Waking Olivia (The Langstrom Brothers #1)

by Elizabeth O'Roark

"Do you always talk this much?" She grins, wide-eyed. "I do. That's why we're perfect together. You never speak and I never shut up. You're so lucky you found me."

The damn football team now has a song they sing when she passes. It’s insane. If I were being reasonable, I’d say I couldn’t blame them. Olivia isn’t just beautiful. Something compels you to look at her even when you don’t want to. Like Medusa. The difference is that I realize Olivia could probably turn you to stone with her withering glare, while the rest of these idiots are completely blind to it.

"I told you I don't know,” she snarls, pulling tighter at his shirt, starting to choke him. “Now ask me one more question so I can feed you your own balls."

"You’re running like a six-year-old on Field Day,” says Will a few hours later. I exhale, feeling more weary than normal. "There's that voice of support I missed all weekend," I reply snidely. "And just for the record, I'm still faster than anyone out here."

shouldn't have to say this, but no running tomorrow. Got it?" "I heard you the first time," I snarl, shaking out of his grip. “I get the feeling you don’t hear anyone but yourself,” he mutters. Of course I only listen to myself, asshole, I think. I’m the only one of us who knows what’s going on.

My stomach feels as if it’s dropped to my feet. Olivia’s been keeping secrets for years, and today, when she finally opened up to someone—to me—I laughed in her face and told her I was kicking her off the team. I bury my head in my hands. Jesus. Why did I doubt her so much?

"I'm here because it appears possible that I was wrong." "That's big of you," she snarls, climbing to her feet. "The way you're conceding it's possible I'm not lying. Thanks for stopping by. Come back if you'd like to tell me you think it's also possible that I don't deal drugs or poison children, and in the meantime, go fuck yourself."

He rubs his eyes. "I wasn't trying to imply you were," he groans. "You're attractive. That's all I was saying." A tiny warmth weaves its way through me. It shouldn't. I shouldn't care what he thinks. "I'm attractive, huh?" He walks away. "Don't worry, your personality ruins it. Let's go. You're gonna make us both late."

"Oh, shit," he says as we pull up. "I forgot you're locked out." "I keep a key under the flowerpot to the right. Just in case you ever happen to be stalking again." "I wasn't stalking," he growls.

"Don't start treating me differently. Don't act like I'm fragile, because I’m not. Nothing you've seen is new for me." "You're normally crying about how hard I am on you,” he sighs. “I can't win, can I?" “A, I don't cry, and B, I like Asshole Will. He's a known commodity." "If I'm such a known commodity,” he says, his mouth lifting on one side, “you'd know not to refer to me as 'Asshole Will.’”

"This is embarrassing," I mutter like a sullen teen, climbing into the passenger seat. He arches one brow. "What's embarrassing?" I swallow. "Your mom is going to think I'm some kind of freak." "And she'd be wrong to think that because ...?" he asks with a grin. I give him my most menacing look, which he seems to now be impervious to, annoyingly enough.

She pulls me in for a hug so fierce I’m almost disabled by my surprise. "I loved having you here, Olivia," she says. "Come anytime." She actually seems to mean it, and stands at the door waving until we are out of sight. "Your mom is a nice woman," I say, looking back at the farm. "How'd you turn out to be such an asshole?" He rolls his eyes, but I can tell he wants to smile. "No one thinks that but you.” "You sure about that?" He laughs. "No, not entirely."

My shoulders sag. It’s hard to stay pissed off when he says it like that. “You could at least suggest that she shut the fuck up occasionally.” He gives me half a smile. “Go take a shower. Try not to beat anyone up.”

“All of this you’re feeling,” he says, “it’s like a person running beside you, shouting shit in your ear to tear you down. But it can only change the way you run if you choose to believe it.”

“Stop talking to him,” says Landon the moment Jason leaves my side. “I’m the one who brought you here.” “This isn’t a date, Landon,” I sigh. “I can talk to anyone I want.” “I’m gonna beat his ass if he keeps hitting on you,” he replies. I laugh. Men are so stupid. There’s not a chance in hell I’m going home with either one of them.

