Page 16 of Fly with Me

“You know you don’t have to thank me for that. But seriously, check your phone to make sure Good Morning America hasn’t called you.”

“They’re not going to call me.” The Disney music seemingly playing from everywhere surged in volume. She whipped her head around trying to make sure the race wasn’t starting without her.

“This is the type of story they eat up. They love this shit.”

Really wanting to change the subject, Olive cleared her throat. “Is Gus okay?”

“The doggo is happy and settling into a few days at my apartment. He only gave me a slightly sarcastic grumble when I made him take a walk in the rain yesterday.”

“He hates rain.” Olive laughed, thinking about her Great Dane mix’s face when she tried to take him on walks in wet weather. An announcement bellowed over the loudspeaker. “Shit, I have to go.”

“Wait, O. I have to tell you one more thing.” His voice was serious.

“What?”

“Lindsay’s down there.”

“No.” Groaning, Olive covered her face with one hand. “Shit. She said she wasn’t going to use her bib. She said she was trying to sell it.” Luckily Lindsay was way faster than Olive and would never be caught dead in the eleven-minute-mile-pace corral. This was quickly becoming another Murphy’s Law situation. Her family had abandoned her, but of course her toxic ex wouldn’t be able to stay away.

“She posted about you on Instagram. And Twitter. After the video went viral.”

“What did she—never mind. I don’t want to know. We’re broken up.”

“I know that. And you know that.” He sighed. “But maybe sleeping with her six months ago and all the random hookups before that made her hazy about those details. She’s not nice to you. Don’t let her reel you back in. She’s a manipulator.”

“I won’t. It’s why I came by myself. This is for Jake. This weekend is about turning over a new leaf and checking another item off his list.”

“Be careful, okay? Text me after.”

“I will.” An even bigger crowd pushed in on her from every angle, and she couldn’t help herself from worrying over every flash of blond hair. She didn’t want to see Lindsay right now.

“And you should call Stella.”

“I don’t have her number, and I’m not going to stalk someone just because she’s hot as fuck and drove me to Disney World.”

“Those sound like two monumentally good reasons to stalk someone.”

“Shit, I really need to go now. People are moving and I don’t know what they’re doing.”

“Happy running,” Derek drawled.

“Un-freaking-likely,” Olive answered while taking her body through the motions of a few stretches.

Chapter 8

Olive didn’t expect “running” a half-marathon to involve an hour of slow walking. Watching group after group start before you was infuriating. It became even less clear why anyone who was not a masochist would do this for fun.

She felt in her pocket for Jake’s medal, closing her eyes and imagining how it would’ve been if she’d come with him last year. He was a lot faster than she was, but he’d be back here anyway, bouncing around and making friends with everyone else in their corral. Basically, doing all the work socializing so Olive could stand back and marvel at his magnetism.

God, she missed the big, giant idiot.

It took only an eternity before her group arrived at the starting line. The music set them off running. Well, running might have been stretching the definition of what Olive was doing. She’d been given strict instructions by her running group to pace herself.

So she did.

Thirteen point one miles was a long way. So. Fucking. Long.

But she didn’t stop.