“No.” She gripped his shoulders, pleasure blowing across her features. “Would you really do that? I know you think social media is stupid, but…I don’t know.” She seemed to be searching for the right words as Rory held his breath. “I want my profile to say In a Relationship with Rory Prince. Don’t you want that?”
His heart started to sprint. “You really have to ask me?” He cleared the rust from his throat. “Do we have time to do it right now?”
“Really?” Olive squeaked, hopping off the bike and whipping her phone out of her backpack. “Oh my gosh, this is going to be so fun. I can’t even remember what it’s like to set up a Facebook account. I’ve had mine since I was eleven.”
Rory leaned back against his bike and watched her fingers fly over the screen of her phone, her lip caught between her teeth. Given the choice, he would have stood there for the rest of the day telling her the answers to question like, when is your birthday? Where did you go to high school? He got the feeling she skipped over some of the questions about college, but nothing could ruin this chance to make her happy. With something as small as throwing his picture up on a website, no less.
Olive shifted in her sandals. “Relationship status…”
“Worshipping Olive Cunningham.”
Pink climbed her throat. “That’s not one of the options,” she said softly, not quite hiding her smile. “But I like it.”
“Good. That’s my plan.”
They stared at each other for a few beats, the air around them thick. “So. Okay, we need a profile picture.”
She lifted her phone, preparing to shoot, but Rory shook his head. “I want you in it.”
“Oh.”
Olive turned and raised the phone again and Rory saw them on the screen, a study in contrasts. In the forefront, she smiled broadly, wreathed in sunshine. Meanwhile, he was buried in a shadow with his arms crossed, watching her underneath the hood of his eyelids. Before he knew his own mind, Rory snagged Olive around the waist with his forearm, dragging her back against front. On a whimper, she snapped the picture while his mouth moved up the side of her neck—and he couldn’t help it. He looked dead straight into the camera and let every man who’d see it know. Touch her and regret it.
“Holy whoa,” Olive murmured, looking at the final product and making a few, final taps on the screen. “I’m only going to sneak a thousand looks at this during class.”
Rory laughed. “Go, sunbeam.” He pushed off the bike and kissed her forehead, settling his hands on her hips. “I’ll be here when you’re done.”
She nodded. “Thanks for doing this. I know you have to get to the beach.”
“I love doing this.” When she started to look hypnotized by his mouth, Rory turned her around and smacked her butt lightly to get her moving toward the front side of the building. As soon as she was out of sight, he blew out a shaky breath and adjusted his hard dick. As much as he’d wanted Olive all to himself, he’d never be the reason she missed class.
Christ, being responsible was fucking painful.
Attempting to take his mind off the ache between his thighs, Rory left campus and gassed up his bike, grabbed a coffee and read the newspaper at a diner. While he was sitting there, his phone buzzed with an incoming text from Andrew.
Need a head count. You coming to Mom’s party or what?
Rory drummed his fingers beside his coffee on the counter. Of course he was going to say no. He always said no. As usual, that memory of her disappointment in the courtroom smoked into his head and occupied it. The other memories followed close behind. Coming home from prison and finding she’d aged a decade in the space of two years. Hollow eyes, lines of misery around her mouth. The way she winced when she moved.
The phone creaked in Rory’s fist. He had to say no to the party. He couldn’t look his mother in the eye after abandoning her to such a horrible fate, could he?
He could if Olive was with him.
Fuck, it was possible he could do anything if Olive was with him.
Before he could stop himself, Rory pulled up the text conversation with Andrew. Yeah, I’ll be there. Me and Olive.
A full minute passed before Andrew responded.
I’m glad, man. You belong there.
With a knot in his throat, Rory paid for his coffee and left the diner. His pulse wouldn’t slow down on the ride to campus, his blood buzzing with the decision he’d made. Was it nerves or something else? Something like optimism?
That optimism only spiked when Olive exited the door of the building, smiling and surrounded by girls, her books hugged to her chest. The world moved in slow motion as she searched him out, her lips spreading even wider when she spotted him and pushed her glasses higher on her nose. Jesus. What incredible new reality had he been dropped into?