AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Done.”
“Marvelous.” I drop one of his hands, keeping a tight grip on the other as I pull him through Mitch’s and toward the door that leads to the back parking lot. I’m only distracting myself from one problem by blowing up another. I know that. But I’m not very good at listening to reason, especially my own.
As soon as we step outside, I press my hands to Ollie’s chest and push him against the brick exterior of Mitch’s.
“You smell like a tin of Altoids,” I say.
“Probably taste like them too.”
“This means nothing.”
“Sure thing, kitten.”
When I lift myself onto my toes and kiss him, Jo’s news and the ache in my bad knee are all but forgotten. Kissing Ollie is like working a charter—familiar, but never boring. At first the kiss is soft, almost sweet. He tastes exactly as I remember. I’d bet all my tips from the season he has a still-warm tumbler of mint tea in his car. When Ollie slides his fingers into my hair and pulls me closer, my hands find his shoulders again. Really, does the man do anything besides swear, and cook, and work out?
When we pull apart, Ollie grins. “Now I’m ninety-nine percent sure you missed me.”
I roll my eyes and lean in to kiss him again, but Ollie catches my shoulders and holds me back. “Uh-uh,” he says. “It’s my turn.”
I sigh. “Fine. Go.”
“Truth or dare?” he says.
“Truth,” I say.
Ollie’s expression turns serious. He caresses my cheek with the back of his hand. “What’s this really about?”
I glare up at him.Thisis not part of the game. We don’t talk aboutwhywe do things. We just do them. “I’ve been at sea for four months; what else could it be about?”
“Come on, kitten. You’re obviously upset. Talk to me.” His voice is so gentle it makes my chest ache.
When I don’t say anything, Ollie pushes my hair, down from its usual high ponytail for once, over one shoulder. He tugs gently at one of my unicorn earrings. “These give a man false hope, you know.”
My eyes leave Ollie’s to run over his gently sloping nose, his mouth, the wrinkle between his eyebrows. “Please don’t,” I say, surprised to find myself blinking back tears.
How do I always end up kissing Oliver Dunne in secret? Despite what he says about missing me and breaking up with his girlfriend, this thing between us is not serious. It shouldn’t be, anyway. And I should be inside celebrating the next chapter of my best friend’s life. But instead, I’m in a bar parking lot making out with Ollie so I can forget about it.
Ollie’s hand drops from my ear. He pulls me to him, and I think he’s going to kiss me, but instead he tucks my head beneath his chin and holds me against his chest. “It’s all right,” he whispers. “Nothing has to change. You and Jo will be the same as ever.”
I want to believe him, but Ollie is wrong. I can feel it. My entire universe is being reordered, just like when he quit the boat last year.The distance between us grew, and these days we hardly see each other. My bad knee is throbbing now. It’s the same feeling I get when I’m on theSerendipityand know a storm is coming. The sky may be cloudless and calm, and RJ and Xav can tell me there’s nothing on the radar until they’re blue in the face, but I’m never wrong about storms. It’s like they’re part of me.
Ollie can pretend he doesn’t feel it too, but I know he does.
Everything is about to change.
