which means I wouldn’t be able to stand in the water. “Take me back.”

Ryan lowers his forehead to mine. His warm breath fans over my face. “I will never let you go.”

He won’t let me go. He won’t. “Okay.”

Ryan skims his nose along my cheek and

goose bumps rise on my neck. He pulls his head back. I fight the urge to cling to him.

Ryan said he wouldn’t drop me and he won’t.

He won’t.

My hair becomes weightless in the water

and licks my cheeks. Ryan’s strong arms

reaffirm his promise to me. “Tilt your head back,” he says.

I inhale and do as he asks. Water enters my ears and my muscles flinch with fear. Ryan keeps his firm hold. “Spread your arms to your sides and arch your back. Let your legs float.”

As I slowly follow instructions, Ryan steps from me. I jerk toward him. “Ryan!”

He shakes his head. “I’m not letting go. I’m HC TITLE-AUTHOR

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giving you room. Keep your head tilted

back.”

Head tilted back. Arms and legs spread out.

My pulse throbs in my ears. Ryan’s voice is muffled, but I can read his lips. “Relax.

Breathe.”

Relax. Head tilted back. Arms and legs

spread out. Breathe. I stare at the clouds overhead and the trees hanging over the pond.

Relax. Head tilted back. Arms and legs spread out. Breathe.

A pair of birds circle in the sky. It’s a playful dance. They spread their wings and let the gentle wind pull them up and over. Down and around. God, I wish I was free. I wish I was a bird floating in the breeze. I close my eyes and pretend I’m a bird. My muscles melt. The

water makes a rhythmic swishing melody in my ears. Away and near. Away and near.

I’m a bird—floating on the breeze. A gentle nudge in the back of my mind whispers that I know this feeling. I’ve owned this feeling for years. This feeling of drifting, swaying, floating. I’m floating. Through the water I hear Ryan’s sweet muffled voice: “You’re doing it.”

I open my eyes and see that glorious smile HC TITLE-AUTHOR

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on his lips. The smile that is for me. Me alone. I go to smile back and I realize I already am. I’m smiling. My stomach clenches and the chains return. Oh God, no. I’ve fallen in love with him. I’ve done it. I’ve given him power over me.

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Ryan

BETH IS A BEAUTIFUL FLOATING VISION. Her

black hair drifts on the surface of the water and the peaceful smile I love graces her lips. Her eyes no longer have their glazed guard. They are as calm and deep as the ocean. For the first time ever, Beth is letting me see her soul and if I had any doubts before, they’re gone. I’m in love with Beth Risk.

Beth blinks and the smile fades. Several

raindrops plop into the pond and the sound of the incoming storm taps against the trees. Beth sinks and I catch her before her head goes under.

“Let me go!” Her grip isn’t nearly as tight as I carry her onto the shore. The light rain becomes steady and quickly saturates my hair.

I place Beth on her feet and my heart

plummets. She’s slammed shut her walls.

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She pivots on her feet and darts toward

Scott’s tree line. Beth trusted me in the water.

She cares for me. I know it. The promise I made to her is forever—I will not let her go. I chase after her and grab her by her waist before she steps into the woods. “Dammit, Beth! Stop running from me!”

My pulse hammers through my body. She’s

been running from me from the moment I met her. No matter how hard I try to hold on to her, she finds a way to slip out of my grasp.

Not anymore. Not today.

Water streaks down her cheeks and her hair clings to her head. She shivers violently in the warm fall storm. I rub my hands up and down her arms.

“Let me go,” she again yells over the rain.

“No.” I move my hand to her cheek. Those

eyes that looked so peaceful moments before are crazy with panic. I want her to trust me. I want her to feel what I’m feeling. “I’m in love with you.”

“No! Please. Just don’t!” Her lower lip

trembles and she unsuccessfully smacks at the hand holding her waist.

“Tell me why you’re fighting me. What are HC TITLE-AUTHOR

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you scared of?”

Beth’s fingernails dig into the skin of my arm. “I’m scared of nothing.”

“I love you,” I say again and Beth’s panic rises in intensity. She pushes at my arms. The words scare her. She’s scared of love. “I love you, Beth.”

She raises her face and fire rages in her eyes.

“Stop saying that!”

“Why?” Without meaning to, I shake her

gently. I want her to say it back. “I’m in love with you. Tell me why I can’t say it to you.”

“Because you’ll leave!” she screams.

Beth’s chest heaves as if she ran a race. My hold on her tightens. Rain beats against the pond and the trees, creating a strange deafness from the world surrounding us.

“I couldn’t.” Never. Leaving her would be like tearing off my own arm. I’ve never been in love before. I thought I had been, but I wasn’t.

This overwhelming, encompassing feeling is love. It’s not perfect and it’s messy as hell. And it’s exactly what I need.

She steps back and the pouring rain makes it impossible to keep my grip on her slick arms, but I do my best to hold on. My heart aches.

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Beth’s doing it again. She’s walking away.

Desperation seizes my muscles. If she leaves, I’ll lose her for good and I can’t. Not when I just found her. “Don’t walk away from me.”

“I have a gypsy soul.” Beth yanks her hands out of my grasp and stumbles backward. “We won’t work.”

Why is she always slipping through my

fingers? “You’re the one leaving me. Not the other way around.”

She wraps her hands over her stomach as

she continues to walk backward. “I’m sorry.”

Anger erupts from deep inside and takes

control. I don’t lose and I won’t lose her. Beth turns and runs for the forest. She’s fast, but I’m faster. I grab Beth by the waist, yank her to face me, tunnel my fingers into her hair, and kiss her.

She tastes like fresh rain and smells like crushed roses. I don’t care that she’s not kissing back. I move my lips against hers and hug her body to mine. I love Beth and she needs to know that. Know it in her head. More importantly, know it in her heart.

Her fingers lightly tickle my neck as I taste her warm lips. She answers by hesitantly

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kissing my lower lip. Beth tilts her head and we both open our mouths. Her tongue meets mine and I swear the world explodes around us. Her hands tangle in my wet hair and she presses her body into me. She roams my back, and my fingers hungrily touch the soft contours of her waist, then drift lower, gliding along the curves of her thighs. I won’t let her go. I won’t.

I love her.

Beth gasps for air as she pulls my head

closer to her body. My lips trail kisses down her neck and I savor each delicious taste of her skin.

Her hands slide to my chest, curl into fists, and she pushes me away as she takes a step back. “I can’t do this!” And she runs off into the rain.

I’VE STARED AT THE COMPUTER since ten. At eleven, I’m still staring. The cursor blinks on and off. I’ve got no words. The decision has to be made. Do George the zombie and Olivia the human fall in love and stay together, or is Beth right? Am I forcing my characters into

something so unrealistic that no reader would ever believe it?

My cell vibrates again. I glance at it in HC TITLE-AUTHOR

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anticipation. Maybe it’s Beth. I sink lower in my chair. It’s Gwen. Again.

Gwen: why aren’t you answering?

Because I’m not in love with you. She’s not used to being denied. I’m not used to denying her and her constant barrage of texts and calls throughout the night shoves the knife further into my windpipe. I’m in love with a girl who doesn’t love me back.