More Than Words: Kissed By A Muse #3 (25 page)

‘Oh yeah…’ Ryan’s hands trailed down her bare, wet back and to her hips as he whispered: ‘If my baby mama wasn’t looking on with said baby, we’d so be skinny-dipping right now.’

His confession made her giggle, but she turned to stare at Calliope, finding that though most of her resentment and envy had faded, the fact that they were now rivals was strikingly clear. She didn’t want that, and she opened her mouth to thank Calliope for offering to do what Imogen had done first, but the muse of music was leaning down and handing Rya a small, ancient-looking harp.

‘I’m sorry baby, but you know that I can’t let my bratty sister upstage me like that, right?’

Rya nodded, taking the lyre. Her jet black curls bounced as she looked up at her equally beautiful mother, and Honey wondered if their radiance was genetic, or if she’d have that ethereal glow beneath the surface of her skin now too. ‘You can admit that you’ll miss her too much to let her stay in Oblivion alone for long, mummy.’

Calliope laughed, but tears ran down her face. ‘I refuse to respond to that without a lawyer present… but thank you, for understanding.’ She leaned in and hugged her daughter, whispering just low enough for them to hear: ‘Take care of daddy- both daddy’s, and tell Hunter to play my song when he’s ready to join me, okay? I’ll hear it.’ She sniffled and then winked at Honey. ‘And don’t take any crap from your new step-mother, okay? These academic types can get awfully temperamental. If she gets on your case- just crank up the Pantera and it’ll drive her nuts.’

Honey laughed. ‘Temperamental? That’s so not me.’

‘My corked thigh and the egg on my head beg to differ…’ Ryan drawled, before stepping between her and Calliope. ‘You’re really going?’

Calliope nodded. ‘I have to. Imogen was my other half, in a strange way, and she drove me to work as hard as I did… without her…well, now my life’s an empty stage, isn’t it?’ And the familiar words made Honey’s nose tingle.

Where she lived and played…

‘Callie you-’

‘No,’ Calliope cut Ryan off. ‘It’s my time. Besides, it’ll give you a better shot at an eternal life, if I follow her. The Harmony has always been able to stand up to one of us, but not both.’ She leaned up and kissed his cheek. ‘Promise me you’ll find him, okay? Without me, he’s going to need you. Tell him what you have to, but not all of it- I don’t want him joining me early out of guilt.’

‘Of course,’ Ryan whispered, his Adam’s apple sliding up and down his jaw. ‘I’ll comfort him every way I can.’

‘Thank you.’ Calliope gazed up into Ryan’s face adoringly, and Honey felt that niggling rivalry stir. ‘I always knew you two were destined to be together; you and Hunter, I’m just sad that I don’t get to be a part of it again, like back in the old days.’ She looked over at Leigh. ‘But I’m so glad that if our lives must come full circle, it ends with her.’ She leaned down and kissed Ryan’s cheek while Honey wiped at her eyes. ‘Be glorious, my darling, and I’ll see you as soon as you break me out of Oblivion, okay?’

‘I’ll be real quick,’ Rya promised. ‘I got this mum,’ and Calliope laughed.

‘I know.’

Ryan made a slightly strangled noise, clawing at his heart a little and tearing at the shirt plastered to his skin, and Honey’s heart lurched for him, as she saw the hero within him struggle to allow the heroine throw herself onto the blade. But Rya threw wrapped her arms around Ryan’s legs and whispered: ‘From what she’s told me, you’re worth it father so please don’t cry…’ and he pulled her tiny little form up for a hug, and Homey’s tears began to fall freely. God, the price people were paying for her happiness seemed anything but balanced!

‘I hope so, sweetheart.’ He pushed Rya’s hair out of her face and smiled. ‘I hope so.’

‘I’m leaving you with my most important possessions,’ Calliope smiled at Honey, and her face was also wet with tears and rain. ‘And I trust you to take care of them, won’t you,
Melis
?’

Honey inhaled vapors of rain at hearing her first name for the first time in thousands of years, and as the meaning behind it made her heart lift. Melis was the Greek word for Honey! Calliope remembered her!

‘This is the most important possession I have, Melis,’ the pretty girl whispered to her, smiling down at her with a radiant smile as the sunlight picked out the golden strands in her dark hair. ‘And I trust you to take care of it, and do wonderful things with it forever.’ She touched her face. ‘I am only just learning to read people, but I sense something extraordinary within you.’