"I've been hearing some stories," he begins, leaning back in his chair. "Big fight this weekend. Over a girl." I roll my eyes. "I wasn't fighting over a girl if that's what you're accusing me of. I don't swing that way."

"Olivia, walking all night isn’t much better before a meet than a six-mile run. You can’t do that this weekend.” She sinks back in her seat. “So what's your grand plan, Will?" she scoffs. "You gonna tie me to the bed? Because I'll warn you in advance I really, really like that." Thank God I’m sitting behind a desk right now because there's definitely a part of me that reacts to that as if I'm not her coach and she's not off limits.

"Only thing I'd be screaming for with you is a magnifying glass," I reply. Everyone around us cracks up, but Will's shoulders tense, which tells me he's listening and he's not happy. Fuck him. I'm not a nun. I didn't take an oath of celibacy to be on this team.

Fucking Betsy, being intentionally loud, making sure I hear. "Why do your parents never come, Finn? I guess they must like you about as much as everyone else does." "I'm surprised your parents bother," I retort. "Seeing as how you've never placed."

“She’s a sweet girl,” my mother sighs. “And she’s the only one who doesn’t realize it.” She’s right. Olivia seems to see only the worst things in herself. She believes she deserves nothing from anyone, yet something about her makes me want to give her everything.

We exchange one awkward glance and I turn back toward the table, but he stops me with a hand on my waist. “Fuck it,” he sighs, grabbing my other hand. “This goes no further than this room.” I roll my eyes. “Did you really think I was going to brag about dancing with you?” His mouth tips up for the first time all night. “They don’t call me the Two-Stepping King of Colorado for nothing.” I just witnessed his lackluster dancing with Jessica, so I’m finding this hard to believe. “Who calls you that?” “You will,” he says with a cocky grin that could get him anything he wants from me, and I mean anything, “by the time we’re done.”

Her hands rest in her lap. She looks at them rather than me. “If you can’t be with her, maybe you should move aside for someone who can,” she says quietly. I like that idea even less. I’m not stopping Olivia from doing anything. Hell, she’s going out with someone tonight. The thought makes me flinch. Brendan. Evan. The entire fucking world is full of guys who can take her away from me, and one day one of them will.

“I bought you something,” she says with a grin. “I hope you don’t mind. I just saw it in the store and thought, ‘Olivia would look gorgeous in that.’” “You shouldn’t have.” They’re nearly as strapped for cash as I am. She shrugs. “I always wanted a little girl to dress up.” “You could probably still have a girl,” I reply. Maybe it’s just good genes, but Dorothy looks young. Too young to have grown sons, actually. She smiles at me. “Shop’s closed. And besides, I have you now, don’t I?” My eyes sting. I’m glad she’s already turned away so she can’t see it.

I’d kind of banked on talking to him about sports and ignoring Olivia entirely, but now he’s talking to my mom and Olivia’s straight across from me, so pretty that my eyes trip over her, stutter, stall, every time I look up.

“That’s just the problem, Will. You can get past it. I can’t. If you wanted me enough, you could have had me. Or you could have asked me to wait until I graduated. But you didn’t, and you won’t, and do you know how hard it is to have to look at you?” My voice grows raspy and I pause because I refuse to cry over him again. “To look at you and know that you made your choice and you didn’t choose me?”

“I’ve been far from honorable for a long time,” I tell her. “And I’m not being honorable now either. I’m here because I love you. Because I’m so in love with you, I can’t see straight.”

“Then you should probably try it while you have the chance, Olivia,” he says softly, his mouth pressed to my ear, “because I’m going to be the first and the last.” I want to not smile at that but I can’t help myself. “The last, huh? Pretty sure of yourself.” He rolls us over until I’m on my back and looms over me, clearly no longer sleepy. “Yes,” he says. “I’ve never been more sure about anything.”