exercises for you.” She hung back, watching Stella instead of touching her. Stella had a weird thing about direct contact with other people.
    Stella huffed out a breath as she pushed through her first set. “I’m going to remember the hell you put me through during your next aerobics class.”
    Annabelle smiled as a bead of sweat rolled down Stella’s temple and slid back into her dark hair. “I push you because I love you. You push because you’re a sadistic bitch.”
    Stella answered Annabelle’s grin with one of her own, followed by a wince. “You have to be a little sadistic to be a ballet dancer. And most of us are bitches because we have huge egos. Those who aren’t don’t make it very far.” She slid her friend a