‘You do?’ Melis had asked, taking the lyre and touching it lovingly, thinking of the beautiful stories that the lady had just told her in her melodic voice and wondering if she could do the same using the beautiful instrument. ‘But I’m just me… people will think I’ve taken something that is not mine.’

‘Then prove them wrong,’ the girl had kissed her gently. ‘It will take time to learn, but eventually, the harmony will come to you as it has to me.’

Honey blinked as the memories faded. She had been too small and scared to prove that the lyre had belonged to her, and really, it hadn’t for she’d always loved hearing stories more than telling them, and she had let Calliope down. But if she’d won Ryan’s love, then she was capable of anything now- not writing the stories no, but a thousand happy endings were swirling through her like a tornado and she couldn’t breathe past her desire to let them out- to pass her gift on now to someone like Kathryn.

She had her hope back and now she saw that that, and a little faith in herself, was all she had ever needed.

Honey blinked raindrops form her eyelashes and looked up to thank Calliope- to tell her that anyone who could remember the name of an inconsequential peasant girl after thousands of years was anything but corrupted, but lightning flashed and when the world darkened again, the glow of Calliope’s gown was absent, and Rya’s was shining radiantly- her new family embracing on the ground by the gorge and weeping tears of happiness and sadness, and Honey smiled at the sight- she had finally chased the right waterfall home, and they would all live happily ever after.

Epilogue

Araulen Valley, January 2015

I
t was so hot and bright on the beach that Jennifer could barely keep her eyes open against the glare, even behind the shade of her polarized lenses. She rolled away from her babbling friends to put her back to the sun, stretching out to strike a little pose and shielding her face with her book, willing the incredibly hot man from the next blanket over to look her way, but he did not. She’d been trying to get his attention all morning, but obviously she didn’t look as good in her hemp bikini as she’d thought she did, because the guy hadn’t taken his eyes off his wife or child to look at her once. She sighed, resenting the buxom blonde across from her who was rubbing oil into his bronzed back while he lifted his profile to the sun in apparent ecstasy, but telling herself that the other girl had at least four or five years on her, and wouldn’t hold her fine husband’s interest forever.

Oh, what a great attitude to have! What kind of romance are you ever going to find, with this kind of poison in your heart? Reece cheated on you and you’ve learned nothing!

Brianie laughed at something Lisa said behind her, but Jennifer couldn’t take her eyes, or ears, off the family across from her. They weren’t like the other families at the beach- the little girl wasn’t nagging for drinks and ice creams, and as intimately as the couple held one another, they didn’t seem bothered by the girl’s constant chatter as she erected an impressive sand-castle beside them while their odd-looking puppy bounced around them, leaving sandy paw prints all over their legs and swimsuits. There had been another guy with them earlier, a sandy-haired, pensive-looking guy with sleeve tattoos and a fantastic ass who had been almost as hot as his dark-haired mate, but he’d trotted down to the surf half an hour before looking a little gloomy, leaving Jennifer with only one demi-god to ogle and resent.

They looked like a genuinely happy family, and that made Jennifer reflect on all the hours she’d spent as a child on the beach alone while her single father worked with only a surfboard for company, with a pout she wanted to jam a cigarette into. Maybe it wouldn’t bother her so much, but she’d just broken up with Reece what… two weeks before? And she was definitely still feeling bitter. So bitter that not even Kathryn Praser’s latest novel had been able to pull her out of her funk.

‘Forget it sweetheart,’ the blonde called, leaving her husband to kneel in front of the sand-castle. ‘The Hunger Games musical? No.’

‘It could work!’ the little girl protested, and Jennifer clucked her tongue. Had this woman let that tiny little thing read Suzanne Collins? It was so dark, for someone who couldn’t be more than eight or nine!

‘It could ruin a perfectly good book,’ the woman said, then paused and smiled at her scowling daughter who was all her father, from her dark skin to her mop of black hair. ‘And waste some really beautiful songs. Why not… hmm… Merminia?’

Jennifer’s ears picked up. She loved that book! Suddenly, the blonde wasn’t so bad after all. She plucked at the ‘I’m really a mermaid’ decal on her surfboard and tried to look like she wasn’t honing in on their private conversation.

‘Songs would work, but not singing… not unless it was animated. Honestly honey… imagine the bubbles!’

She calls her mother Honey? Look down her nose much?

‘The Little Mermaid is musical!’

‘Not on the screen, it’s not. I want a blockbuster and Merminia’s almost completely underwater.’

‘Fine. What about… The Selection? Your step-dad could write the score to roughen it up a bit.’

