Heat Stroke (Beach Kingdom, #2)(67)

When she’d gotten a few feet ahead of Rory, he was powerless to do anything but check out her ass. If there was one perk to summers in Long Beach, it was the abbreviated attire, and this girl was no exception. She wore little, white bun-hugger shorts and flip-flops, gracing Rory with a front row seat to the tight, side-to-side twitch of her backside. It was a superior tush. So superior, he shook out his right hand like it had been burned.

Shame he couldn’t see her face. The forward tilt of her head caused short, blonde hair to curtain around her features as she speed walked to the corner, never looking up from her book.

Rory’s frown deepened the closer she got to intersection. Traffic might be moving slowly, but the bus lane was wide open and he knew from experience how fast they flew.

“Hey.” He cleared his throat and raised his voice. “Hey.”

She continued walking, face in book.

“Dammit.” Rory gritted his teeth and started to run, not an easy feat considering he’d paired flip-flops with his sweatpants. But he had no choice to sprint, because she was five feet from the crosswalk and showing no signs of slowing down. He caught up with her just as she stepped into the street, wrapping an arm around her waist and yanking her back—

The East Loop bus barreled past blaring its horn.

“Oh my God.” She dropped her book—about fucking time—and dug her fingernails into his forearm. “Did that…oh God, that bus almost hit me.”

“You couldn’t have made it any easier,” Rory near-shouted at the top of her head, sounding winded. With her back plastered to his front, Rory could practically feel her shock wear off, giving way to a wave of trembling. He heaved a sigh and lowered his voice. “Consider a switch to audiobooks, huh? Maybe?”

Her head tipped forward, presumably to look at her fallen book. “I didn’t like the narrator for this one.”

“Enough to get hit by a bus?”

A few beats passed. “If I say yes, will you start shouting again?”

“Yes.”

“Then…no?”

Realizing he still held the stranger in a death grip, Rory let her go in degrees to assure himself she was steady. The blonde turned around and blinked up at him through round, red-rimmed eyeglasses—and he experienced the most unexpected twist in his chest. He must have run harder and faster than he thought, because he was winded all over again. On a sucked-in breath, an odd sound escaped his mouth. A scrape of noise. What the hell?

This girl. She was fucking…amazing. She reminded him of a little sunbeam with summer-kissed skin and big features, especially those dove-gray eyes. Oh fuck. Her lips. They were parted slightly and inviting, the sun bathing them in a sheen.

Forget what he’d said about her being the female version of Jamie.

“Whoa,” she whispered.

Tell me about it. “What’s your name?”

If her widened eyes meant she was surprised by the sudden drop in his voice, she wasn’t the only one. “I’m Olive. Cunningham.”

“Olive.” For some reason, color climbed her neck when he said her name. “I’m Rory Prince.”

“Hi.” She smacked a hand to her forehead. “And duh. Thank you. For saving me from being road kill. If I had to die horrifically, I would have chosen a different book to be my last.”

Rory stooped down and picked up the fallen tome, making no effort to hide his perusal of her bare legs on the way back up. They were covered in goose bumps. “You’re making it sound like you hate this book…” he said, stepping close until she tilted her head back to maintain eye contact. “But you were lost in another world reading it.”

“I get lost in magazines at the dentist office.” He heard her swallow. “I just have a thing for words.”

“What else do you have a thing for?”

“Probably other stuff,” she whispered. “But I’m having trouble thinking of them right this second.”

“Why is that?”

“I almost got hit by a bus.” She jerked a thumb over her shoulder. “Did you miss that?”

Rory couldn’t stop his grin. “Oh, I caught it.” Up ahead, he could hear the ocean and knew he needed to be at work. He would let down Andrew at some point this summer, no need to make it on the first day. But this girl. He was just supposed to walk away?

His grin faded. “I have to be at work soon. I’m lifeguarding today and we start at eleven. But I have a few minutes before I have to run.” He forced a concerned expression onto his face. “You look shaken up, sunbeam. We should probably get you a coffee and my number.”

A laugh burst out of her, loud enough to turn heads on the sidewalk. She slapped her hands over her mouth but continued to giggle behind them. The sound was so contagious, his own low rumble joined it and he couldn’t help but think, there’s never been a morning like this. There’s nothing even remotely recycled about this.

“I’m actually meeting a girlfriend,” Olive said finally. “It’s a study date.”

“I have great news. No one studies during the summer time.”

“I do.” With a smile that showed off the slight gap between her two front teeth, she pushed her glasses higher on her nose. “At the risk of sounding like a huge nerd, I’m taking a summer class at Stony Brook. I’m going to be a psychology major there in the fall and I want to be familiar with the course materials. And okay…” She blushed to her hairline. “I didn’t risk sounding like a huge nerd. That was full-on dweeb.”