Hold On - Part Three (The Hold On Series Book 3) Read Online Free PDF Page A

about me.”
    “I’m your best friend,” she says. “It’s my job to worry about you.”
    I close the door and wait for her to back up the dirt road before I step onto the rickety porch. I find the key and open the door. There are no lights, but I know my way around.
    If I’m lucky and Ethan comes here tonight to tell me that he’s sorry he said those horrible words then I’ll know I’m not going crazy. If he doesn’t then I’ll know that too. If it really is over then I can handle it. I won’t crumble like everyone says I will.
    I sigh.
    Who am I kidding? I’m already destroyed. Why else am I trying to justify his behavior?
     
     
     

Chapter 8
     
    The sheets on the sofa bed are stiff and scratchy. I’m still in my clothes as I crawl between them and curl up into a ball. The moonlight is bright enough in the room that I can see everything. It looks like a soft dim glow of a lamp has been turned on.
    I temper my breathing so that I can calm down. I have nothing to do here except sleep or think. Sleeping is preferable because my mind is running down the different passages of outcomes and it’s not being kind.
    I’d rather fall into a dreamless sleep so that I can call Lauren in the morning to pick me up. I’ll be able to face reality better then.
    Part of me is still holding on to the belief that Ethan is coming for me and that he didn’t mean any of the cruel words he said. Why else would he suggest I come here? Maybe it was all part of his game to seduce my mind and body to become his, before he viciously cast me aside. I don’t know what’s real anymore.
    Tonight he is going to steal the money. The money Lili has manipulated him into taking. It’s the only thing I know to be true, although perhaps even that is a lie. If things are really over with Ethan, if he never cared about me at all, I don’t want him to get hurt. I want him to be safe. I saw what that man did to Lili and what he did to Winona. I shudder as I think about what he could do to Ethan.
    Sleep isn’t coming easy. Tessa and Lauren’s words about how Ethan used me, spin in my head. I dissect every conversation, every nuance, and I still can’t understand.
    They only know the worst of Ethan, his past. What’s on paper isn’t the only part of him that I know though. The private conversations, the touches, the connection we have. Am I kidding myself? I can’t be. I can’t be wrong about that. The Ethan I know when we are alone is nothing like the Ethan I saw tonight. That’s why I fell in love.
    I know they both want to slap me. They want to slap sense into me and tell me to stop being so stupid. If I was anyone other than myself, I’d tell me to give up on Ethan too, but it’s different when you are involved and your heart has locked itself onto someone else. Love makes you crazy; it makes you act in ways you wouldn’t normally act. I get all of that. It’s the reason why I’m lying here in his bed late at night in the middle of nowhere, unable to fall asleep.
    It’s easy to make sane decisions when your heart isn’t pounding with the thought of having just one last touch, or when you strain to hear just one nice word from his lips.
    I know. I really have lost my mind.
     
    ~
     
    Sleep still hasn’t found me after two hours. The shadows that the moon is making on the ceiling are mocking me, making patterns of broken hearts everywhere I look. I can’t stand it.
    I sit up and reach for my phone. I don’t want to be alone anymore. My finger hovers over Lauren’s phone number when I hear a motorcycle pull up outside.
    Ethan.
    My heart bursts to life as I jump out of bed and rush over to the front door. I can feel the heady rush as I fling the door open.
    It’s Ethan’s motorcycle alright, but the rider isn’t Ethan.
    I’m disoriented for a moment and take a step back. “Who are you?”
    The rider pulls off the helmet and I immediately recognize the face as the strange looking man that Ethan was talking to earlier. Oh