‘Yeah!’ The little girl clapped her hands together and Jennifer couldn’t help but chuckle. She’d never seen a grown woman talk as much crap as a child, and it was adorable, even if her book choices a little adult. ‘You should get Emma Watson to play America, for uncle Bruce!’

A laugh. ‘I’m sure your step-dad could swing that… we do still owe ‘ol Brucie one.’

Her step-dad has Emma Watson connections? Hook me up! Who are these people?

‘Jen, what are you doing?’

Jen rolled over to look back at her quote un-quote ‘book club’ that was meeting for the first time down at Harbor Beach. ‘Eavesdropping,’ she drawled, feeling restless and wishing she had a packet of cigarettes instead of a patch. She wanted to surf, but that was just spending more time alone and she’d vowed to get out of the house and actually try to bond with someone. It was like she’d spent every waking moment since she’d split with Reece surfing or reading and she longed to be engaged by something else, or possibly just someone else.

Someone tanned, sexy, surf-competent, part merman…

‘Why?’

‘Well… you haven’t weighed in on the book.’ Lisa hugged the novel to her chest. ‘We’re all like, losing it here and…’

Well, don’t make a surfer attempt to get through a book club meeting on a beach, and I won’t hang ten on a table in a library...

‘It was okay,’ Jennifer said despondently, sitting up and posing again when she saw the tattooed guy jogging up the shore. He wasn’t quite her type- close- but not dangerous looking and more like a golden retriever on a day out, shaking the water from his hair as he re-joined the perfect family. ‘Sorry I’d usually be way more enthused but… bringing a guy back from the dead? No. And I’m post break-up too, so I’m sort of in the ‘beat it to death’ genre at the moment.’ She tapped the book. ‘It was great, but Ryan was just too sweet, you know? I need someone a little cheekier. I liked him better in book one when he prowled.’ She nodded over to the blanket beside her. ‘But you can’t beat the view here, eh?’

‘Definitely not,’ Jess said, adjusting her bikini top and grinning at Jennifer. ‘The dark one is fine as, and the blond reminds me of Hunter Marks.’

‘Huh… you’re right,’ Jennifer sighed and rolled onto her tummy. ‘Maybe it’s him… he’s from around here, isn’t he?’

‘That’s just an urban legend,’ Lisa scoffed.

‘Well! I love the fact that love softened Ryan…’ Brianie said, and the bloggers all started yammering again. ‘I wish Honeybee would pick her blog up again- I want to know how she took the sequel! But…’

‘She got married didn’t she?’

‘I heard she met a guy in Vegas and moved there.’

‘I heard she changed her name and got plastic surgery.’

Jennifer rolled her eyes. She was a book reviewer like all of them, but she’d never heard of this Honeybee until that morning and didn’t care.

I really shouldn’t have tried to go out in public while quitting smoking and on the rebound. I need to go out to a club, pick up someone fine who dances like they know what to do afterwards, and get Reece out of my head. Or hell, maybe I should just take a vacation? Not Niagara, not like in the book but maybe…. Hmm… Hawaii? The merman odds are going to be greater there, right?

Thinking of her book-boyfriend renewed Jennifer’s interest in the book club discussion. She turned to ask any of the girls if they’d read her favorite fantasy series before, wondering if they were team human or merman, but she sighed and got to her feet, grabbing her board again. They probably hadn’t heard of the obscure Indies writers that she read anyway, and were too lost in the book of the month to be steered elsewhere- she’d probably get reprimanded for changing the subject anyway, if human book clubs were anything like online discussion groups.

‘I’m going to go for a surf,’ she said to her new friends, people she was certain weren’t going to call the depressed brunette for the second meeting. ‘It’s too hot.’

And I am not going to sit here and sweat the fact that I don’t have a soul mate or a HEA in the offing, because neither exists! Just big jerks with little dicks that don’t, or can’t read!

There were a few smiles and waves, but no one offered to join her so Jennifer lifted her board, pressed it under her arm and began to walk down to the shore. She swung her hips just so, giving a chance for the hotties behind her to notice her, but when she turned her face to the wind to sneak a peek, was disappointed to see that only the sharpei looked interested. Frustration made her jog to the shore, and when her feet breeched the tepid sweetness of the Pacific Ocean, she threw her board out in front of her expertly and let it skim until it was out far enough to protect her fins, and then pounced after it, landing exactly in the centre and stroking straight away to keep the forward momentum going. Her muscles clenched and stretched pleasantly as they did what they did back, and she sighed happily as the water lapped at her sides and cooled her burning skin.

