You Don't Know Me: A Stand-Alone New Adult Romance Read Online Free PDF

of my mouth.
    Sean exhales dramatically. “You’re not going to make this an easy transition, are you?”
    Sucking in air between my teeth, I sigh fake-dramatically. “Nah.”
    “You’re going to feel like an asshole at some point. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.” He starts for the car.
    Watching her get into her beater and putt-putt off to her shack, I tell him, “I’m going to show you who she really is. Don’t say I didn’t warn you .”

Chapter Nine

Rue
    J enna’s across from me on my dusty, blue Ikea couch. It’s got more than one party-stain on it. For the first time these flaws are standing out to me, and I’m covering one of the stains with my foot. Jenna’s knees are drawn up, her fuzzy-socked feet wiggling as she grips a glass of cranberry juice I’ve watered down to make less bitter. The good stuff is hard-core.
    “Go on!”
    I take a deep breath and continue, “ My dearest Max, the way you brushed past me in the hallway wasn’t fair. We have to stop. You promised. It’s too hard to be this close to you and not be able to touch you.”
    Jenna moans a long sigh. She pulls at her long brown hair with both hands, closing her eyes. “It’s so sad!”
    “It’s tragic is what it is.” My fingers trace my mother’s cursive handwriting as though I can touch her through the paper. “He must have been something else. The mother I know would never have fallen for a married man. Look at this one. Olivia, my heart. Why do you keep sending back my letters? Jonas said you wouldn’t even open the last one. I am looking for a way to leave her but it’s complicated with the boys and our financial entanglements. I need a little more time. Let me see you. Even as I write this, I know you won’t read it and the pain is so great I want to die. ”
    Jenna slaps her hand over her heart and almost bursts. “He has his letters because she wouldn’t keep them!”
    “Or even read them. I guess so. The ones from him are all after she’s quit the job, looks like. And this Jonas person hand-delivered them so that she couldn’t send them back in the mail and chance him getting found out. My poor mom. I bet she never told anyone. To have to carry that secret to your grave.” I hold them tight on my lap, shaking my head as I reach for my lemon-water.
    “And to not tell you!”
    “I know! She thought she was protecting me… from what, I don’t know.”
    “What if Jonas flew them to her by helicopter?” Jenna acts out propeller sounds, ducking down to avoid being decapitated. “Ms. Calliwell, Max Stone has a letter for you. Excuse the mess the wind kicked up in your yard.”
    I’m smiling at her portrayal, but roll my eyes at that last part. “As if we ever had a yard.”
    Jenna makes a face, because she understands. We were both in the same boat growing up. I’ve known her since Junior High. We lived in side-by-side apartment complexes, so we’d walk to school together even through high school. And we both wanted to be dancers, Hip Hop and Contemporary. As other school friendships slid behind us to rest in the cemetery of our personal history, Jenna and I grew closer. I know that when I’m in an old folk’s home, she’ll be there with me be-bopping, trying to make our wheelchairs do wheelies.
    “Read another one!” She kicks my legs. “And I fucking love your hair.”
    “Thanks! Me too.” I rake my hands through it and hold up the length so I can see the bright red; the kind of red that doesn’t happen naturally; where it’s almost pink but not quite.
    Sean’s assistant came and got me right after I walked in the door returning from Mr. Henderson’s office. I’d barely had a chance to read any of the letters before I was whisked off to Juan Juan, a salon in Beverly Hills. It was a classic movie-moment where everyone was fabulous and I was awed into silence as they took over and transformed my personal style.
    I have to admit though... there was a moment when they were slapping the