Beli’s wrinkled eyes twinkle with mischief.
I jab a finger at her. “You owe me ice cream. Lots of it.”
She curls her small hands around my finger. “He likes you,” she sing-songs.
My shoulders drop, a tangle of emotions twisting in my stomach because I want Roman with everything in my body and I want to run far away from him too. I want the knitted sweaters he wears in winter and to steal the glasses he only ever uses when he’s reading at night. I want all of that and I want to leave the country and go back to never seeing him again. But none of it matters because Beli’s wrong.
“No,” I breathe out. “He really doesn’t.”
Chapter Two
Lola
Are you trying to send me to an early grave?
Yes, mother, that’s exactly what I want.
Don’t you joke with me young lady, you set abarnon fire!
It was an accident!
You shouldn’t have even been there in the first place.
- Conversation between Lola’s mother and Lola, age 15
I can’t bringmyself to go back home after my spectacular run in with Roman. I know when I get there, I’m going to have to drop the whole ‘I bought a coffee shop’ bombshell on my parents and I just need a little time away from everyone. I love small town life, but I forgot how stifling it can be.
I go to my quiet place instead, up on the cliffside overlooking Surfer’s Bay.
Sand and rocks poke into my thighs as I sit down, my legs hanging off the side of the cliff. I spent so many teenage nightsout here, my friends and I spilling out from the old, abandoned barn set back on the cliff.
“Oh my god,you should kiss him.” Sadie’s doe eyes grow round with excitement.
I glance back at Max who’s leaning against the barn looking like James Dean in a leather jacket and torn jeans. He’s undeniably hot but the only guy I want to kiss is seven years older and would chew my ass out if he knew I was up here.
“I’m too drunk to kiss anyone,” I say. “Plus, my parents would actually kill me if I dated a biker kid.” My gaze drifts and I spy a couple of other kids from the Vipers Motorcycle Club setting up some fireworks. I point a finger their way. “Now that though, that looks like fun.”
It’sa Pine Rock rite of passage to sneak out to one of the parties the biker kids always hold up on the cliff. Every kid does it. Of course, most kids don’t accidentally set the barn on fire but hey, I was fifteen with a severe lack of understanding on how to use fireworks.
I can sense the burnt-out shell of the barn behind me, but I refuse to look at it. I try focusing on the long stretch of beach down below instead but that just takes me back to another night.
“You look sad.”
Not exactly what a girl wants to hear at her eighteenth birthday party. I tear my gaze away from the bonfire, pretending it’s the smoke that’s making my eyes red, and look at Carson. “Gee, thanks.”
Carson takes a swig of his beer and leans back on the sand. “Suits you.”
My brows climb my forehead. “Being sad suits me?”
He smirks and runs a hand over his blond buzz cut. “Yeah. You’ve got that whole sultry, ‘I need saving’ look going on.”
I scoff and turn back to the fire. “I don’t need saving.” My heart might, but I don’t.
Carson sits up, his shoulder brushing mine as he hands me a beer. “Maybe you just need to be shown a good time then.”
I cut my gaze to him, and his lips curl in a cocky grin. I know it’s a bad idea, but bad ideas seem to be my specialty and honestly, I think I might do anything to forget that I just tried to kiss Roman.You and I will never be Lola. It can’t happen. Ever.
His words play over and over in my head, so I take the beer and down it.
