Dissolve Read Online Free PDF Page A

escape potential downpours, my phone rings.
    “Hey Mom!” I pick up.
    “Hi, Ev.” Her soft voice relaxes me almost instantly. “How have you been?”
    “I’m great. A thunderstorm is about to dump everything on my head any second now, but other than that I’m great.”
    Mom laughs. “Oh, you poor thing. Did you bring an umbrella?”
    “I didn’t bring it. It was so clear and sunny earlier!”
    “That’s Connecticut for you. Are you walking home?”
    “Nah, taking the bus. I’ll be okay.” I don’t want her to worry, so I change the subject. “How are things with the house?”
    Mom is always in the middle of renovations on the tiny two-bedroom house she bought after the divorce. It keeps her busy, and most importantly, makes her happy.
    “It’s fine! I cut my hand laying tile in the guest bathroom last night -”
    “Mom!” I groan. “Please don’t die yet. I don’t even have one tiny grub of a kid to show you yet.”
    She laughs. “Alright, alright. I’ll try not to die before then. Much. How’s everything at school?”
    I tell her about the Hildebrant scholarship, and she’s excited as I am. She says if I need a date to the dinner, she’ll come with me, and we make plans for it. I hang up feeling a lot better than before she called - Mom just has that effect on me. I love her to pieces.
    A single raindrop falls on my head. Then another, and another. A deluge rips the sky apart, and I frantically stuff my cellphone in my bag and rush to the nearest eave. I huddle under the library’s roof, my jacket and shirt and pants soaked through, my hair a drenched mess.
    “Shit,” I swear, shivering. The December east coast cold is unforgiving. But I can’t hide inside the library - this is the last bus home for the next six hours. I just want to get back to the apartment before sundown. I have no other clothes. If I stay in these for too long, I might get sick. I can’t afford to get sick and let my grades slip while the scholarship is still up for grabs. Why is the bus so damn late ?
    “Lionesses are supposed to like water,” A familiar voice says to my left. I look over to see Kai sauntering up to me, all cocky grins and rain-kissed dark hair. In one hand he holds his motorcycle helmet.
    “Well this just proves I’m not one,” I say. “So you can stop calling me that.”
    “I don’t think so,” He smirks. “You’re definitely a lioness, down to the prickly pride and righteous fury. Which always seems directed at me, for some reason.”
    “Wouldn’t have anything to do with the fact you purposefully annoy me every chance you get,” I counter.
    “Annoy? I thought this was called having a friendly conversation.”
    I snort, and he chuckles.
    “You’re right. Most of my conversations with woman are a lot friendlier. You’re the exception.”
    “Thank god we all haven’t lost our minds,” I grumble. We stand under the eaves together, my body keenly aware of just how close he is, and how much heat his skin beneath his jacket is radiating. For some reason I flash back to the night in the club when I was dancing, and his hypnotic two-tone eyes were fixed on me, staring at me, memorizing every part of who I was and how I moved.
    “Are you waiting for the bus?” He asks.
    “I’m waiting for lightning to strike me and end the misery of speaking to you.”
    “Ouch. You’re really grumpy today. And wet. My favorite combination.”
    His smirk this time has that heat beneath it. I will myself not to blush, not that I can anyway - the cold air is sapping me of all the warmth in my blood.
    “Listen,” Kai clears his throat. “I don’t think the bus is coming. There was a massive traffic jam on the highway when I last checked.”
    “Who keeps tabs on traffic?”
    “I always check if it looks like rain. Motorcycles are dangerous when the roads are wet.”
    “And yet you still drive one.”
    “I live for the thrill.”
    I’m quiet.
    “Let me give you a ride home,” He says.
    “That