Page 68 of Tides That Bind

She sighs and mumbles something I don’t make out.

“What was that?” I step closer.

With her gaze down, Harper fiddles with the hem of her white t-shirt. “Acrobat.”

“Acro-what?”

“I was an acrobat.”

I tilt my head. “Like…an acrobat.”

“Yes.”

I rack my brain but all I remember is Nate telling me when he met Harper in North Carolina she worked as a bar tender and taught yoga during the day.

“Did…Did, Nate know?”

Once again, Harper looks at me like I’m crazy. “DidNateknow?”

“I know the question, I’m the one who asked it.”

Harper shakes her head. “It’s not the question you asked, it’showyou asked it, likedid Nate know you were a stripper?”

“What’s wrong with being a stripper?” I ask.

“Nothing. Only if youinsinuatethere is.”

Now I have this image in my mind of Harper being some sort of acrobatic stripper, and I won’t lie, it kind of makes my ears burn in a good way.

I shake my head, trying to push the thought away. It’s harder to do than I’d care to admit and that’s…bad.

Because she’s my best friend’s wife, even if he’s no longer around.

“But did he?”

Harper’s nose wrinkles as she snorts. “Of course he knew. Do you think he’d be bothered by it?”

“No, no. It’s just that, I don’t know, that’s kind of like the cool thing you drop at a party when you’re the new kid. Like never have I ever been an acrobat.” I pause.“Andwhenwere you an acrobat exactly?”

“You can be more than one thing, Riley. Look at you. You’re a surfer and a lawyer. It’s not that crazy.”

I still can’t quite wrap my mind around this. “Being an acrobat is kind of crazy. Can you like, fly through the air?”

“If there’s someone to catch me.”

Color me curious, I’m not letting this one go.

“What else can you do? Beside balance like a cat.”

Harper shrugs. “I’m full of lots of tricks.”

“Yeah?” I fold my arms across my chest. “Prove it.”

Harper narrows her eyes at my challenge and then looks around the back yard, lifting a straight leg with a pointed foot and running it across the grass. Her chest rises and falls with a deep breath before she straightens, raising the bottom of her shirt, which I think for one minute she might remove in stripper-like fashion, but then she just ties it into a knot so it sits secure.

And then, she turns away from me, and does a handstand. But not just a handstand—she’swalkingon her hands.

I have this immediate reaction to step forward in case she loses her balance, but Harper then turns, heading back in my direction, so I stand still. No more than a foot away, her legs fall forward, her bare feet landing softly between my own. When the rest of Harper’s body follows, she straightens, our middles pressing against each other.

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