Page 90 of Tides That Bind

The contents of the box rattle as I walk outside. I follow the path around the side of the small building and tilt my gaze to the side, but obviously not enough because it’s impossible to ignore Riley standing there with the top of his wetsuit pulled down,hanging from his waist. It’s damn well hard to ignore the definition and shape of his lean arms when he has one pressed against the wall.

I clear my throat and open the tin filled with paperclips and thumb tacks and dump one into my hand. Riley reaches over, carefully taking it by the plastic, blue cap. “Here.”

“Thanks,” Riley offers, his voice muffled. He presses the metal pin into the corkboard, stepping back and taking the papers from his mouth, crumpling them into a ball.

I place the tin on the small table. “I have to get going.”

“Wait,” Riley says. “Take my car.”

“I can walk.”

“You’re not walking home. It’s hot today.”

Clearly not taking no for an answer, Riley moves past me and returns a moment later, tossing me his keys. “Finn will give me a lift home.”

The keys jingle in my hand. It’s not that I don’t want to put up a fight—it’s that I need to get out of here more than I need to stand my ground, especially over this.

I straighten my purse and lower my gaze as I continue along the path leading to the street.

“Harper?”

Raising my shoulders with a sigh, I turn around.

“I know you saidyouwanted to teach Lucas to surf, but…” Riley’s eyes trail off to the bulletin board he was just organizing.

I swallow. “But what?”

“You want to get him in the water? I think you need to show him how cool you really are.”

I move back down the path to where Riley stands. “What do you mean?”

He’s still looking at the bulletin board. “I have an idea.”

I scan the ads. Many of them are for selling boards. “What is it?”

“Let’s just say,” Riley begins, folding his arms across his chest. “I’ll need your help and your…expertise.”

“My expertise?” I ask. I love my son, but he has the attention span of a fly and the amount of energy of a racehorse. While it would be my dream for him to try yoga, I know it would be more work for both of us than what Lucas will really get out of it.

“Yourpriorexpertise. I need acrobatic Harper to pull through.”

I’m taken by surprise. “What? Why?”

Riley reaches out, tapping an ad pinned to the center of the board.

TANDEM SURF COMPETITION.

AMATEURS WELCOME

“You said it yourself,” he says, nudging me playfully with his arm. “There’s magic at the circus.”

“Are you breaking and entering?”

Today is a good reminder that I no longer have a best friend on the police force, a guy who I can name drop if I’m ever in a pickle with one of his buddies in uniform. But thankfully, it’s only my sister who finds me about to hop over the gate leading to the community pool in her condominium complex.

“I’m a guest using my sister’s pool,” I tell Caroline, backing away from the fence when she approaches the gate.

Caroline scoffs. “You canaskme, you know. Or Finn.”

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