First Chances Read Online Free PDF Page B

personal life, and I liked it that way. Everyone thought my dad had been deployed to some faraway country for two years and that’s why he wasn’t around. Really, he’d just been deployed to wherever douchebags went.
    Unfortunately, Hailie still remembered him. Sometimes I wished she didn’t have memories of him, but she was old enough to remember that she looked exactly like him with her sunshine blonde hair and cyan blue eyes.
    All I could do was try to be there for her and be the best male role model for her that I could be. There were a lot of bad days, but I had to make them the best that I could for my little sister.
    Hailie had a ballet class this afternoon, so Mom had taken her to it and then gone directly to work. One of Hailie’s friend’s mom was going to bring her back home after class was done, which was nice because it gave me time to unwind.
    Today had been a tough day. Hadie’s words, and the way she’d acted, had made me want to retreat. I could tell she wanted to do her own thing and she was absolutely entitled to do that. But I couldn’t let her. I had to be there for her, not only because I wanted to, but because Lincoln had wanted me to.
    Shutting the front door behind me, I entered the house and headed straight to my room. Today was one of those days where I needed reassurance that what I was doing was the right thing—that getting through to Hadie was my job alone.
    Dropping my bag to the floor, I reached under my bed and pulled out an old shoebox. When I lifted the lid, nothing of much interest stood out. There were a few things in there from when I was a kid—a few rare Pokémon cards, some cool-looking marbles, old photos, and a folded up piece of paper.
    It was the paper that my fingers instantly reached for. I put aside the box and unfolded the paper, suddenly feeling nervous.
    Every time I read the words on that paper, I felt completely out of depth. I felt like I wasn’t doing enough for the boy who had lost his life.
    The note was from Hadie’s deceased boyfriend, Lincoln. No one, apart from my mom, knew about it, and I was happy to keep it a secret for now. Lincoln had written the note in his dying days and given it to my mom who was a nurse at the hospital he’d been admitted to.
    I had barely interacted with Lincoln, but now I felt like I owed him something. I owed it to him to make his dying wish come true.
    I wasn’t sure what Lincoln had seen in me, or how he knew about the way I felt about Hadie, but nevertheless he had known. And he had wanted to tell me somehow, to let me know that someone had to be there for her. That he was setting her free and wanting me to step in and take care of her.
    My eyes flickered over the spidery handwriting that belonged to Lincoln. The five crucial words that he had wanted to relay to me so badly before he passed away from this life.
    Don’t give up on her.
    I sucked in a deep breath as the weight of the words hit me, like they always did whenever I read the note.
    I didn’t intend to give up on her. Not only because Lincoln Bracks had asked me to, but because I loved Hadie Swinton. My love for her had always been there, steady and unwavering, and it was the kind of love that never really leaves us.
     
     
     

Chapter Five
     
    Hadie
     
    My legs were on fire, but I continued to push past my limits as I jogged through the wealthy neighborhood of Jackson Heights.
    Breathe in. Breathe out. Breathe in. Breathe out.
    I let the physical pain take over the emotional one.
    That was one thing I hadn’t allowed to change in my life—running. The freedom I felt from it, letting life pass me by in a blur was unrivalled. It was one of the only times my head was clear from thoughts.
    My dogs, Halo and Chance kept pace alongside me, though I could see Chance was done for the day. With his short stature and stubby legs, he wasn’t much of a marathon runner, although he did love afternoon runs with me. He was a brown dog with a Corgi and Staffordshire