Chapter 16
Chapter Sixteen
HARLEY
I sank into the hot tub with a contented sigh, letting the bubbling water work its magic on my muscles after the dinner fiasco with Maylin. The spring night air carried a crisp chill, making the rising steam all the more inviting.
“Your chariot awaits, my liege,” I announced dramatically, extending my hand to Ryker as he approached the tub in his swim trunks.
He rolled his eyes but accepted my help. “I can get in a hot tub by myself, you know.”
“And deprive me of my gallant moment? I think not.” I guided him down the steps, enjoying the feel of his fingers wrapped around mine.
“Besides, after surviving dinner with your soul mate from eight hundred-something lifetimes, you deserve some royal treatment. We must have been kings or princes somewhere in the cosmic timeline. Baxter can’t be the only one who got to wear a crown. ”
Ryker laughed through a groan. “God, I still can’t believe she claimed we were Mongolian yak herders together.”
“Don’t forget about your special song for the yaks that made all the other herders jealous,” I reminded him, pulling him closer once he settled beside me.
“How could I forget? Apparently, I’ve always had a way with animals.” He leaned against my shoulder. The solid weight of him, so familiar after years of movie nights on the couch, held new meaning now. It was the same Ryker, but the space between us had completely changed.
“Well, you certainly have a way with this animal,” I murmured against his ear, delighting in his snort of amusement.
The sliding door to the patio opened, and Sawyer appeared with Gia right behind her. They each carried two drinks.
“We come bearing past-life memory enhancers!” Sawyer announced, distributing the glasses before sliding into the tub across from us.
Gia followed, careful not to spill her drink. “Whiskey, which is guaranteed to help you remember at least three more incarnations by morning.”
“Or make you forget this one entirely,” I quipped, accepting a glass.
Sawyer handed Ryker his drink. The tense line of his shoulders, which had been hiked up to his ears when we first got in, had finally dropped. He leaned back with a sigh.
I raised my glass. “To past lives and present company.”
“To finding your soul mate in every lifetime,” Gia added.
“Even when they’re a reincarnated alpaca,” Sawyer finished.
Ryker scowled as we all clinked glasses. “You’re never going to let me live this down, are you?”
“Nope.” His sister obnoxiously popped the P for emphasis.
The whiskey’s slow burn settled deep in my stomach. I draped my arm around Ryker’s shoulders, drawing him closer. He nestled against me without hesitation or protest. The easy, chaotic warmth of his family’s acceptance was the thing I’d been chasing my whole life without realizing it.
Sawyer was the first to break the comfortable silence. “Okay, I’ve been thinking. I came up with another past life for you and Maylin, Ryker.”
Ryker groaned. “Please, no more.”
“No, no, this is good,” she insisted, her eyes sparkling with mischief. “1920s New York. One of you was a hot dog vendor, and the other was a sewer rat who kept stealing the hot dogs.”
“Let me guess which one I was,” Ryker said dryly.
Sawyer grinned at him. “The rat did have a certain charm about it.”
“I’m honored,” Ryker deadpanned, but I could feel a tremor of suppressed amusement rumble through his body and into mine.
“My turn,” I announced, setting down my glass. “I think she was wrong about your Victorian lifetime. I bet one of us was Jack the Ripper, and the other was the detective chasing him down.”
Ryker elbowed me. “Harley, that’s awful.”
“Hey, it’s historically accurate. And very romantic,” I defended, kissing his temple. “Star-crossed lovers and all that. And it’s better than tripping to death on a floorboard or whatever nonsense she said.”
“What if Maylin was the sex worker who killed Jack the Ripper to stop his reign of terror?” Gia suggested. “That’s why history never figured out who he was, because his intended victims murdered him, which was her in a past life.”
Sawyer froze with her glass halfway to her lips. The sudden quiet was so absolute, all I could hear was the bubbling of the jets.
Ryker was the first to find his voice. “That’s oddly specific.”
“You should write a book about it, babe,” Sawyer suggested.
Gia held up her hands defensively. “Hey, Maylin’s the one who claimed she’d committed murder before! You can’t blame my mind for going there.”
“Fair point,” I conceded, lifting my glass to her. “To Maylin, the unsung hero who saved London from Jack the Ripper.”
“Wait, unicorns!” Sawyer exclaimed with glee. “I bet Ryker was definitely a unicorn in a past life.”
He choked on his drink. “What? Unicorns aren’t real.”
“Neither is reincarnating as a centaur or merperson,” I pointed out. “But here we are.”
“Think about it,” Sawyer continued, warming to her theory.
I couldn’t let this golden opportunity pass. “So what you’re saying is,” I began, my voice dropping to a suggestive purr, “my boyfriend has experience with horns?”