Out she stroked, humming ‘Melody’ now that she had Hunter Marks on the brain, and pretended that she was a mermaid princess returning home, leaving the mediocrity of humanity in her wake and heading back to her incredibly sexy, incredibly beautiful- insanely well hung suitor. Only she wouldn’t tease the guy, but jump him!

Jennifer caught two short waves in the same set straight away, feeling her worries fall off her as she stood each time and slide off her skin and into the ocean below. She flew in and ambled out again quickly, pushing herself so hard that she knew she’d pay for it the next day, but that was okay because then she’d be able to read. That was life for Jennifer- balancing the tides and the winds, living for herself in the water, and as someone else between the pages. And she had to admit to herself that as bad as she’d been feeling since Reece had dumped her, he’d never been as much fun as riding waves was, so why sweat losing something that she’d never gained much from, aside from a bit of company and a few decent make-out sessions?

By the time Jennifer had stroked back out for the third time, the set had become a lull, leaving her to lie on the board and contemplate the blue-green water beneath her. Without the waves keeping her busy, her mind was free to think again and it did- not the good kinds of thoughts though- the kinds that made her wonder just how many sharks were beneath her now that the nets had been taken out. She inched her toes back on the board, suddenly wishing harder for mermaid shark-scaring partners than the merman boyfriend.

They really need an enclosure on this beach- a BIG surf one! God I hate it when it’s calm… how obvious do I look to them, really? Is it like in the movies? Too bad I’m not like the chick in Kathryn Praser’s book… I could dream up a shark cage!

But then she saw another lone surfer paddling toward her, and some of her paranoia faded at the sight of masculine, bronzed arms and the diamond-like glitter of sea water scattered across a golden, rippling back.

W-w-w-w-ipeout!

‘You’re pretty good!’ The guy called out, paddling parallel to her, but a few metres away so that he had to shout. ‘Didn’t know there were any surfer chicks in these parts!’

‘Most people don’t know that there’s any surf at all,’ she called back, getting her flirt-on big time as he drew closer and she saw that he was exactly her type- tall and broad, a slab of muscle but with a neck and a cap of golden blonde curls that were a caramel color in the water. ‘You new around here?’

‘I am. I’m in town on business and thought, hey… why not scope out the beach, even if everyone says its flat as?’ He grinned at her. ‘And I’m pleased to see that it’s anything but flat.’

‘You surf a lot?’ she asked, her interest escalating as he proved to have the game to match the looks. She pressed her breasts together with her elbows subtly, and his face turned down not subtly-enough, making her blush.

‘You could say that I’m part fish, when I’m not working,’ he traced his tongue appreciatively over what she knew would be soft, salty lips, and then lifted his shaded gaze back to her eyes. ‘But the Bondi waves are a bit better… a lot, actually. Not the view though...’

‘I can only imagine…’ Jennifer purred. ‘Plan on coming down here a lot while you’re in town?’

His eyebrows jogged above his glasses. ‘I don’t plan on leaving.’ He sat up on his board, and his muscles rippled across his torso, and the muscles between Jennifer’s hips did the same thing, only on the inside. ‘Not anymore, anyway.’

Jennifer’s excitement made her breasts pebble against her board. ‘So… you’re here alone?’

He rubbed his thumb over his lower lip. ‘Well, I’ve got a mate with me but Edward’s like, allergic to the sun or something because he decided to go down to the hotel lobby and play piano instead… so though I’m not alone, I’m free.’

Jennifer arched her back and sucked in her tummy in vanity and excitement. She loved a guy who could flirt! And so long as Edward was his ‘mate’ and not his MATE, and they weren’t carnies or wine reps- traveling for work was promising too!

‘This is the only beach where you get anything decent, and you need at least eighteen knots, but it can be pretty cool so I suggest that you stick close by.’ She smiled at him. ‘I’m Jennifer, by the way, and I’ll also be close by.’

‘Tristan,’ the guy said, pushing his glasses back into her hair and making her gasp when she saw the butterscotch-colored eyes shining back her, just like Tristan in the books she loved. He extended a perfect, masculine arm and took her hand in his, flashing perfect teeth and the recognition almost blinded her. ‘Tristan Loveridge.’

But Jennifer didn’t need him to say his last name- she’d seen his face, and was now a believer in a lot more than mermaids.

-End-

Thank you to everyone who urged me to write this and supported me along the way. A little series like this will probably never mean much to the world, but if it hits one person the way The Hardest Fall strikes a chord with Leigh, then that’s the only harmony I’ll ever need.