Mouth to Mouth (Beach Kingdom 1)

They’d finally erased her for good.

Olive heard the bed creak down the hallway and dropped the phone. Didn’t even bother picking it up. She wrung the fingers of her right hand in her left, trying to fix the numbness, but it didn’t work. Even her lungs lacked feeling. She couldn’t even be sure she was breathing.

When Rory walked into the room pulling on his T-shirt, Olive backed up automatically, her butt running into the kitchen table and jostling the vase of daisies.

“Morning, sunbeam,” Rory said in that hoarse morning voice, his head popping through the top of his shirt. “Early class, right? I can give you a ride there, but I can’t stick around this time to drive you back.” His expression told Olive he was troubled by that fact, but she couldn’t process the reason behind it. Couldn’t think of anything but the text message. How completely untethered she was now to her family. Officially carved out.

“Y-you know…yeah. I’m, um…I can take the bus both ways.” She crouched down on stiff legs and picked up her phone, leaving it face down on the table. “You should get to the bar.”

As soon as the suggestion was out of Olive’s mouth, she breathed easier. The part of her that wanted nothing more than to spend time with Rory was not in control. Nowhere to be found. And her heart was too bruised to work or stop her. She just wanted away. Away from anything else that could cause damage—and Rory had already caused some. Hadn’t he?

Yes. Oh God, she couldn’t open herself up to get set aside again.

She’d had her head in the clouds. She’d been naïve to think this was forever.

Forever? Seriously?

They’d only known each other for a few weeks and he’d broken up with her once already. It was only a matter of time before it happened again. She didn’t want the emptiness anymore. The sense of loss inflicted by her parents was terrible, but she’d put herself on the road to living with it. Functioning despite the hurt. Adding the potential loss of Rory was unwise. It would kill her if it happened.

“Olive.” Rory’s dark eyebrows drew together. He took a step in her direction, but she jerked back again—splashing water from the vase onto the table—and her obvious alarm seemed to skyrocket his own. “Jesus, baby. What’s wrong?”

She exhaled slowly. “Nothing.”

“Like hell.” His concerned gaze ran the length of her, his tan skin turning chalky. “Is it…worse today? The soreness?”

“No, it’s nothing like that. It’s nothing at all.” Having regained a small semblance of her equilibrium, Olive moved behind the table, pinched a napkin out of the holder and mopped up the water she’d spilled. “I just have to get ready for class.”

“Good.” His eyes stalked her every movement. “I’ll wait.”

“Rory…”

“What?” He shook his head. “Something’s up. You’re scaring the hell out of me.”

“Me?” Olive scoffed, hating her tone. “I should be scared.”

“What does that mean?”

This wasn’t going to work. She couldn’t tell him the truth. Couldn’t tell him about the news from her family. How it had gutted her. Made her realize how foolish she was being to trust him again. He would convince her otherwise. He’d make promises and kiss her and she would be a goner. Even now, his energy across the room was tugging the low muscles in her belly, the complicated ones around her heart. Every part of this man affected every part of her. She just had to make him go. God, just go, before you make me hurt worse.

Last night at the carnival, she’d landed on the theory that Rory was drawn to her because she’d needed saving. Maybe he would lose interest the longer she went standing on her own two feet, neglecting to step in front of buses or almost drown. He could get bored. She wouldn’t be fulfilling that need to save someone, left over from his bad home life. The abuse his mother had suffered when he was in prison.

To Olive’s desperate brain, it all made sense. He wouldn’t want her for long. He would leave. He would cut her off, just like her family had done. It would hurt. Too much to survive.

“Rory, I think…I just think…” Olive’s eyes landed on the textbook lying open on the table. “I think it’s better if I just focus on school right now. I-I shouldn’t have ditched my friends last night. They’re the people I should be spending time with. People who value the same things as me. School. Getting my education. I can’t…this won’t work.”

If possible, Rory’s face paled further. “You’re giving me the smart girl look.”

Even though she didn’t have a clue what that meant, Olive didn’t like it. How was she looking at him? She couldn’t even remember what she’d just said. “I’m sorry, Rory,” she said on a trembling exhale. “I can’t.”