Ryker’s eyes widened as he caught my meaning. “Harley, don’t you dare.”
“It explains so much, since he certainly knows how to handle mine.”
Sawyer burst into peals of laughter while Gia nearly spat out her drink.
“I bet I rode you as a unicorn,” I continued, having too much fun with the joke.
“If Ryker was a unicorn, what does that make Harley in that lifetime?” Gia asked.
His sister hummed with interest. “Ooh, good question. What magical creature would you have been, Harley?”
I tapped my chin, feigning serious consideration. “Obviously, I was a dragon.”
“A dragon can’t ride a unicorn,” Ryker scoffed. “Why would you be a dragon?”
“Because dragons are sexy, powerful, and known for their impressive size,” I explained with a cocky grin. “Plus, dragons and unicorns are natural enemies in mythology, which explains why we bickered for so long before getting together.”
“The forbidden romance angle,” Gia nodded approvingly. “I like it.”
“A unicorn and a dragon,” Sawyer mused. “That’s actually kind of perfect for you two.”
“See?” I pulled Ryker closer. “Even your sister approves of our mythological romance.”
“The unicorn probably just wanted to be left alone to eat grass or whatever,” Ryker muttered, “but the dragon wouldn’t stop following him around, making inappropriate comments about his horn.”
His comeback delighted me. “And yet, the unicorn secretly loved the attention.”
“Did not,” Ryker argued, but the smile he couldn’t hide told a different story.
“The dragon definitely knew how to stroke the unicorn’s horn,” I stage-whispered, earning snickers and an eye roll.
Always a team player, Sawyer joined in the fun. “Dragons have that special breath, right? It’s probably great for polishing horns.”
“I’m leaving,” Ryker threatened, though he remained firmly in place beside me.
“No, you’re not.” I draped my arm around his shoulders. “You’re having too much fun pretending to be annoyed with us.”
“Who says I’m pretending?”
Gia got us back on track. “If Ryker was a unicorn and Harley was a dragon, what would that make you and me, babe?”
Sawyer considered this for a moment. “I was definitely a phoenix. Fiery, dramatic, constantly reinventing myself.”
“And I’d be a griffin,” Gia decided. “Part eagle, part lion. Practical but fierce.”
“That suits you,” Sawyer nodded, clinking her glass against Gia’s. “To our mythological menagerie.”
“May we all find each other in every lifetime,” I added, raising my glass. “Especially when some of us have horns.”
Ryker sighed dramatically but raised his glass as well. “To finding each other, even when some of us are insufferable dragons.”
“Oh!” Sawyer snapped her fingers at a sudden thought. “Unicorns are just horses with a horn, right? What if the two of you did horse diving together?”
I blinked at her. “What the hell is horse diving?”
“You don’t know about horse diving?” Sawyer pretended to be shocked. “In the mid-1800s, people would ride horses, jumping off high platforms into pools of water. It was a whole thing.”
“That can’t be real,” Ryker said, but Gia was already nodding.
“No, it’s totally real,” she insisted. “In the 1920s, there was this famous horse diver named Sonora Webster. She went blind after a dive went wrong, but she kept diving for over a decade.”
I had a difficult time picturing it. “That’s both impressive and deeply concerning.”
“It would make sense if Ryker was the horse,” Gia added. “After all, it’s not that far off from an alpaca.”
“I’d ride you any day,” I whispered in his ear. His face turned a delightful shade of crimson.
“What? It’s the hot water,” he muttered when Sawyer arched an eyebrow at his flushed face.
“Sure it is,” she teased.
Ryker attempted to change the subject. “Why do you know about horse diving?”
His sister shrugged. “I watched a movie as a kid called Wild Hearts Can’t Be Broken about a blind horse diver. I loved it, but later, I found out she wasn’t a fan of the movie, which was a total bummer.”
“The things you learn in a hot tub. Horse diving. Reincarnated mythical creatures. The secret identity of Jack the Ripper.” The whiskey loosened my tongue. “Ooh, I’ve got another one. Vlad the Impaler.”
Ryker choked on his drink. “Why does it sound so filthy when you say it?”
“What?” I feigned mock innocence. “I’m just saying, historically speaking, he was quite adept at penetration.”
“You’re the worst,” he groaned, burying his face against my neck.
Gia perked up. “Wait, that reminds me of Elizabeth Báthory.”
We all stared at her blankly.
“Seriously? None of you know Elizabeth Báthory?” She looked disappointed in our historical knowledge. “Hungarian countess? Prolific serial killer? Murdered her servants and virgins to bathe in their blood for eternal youth?”
“That sounds like something Maylin would do,” Sawyer said after a beat of silence.
“Right? She’s got that ‘I’ll drain your life force to sustain my own’ vibe.”