This is What Goodbye Looks Like
by Olivia Rivers
Publication date: June 17th 2016
Genres: Contemporary, Romance, Young Adult
by Olivia Rivers
Publication date: June 17th 2016
Genres: Contemporary, Romance, Young Adult
BLURB
Lea Holder watched a boy die in
the same DUI accident that ruined Lea’s legs and threw her little sister into a
coma. As the only eye-witness to the accident, if she tells the truth in court,
the drunk driver will go to prison and the dead boy’s family will have justice.
But Lea lies.
If she had told the truth, Lea
would have put her own mom in prison for causing the accident. With the trial
over and her mom set free, Lea attempts to rebuild her shattered life as she
waits for her little sister to wake from her coma.
When Lea transfers schools, she
finds herself in the same senior class as Seth Ashbury, the brother of the boy
her mom killed. As Lea gets to know the person buried underneath Seth’s grief,
she quickly falls for his quick wit and passionate soul. But Seth remains
completely oblivious that Lea is the same girl who robbed his family of
justice.
As their relationship deepens,
Lea finally gets a taste of the love that’s been missing from her life since
the accident. But soon she’s faced with a choice: she can continue her lies and
accept the comfort it gives them both. Or she can tell Seth the truth about
everything, and risk destroying both her family and her newfound love.
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—
Every reasonable thought in my
head disappears at the sound of his voice. It’s slightly different now—deep and
strong, instead of choked with grief and dread. But the smooth tone is mostly
the same as I remember it, and my gut twists painfully as a new set of
footsteps approaches.
A sharp
noise breaks through the sudden quiet, and I flinch, thinking for a split
second that it’s the sound of tearing metal. But then I realize it’s the bark
of a dog, and I squeeze my eyes shut.
I can’t
do this. I have to do this, but I can’t do this.
“Seth!”
Brie calls out. “Dude, you’re totally late. Again.”
He makes
a low, disbelieving noise, something between a scoff and a chuckle. Now he
sounds even closer. I take a deep breath and clench my hand tighter around my
cane. If I don’t turn around and greet him, it’ll be obvious that I have an
issue with him, but I can’t get my body to move.
“I’m fashionably late,” Seth tells Brie. “There’s a difference.”
“I’m fashionably late,” Seth tells Brie. “There’s a difference.”
“Yeah,
there is,” Hannah says. “One is on time, and one isn’t. And only one is
annoying, too.”
“Agreed,”
he says. “You punctual people get so irritating.”
Hannah
tosses a curse at him, but laughs to soften the impact. Then the footsteps
stop, and something cold and wet nudges my wrist, right where my mitten ends.
At first, I think someone’s pressing snow there, but then I feel a warm tongue
lick the same spot.
I jerk
back just as I hear Seth say, “Koda! You know I can hear that, you bad girl. No
licking.” Then he says to the others, “Who’s she licking? She never does that
to you guys.”
“That’s
Lea,” Brie says. “She’s the new senior we got. Lea, this is Seth Ashbury. Seth,
this is Lea Holder.”
My heart
pounds a million beats per minute, and the adrenaline makes me strong enough to
peel my eyes open. Looking down, I find myself staring right at Seth’s seeing
eye dog. She looks just like she did at the trial, a regal German Shepherd mix
with a glossy coat and wagging tail.
The dog
nudges at me again with her nose, clearly expecting me to pet her. But instead
I focus on the light-weight vest strapped to her back, letting my eyes follow
the slim handle attached to it until I find myself staring at the guy gripping
it.
Seth
Ashbury stands right there, right in front of me. He also looks the same as he
did during the trial—tall with lithe muscle, shaggy blond hair, and tan skin.
He’s the spitting image of his older brother, right down to the sharp jawline
and the way one side of his mouth lifts slightly higher than the other as he
smiles.
A slim
pair of sunglasses hides his blind eyes, but I’m betting they’re the same color
as his brother’s. Parker’s eyes were shockingly blue, like a tropical sea, and
their bright color contrasted sickeningly against the blood that dripped down
his forehead after the accident.
I’m
frozen. Maddie and Hannah giggle, probably thinking I’ve been stunned by Seth’s
good looks. I’m sure any normal girl would consider him gorgeous, but I haven’t
been normal in months, and nothing about Seth is beautiful to me. He’s just a
reminder of crunching metal and squealing tires and my sister’s scream, her
scream that seemed to echo and never, never, never end…
“Hey,”
Seth says, holding out a hand in my general direction. “Nice to meet you.”
This is
the part where I need to slap on a smile, recover from my brief awkwardness,
and let myself go into robot mode. Shut down my emotions, boot up automatic
functions. I reach my hand forward a little, and for a single moment, I think
I’m going to pull this off.
But then
I notice the slim chain around his neck, the one that has a small, silver
medallion dangling from the end. The same medallion his brother was wearing when
he died just feet away from me.
My gut
twists, and my hand falls away, and I vomit all over his shoes.
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Author Info
Olivia Rivers is a hybrid author
of Young Adult fiction. Her works include the independently published novels
“This is What Goodbye Looks Like” and “In the Hope of Memories,” along with the
traditionally published novel “Tone Deaf” (Skyhorse 2016.) As a certified geek,
she enjoys experimenting with new publishing technologies, and her online
serials have received over 1,000,000 hits on Wattpad.com. When Olivia isn’t
working as a writer, she’s a typical teen attending college in Northern
California. Olivia is represented by Laurie McLean of Fuse Literary, and
nothing thrills her more than hearing from readers.
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