Series: Cobalt Empire Series by Krista Ritchie
Total pages in book: 234
Estimated words: 226965 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1135(@200wpm)___ 908(@250wpm)___ 757(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 226965 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1135(@200wpm)___ 908(@250wpm)___ 757(@300wpm)
I don’t like imagining her on another guy’s shoulders.
Harriet tenses a little bit. “Uh, that’s all right. You go ahead.”
“You sure?” Kiki asks. “The water is heated.”
“Yeah, I was wondering if it’s okay if I can play?”
“The drums?”
“Yeah, I mean, is that cool? I know how to play, so I won’t beat them up or—”
“It’s totally fine,” she interjects with a growing smile. “That’s really awesome that you play. I didn’t see that on your application.”
She raises her shoulders in a stiff shrug. “I never played for a band, not even at school.”
“It’s a hobby,” she nods robustly. “Hobbies aren’t something to leave off the resume. I’ll tell Guy. He’ll find it cool too. No one’s very good at the drums here.” She sneaks a kinder smile at Harriet, then eyes me suspiciously before she exits.
“Left off the drumming talent, did you?” I tsk. “Fisher.” I shake my head in mock disapproval.
“Cobalt fam would never,” she teases.
“No, we would not. You have to pack that thing, even with the one-legged sack race you barely won in third grade.”
“Shucks, I forgot that one too.”
I smile at her. “I thought I was teaching you our ways?”
“Slowly but surely, Cobalt boy.” Her lips twitch upward, then go flat. “I can’t swim.”
I’m rigid. “You never learned?”
She nods. “My parents fought over which classes to put me in, then the divorce happened, and they totally forgot about it, so the story goes.”
She can’t swim.
I’m rushed all the way back to the frat party. Fuck. I scrape my hand through my hair and suck a breath through my nose. “Harriet…” She was almost thrown into the pool. “I thought you were terrified of being tossed in the water at the KPD party because you were wearing a white shirt.” That, coupled with the attention it’d bring—it didn’t register that it was anything deeper.
“Flashing a mob of people would’ve freaked me out, and I didn’t like being that dickhead’s entertainment. But I was mostly stuck on the life-or-death situation.”
My jaw tics.
“Don’t burst a blood vessel. I’m alive. You saved me,” she says flatly.
“You could’ve drowned.” I smear a hand down my face and exhale the heat. “If it makes you feel any better, I can’t drive. Ever since the car crash where I was behind the wheel…I just can’t put my foot on the pedal without violently shaking.”
She eases more. “So I’m not the only scaredy cat?”
“Definitely not.” I can’t stop looking at her. “Maybe one day…” I trail off. Maybe one day I’ll teach you how to swim. You can help me drive again. One day isn’t going to come. I can’t see a way there. I don’t even want to ruin this moment with her and reignite the painful search.
Harriet twirls her sticks, then nods to me. “Put a song on for me, and I’ll play it on drums.”
“Which one?” I take out my phone.
“‘She’ by Green Day. I’ll count you down.”
I grin. “All right.” I find the song in my music library. “I’m ready when you are, rock star.”
She sticks her tongue between a finger-V, and I laugh harder. Her scowl makes way for a scrunched smile, and I already know I’m her biggest fan. She doesn’t even need to move.
“Three, two, one,” she nods, and I press play.
The song is an angsty rock anthem, so perfectly her. As soon as the melody strikes, she takes off. Moving her drumsticks at an expert, rhythmic pace I’ve never seen. Instantly, I’m entranced. With her. With how her body thrashes to the music, lost in the powerful beat. Eyes closed as she taps the drums in quick, rapid succession.
Her head bangs, blonde hair going wild. Strands stick to her forehead, and her face pinches in emotion like the song flows through her bones.
Her passion sends me to an exultant state. Her pure, unadulterated love swells emotion in my throat. I’m stunned by all of her, and I watch and tears try to gather. I feel the burn against my eyes. Unable to look away. Still never wanting to—because there is a truth living in the essence of my soul.
I am so deeply in love with her.
She’s become the quiet rustle of leaves. She’s become the soft soil beneath my feet. She’s the cold air that awakens my lungs. The gorgeous light bending through the trees. She is the planet I’ve adored and tried to care for, and when I look ahead and see her, I see my entire world. In all its peaceful beauty.
43
HARRIET FISHER
Kissing Ben has become my favorite activity. From a girl who never fantasized about kissing, all my brain does now is cycle through the kisses we’ve had this past week. The push-me-up-against-the-wall kisses in the storage room at the End of the World. The pick-me-up-in-his-arms kisses when he comes over to my apartment. The bury-his-tongue-in-my-mouth kisses in his building’s stairwell.