Free Rival Hearts (Rival Love #2) by Natalie Decker Page A

you.”
    Again, I will not let her bait me.
    After the fifteenth comment about me and Caleb, I finally growl my annoyance. “Mom! Seriously, stop. Okay. What do you want from me?”
    She turns to me in the middle of a busy sidewalk and stares at me. “I noticed a change in you. Liv, do you realize how many times I almost called your father to come take you at the start of this school year? When August came … you were … I don’t even know. Lifeless.” She pulls me into a coffee shop on the corner and orders us some drinks.
    While we wait, we take up residence at a table near the window. She sighs. I notice the bags under her eyes as if she hasn’t slept for a long time. “Liv, you just dropped everything. You stopped running. You stopped hanging out with your friends. You stopped coming in at all hours of the night.” I lift my head and she laughs. “Yes, I knew. I’m a nurse for God’s sake. I get calls at all hours. I knew when you snuck in. But you just stopped as soon as we moved into Brian’s house. At first, I thought you were just adjusting. Next, you came home with that bruise. I just … I didn’t know what to do.”
    Some girls at Delmont jumped me in the bathroom. Only one of them got a swing on me. “Order for Erin?” a guy shouts. Mom gets up and collects our drinks.
    She returns with two fraps. “Skylar, I’ve never been so worried about you. This year, I honestly didn’t know what to do. I thought maybe I pushed the move on you too fast. Maybe I was too selfish. But then … around October, I noticed you coming back around. It was a slow start, but you were you. And I also noticed a little light come back into your eyes every time Caleb was in a room with you.”
    “What are you trying to say?”
    “I’m saying I know. I know you’ve got feelings for him. And I really think he has feelings for you, too.”
    I roll my eyes. “Okay, Mom.”
    “You don’t think he does?”
    Okay, I know he does, but should we have these feelings for one another? That should be the question here. Am I staying in New York? If so, we should end this whole attempt at a long-distance relationship. I should really end this all now so I don’t prolong the pain of it ending really badly.
    I can feel my mom’s stare on me as I battle the war going on in my head. “You know, you can come home. We’ll figure something out.”
    “I can’t go home.”
    “I’m sorry I didn’t take you more seriously.”
    I shrug. “That’s not it. I mean, it is. But I can’t go back if that person still hasn’t been caught. People won’t care about my innocence.”
    She nods. “I know. We can work something out, though. Maybe we can get you into a different school.”
    “And drive forty minutes away? Get up at five in the morning so I can be on the road by six? Mom, that leaves no room for swimming or training.”
    “Your father tells me you haven’t been training at all since you came here. I can’t have you fall into some dark, depressing hole again, Liv. So what can I do?”
    Was I really in a dark, depressing hole?
     
     
    ***
     
     
    I enter the brownstone after a long morning with my mom. I missed her a lot, but with her weird bombardment of questions I needed an escape. Up in my room, my body crumples to the bed. Inhaling my sheets, all I smell is Caleb. Mint, cedar, and a splash of cinnamon. Oh man, I could lie here for the rest of my life breathing in this wonderful scent. But, eventually, I’ll have to take a shower because long periods of time with a lack of shower equals über gross. Plus, girl’s gotta eat.
    But this smell that’s basking in my sheets, that’s taken a hold of my senses and made me all gooey inside, yes, this is home. Oh, my God … Caleb is home.

Chapter 15
     
    Caleb
     
    Ever been doused by a bucket of ice-cold water? The whole cool, wet, stinging sensation always puts you on high alert. Well, that’s exactly what it’s like when I walk into my hotel room and notice my uncle