“Moments like what?” she whispers.
I clasp our fingers together. “Moments like this where we’re not fighting.”
“We do fight a lot,” she admits.
“That’s because you’re exasperating.” But I smile as I say it, rubbing my thumb along her delicate wrist.
“You’reexasperating.”
“That’s a childish comeback. You don’t have anything else?”
“You’re a lot of things.”
“All of them bad?”
She shakes her head.
“Do you believe me that I’m here for you?” Slowly, she nods. “And I don’t expect special treatment, and this isn’t a rebound or some sort of spy mission—”
“What?”
“One of the guys asked that. You.” I pull our hands out of the water and rest them against my chest. “You’re the only reason I’m here. And yes, the timing is bad, but what else is new? I think the timing has always been bad for us.”
“Maybe,” she concedes, and she doesn’t pull her hand away.
Of course, that is the moment that we’re interrupted.
A shadow falls over us and I look up to see a dripping Basher beside the hot tub.
I never would have imagined a drummer being so muscular. “Do you know Princess Tema has never been on a slip and slide?” he demands.
I’m so caught up in Lyra that it takes a moment to understand what he’s saying. “A what?”
“Slip and slide. That’s what they’re called, isn’t it? Those yellow plastic things that you get wet and then slide down.”
I blink. “I don’t think that generation even knows what it is.”
“But I do.” Lyra squeezes my hand before pulling away to climb out of the hot tub and immediately the water feels cooler when she’s not beside me. “Don’t you remember that super-hot summer when I was ten and Bo and Kalle made us one on the castle lawn?”
“You were nine,” I correct.
“Nine. Tema needs that experience, so let’s build her one,” Lyra decides.
That’s all it takes to set a plan in motion—Lyra is the queen of our little bubble of reality and her every word is law.
She announces what she wants, and as Tema jumps up and down with excitement, the men move into action. I’m left with red legs from being in the hot water for too long, and a smile on my face because it seems I’m finally getting somewhere with Lyra.
Boone, with his construction background, takes the lead. Deciding the slope of the lawn beside the hotel is the perfect angle, he disappears into the hotel for a few minutes, returning with a roll of plastic and a hose.
“Get some soap to make it slippery,” Lyra instructs.
“Not too much,” Tanner warns, Tema perched high on his shoulders. “Don’t want the little miss to go flying off.”
“But the little miss wants to go flying!” Tema cries and Tanner jogs along the grass with Tema’s arms outstretched to take his place in line for the slip and slide.
Jon insists on going first to check for safety, with Fireman Dylan waiting at the bottom in case of accidents. It’s all very organized.
After a few of the men run and slide down the plastic, ending up at the bottom dripping with soap bubbles and howling with laughter, Tema insists on taking her turn.
