Page 13 of Spatially UnawareWolf

Luke snorted despite himself, but then his smile faded. “I hate it, but you’re right.”

“That’s why you hired me,” I said.

He blew out a breath. “It’s just so dumb. Like, how hard is it to figure out how human legs work?”

“Trust me, when you analyze the number of muscles and tendons involved, there’s more to it than you think. Now, you wanna keep going on this, or shall we try the ramp?”

Luke stepped away from the obstacle so fast you’d have thought it was on fire and jogged over to the bottom of the ramp. It wasn’t particularly steep, and he eyed it for a minute before saying, “This is gonna be easier than those stupid steps, right?”

“Sure,” I lied.

Luke side-eyed me, then launched himself forward at the gentle slope.

He made it exactly three steps before his legs betrayed him and he tumbled back down, landing squarely on his ass. He scowled and scrambled back onto his feet, shooting me dark looks like I’d personally kicked his legs out from under him.

“Remember,” I said, “the whole point of you running the course is so I can see what I’m working with. I expect you to fuck up.”

Luke’s eyebrows shot up to his hairline. “Wow. Thanks for the vote of confidence.”

“I’m serious. How do I know what I need to fix if I can’t see what the problem is? It would be like expecting a mechanic to diagnose the weird noise your car’s making without turning the engine on first.”

“I guess,” he said doubtfully. He eyed the ramp again and made another run at it, faster this time, like he could outrun his lack of coordination.

He absolutely couldn’t.

This time the fall was truly spectacular, with Luke somehow managing to do a complete backflip and ending up on his back, spinning like a turtle who’d been flipped onto its shell, or maybe an energetic but unskilled breakdancer—that one from Australia, maybe.

I tried to bite back a smile, but judging by the look Luke shot me I wasn’t all that successful. In my defense, he did look ridiculous. “Wanna try again?” I asked.

“I’d sooner shit in my hands and clap, thanks.”

“That’s not part of the program, so you’ll have to do that on your own time,” I said, not bothering to hide my grin this time.

“Fine,” Luke said, rolling his eyes, but I caught the ghost of a smile.

It was the last one I saw for the session.

I spent the next thirty minutes watching Luke trip, fall, and generally fail to coordinate, until finally I said, “We’re done for now.”

Luke sat down heavily on the park bench, dropping his head between his knees, and his disappointment was obvious. He looked ready to throw the entire agility course, me included, into the nearby ocean. But I’d been studying the way his feet and legs moved, and I had an idea of where the problem lay, so at least we’d taken a step forward—pun fully intended.

Now I just had to work out how to fix it.

“Good job,” I said

He lifted his head and examined me intently, possibly to see if I was joking. “Yeah?”

I met his gaze. “Yeah.”

An uncertain smile appeared, like he wanted to believe me but couldn’t quite manage it, and he said, “So, can you fix me?”

“Show up tonight at ten, and we’ll find out,” I said.

But I was quietly confident. I hadn’t failed at this yet.

Why would Luke be any different?

CHAPTER 5