Page 67 of Not Made to Last

“Right.” I take a sip of my coffee. “Maybe let’s not use the wordsteal…”

Max ponders for a moment. “Acquire without prior permission?”

“Nerd!” Dom yells, picking him up and throwing him over his shoulder. “Let’s give Ollie some time to wake and enjoy her breakfast.” He turns just before my door. “I have to leave in thirty.”

“I’ll be up,” I assure.

He exits, turning Max to face me. “Best wishes, m’lady,” he says.

I lift my coffee. “And warm regards to you, good sir.”

I wait until I’m sure they’re not lurking just outside my room to search for the torn paper beneath my pillow. I’m quick to find it, to read the handwritten words from a boy who’d so easily stolen my heart—acquired it without prior permission…

It’s four simple words.

A million different emotions.

My miracle is you.

36

Olivia

“You good, Ollie?” Dom asks, closing the dishwasher and switching it on.

I tear my eyes away from my phone to focus on him. “Yeah. Why?”

“You’ve been glued to your phone all day. Even throughout dinner,” he says, teasing. “You waiting on someone?”

I rest my hip against the kitchen counter and shrug, my mind elsewhere.

After reading Rhys’s note this morning, I’d sent him a text. A heart emoji. Lame, sure, but I didn’t know how else to convey what I felt. A heart was as close toloveas it gets without saying the actual word. Besides, the interaction wasn’t supposed to end there. He was supposed to respond, and we’d do our regular back and forth, but that’s the problem.

He read the message, but he hasn’t responded.

It’s beenhours. Six, almost. And it wouldn’t usually worry me, but he’s never done this before. Never just blatantly ignored me. AsNot Fridge Guy, sure, but never as Rhys.

I almost jump out of my skin when my phone vibrates in my hand. Pulse pounding against my flesh, I check the notification. My stomach drops when it isn’t from Rhys. It is, however, related to him.

SG

I got home earlier today and told him everything.

I read the words a thousand times in the space of a second. Stare at them until they become nothing but a blur of letters that mean way too much but give too little.

“Ohana?” Dom says, but he sounds so far away. So distant. As if he’s in another world…

And I’m lost, walking through an inferno with no end in sight.

“It’s work,” I mumble, avoiding his stare so he can’t witness the pain burning behind my eyes.

“The laundromats?”

“Yeah…” I head for my room, dazed and distracted, saying over my shoulder, “I gotta deal with this…” The second I’m behind closed doors, I make the call, ignoring the way my hand trembles as I bring the phone to my ear.

She answers on the first ring, and I don’t wait for her greeting. “Defineeverything,” I demand, my jaw clenched. Tears coat my lashes, but I refuse to let them fall.

Not now.

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