Read Online Hereafter (Shadowlands) by Kate Brian - Free Book Online Page A

hadn’t kissed me back.
    “I’m…I’m sorry,” I stammered, flustered. “I didn’t—”
    “No, I’m sorry,” he said, finally dropping his hand, an unreadable expression on his face. “I didn’t mean to give you the wrong impression, Rory. I never meant to—”
    This wasn’t happening. This was not happening. I slid along the window, moving away from him, mortified. The things he’d said…all the touching, the stares, the obvious tension between us…how could I have misread him so completely?
    But clearly that was exactly what I’d done. Of course I had. I’d only ever kissed one guy before and he had most definitely kissed me first. Besides, Tristan was perfect. He was the Golden Boy. The guy everyone looked up to, the guy every other guy wanted to be, and probably the guy every girl wanted to be with. I bet he’d kissed hundreds of girls over the endless years of his existence. Maybe even thousands. I was just the latest pathetic, recently deceased loser to throw herself at him. And now I was going to have to live with this humiliation—this skin-searing humiliation—forever.
    As he stared at me, I realized he was wishing he could be anywhere but here. I knew the feeling.
    “Forget it,” I said quickly. “This never happened, okay? Let’s just pretend it never happened.”
    I turned my back on him before he could see me break down for the second time in two days and stumbled toward the door, leaving Tristan and whatever was left of my pride behind.

I tripped onto the sidewalk in front of my house, blinking back tears, and a few yellow leaves floated down from the magnolia tree in our yard before being caught up on the ocean breeze. As I shoved open the gate, I could feel him watching me from the gray house. Always, always watching me.
    A wave of despair threatened to overtake me as I pictured the darkness of a forever without him.
    Focus, Rory. Focus.
    “Hey, beautiful.”
    I flinched at the familiar voice. Joaquin. Fantastic. Just what I needed. He sidled up behind me and walked right through the gate as if invited.
    “I’m not in the mood right now, Joaquin,” I said, speed-walking toward the porch.
    “Not in the mood for what? I just came by to—” Joaquin suddenly stopped and slapped at his neck. “Ow!”
    “What?” I said, whirling on him.
    His hand trembled as he gazed at his palm. Curled up in the center was a small, very dead, hornet.
    “Are you okay?” I asked dutifully.
    Joaquin didn’t answer. He cupped the back of his neck for a second with his other hand and glanced around, as if waiting for the punch line. But there was no one but him, me, and the birds chirping in the boughs of the magnolia tree shading the walkway. When he looked down at the hornet again, his trembling grew violent.
    “What? Is it bad?” I asked, alarmed now. “Are you allergic?”
    “No,” Joaquin said. “I just—”
    He shook his head, and instead of flicking the tiny corpse to the ground, he shoved it into his pocket.
    Joaquin shifted his weight and squinted out of one eye. “Where were we?”
    “I think I was about to go inside and slam the door in your face,” I said, stomping up the porch steps, which creaked and sagged beneath my feet.
    “Okay, but just wait for one second,” he implored, coming after me.
    I threw up my hands. “Why?”
    Behind him, the curtains on the upstairs window across the street fluttered closed. My throat closed, and I crossed my arms tightly over my chest.
    Joaquin took a step closer. “Look, I just wanted to check in and see how you’re doing today. Sometimes the second day is even harder than the first.”
    “How do you think I’m doing?” I asked, glancing behind me at the door. I just wanted to get inside before Tristan came out. There was no way I could handle seeing him again just then.
    Joaquin touched his sting and winced. “At the moment I’d say…livid?”
    “Do you have any idea how hard this is?” I ranted, yanking a geranium bloom