Unraveled (Holding On Book 3) by Meg Jolie

only weeks after her fifteenth birthday. She had been one of the youngest in her freshman class. He hadn’t known that. Not until after the fact. All she’d thought of at the time was that he was a senior.
    And she had wanted him.
    Period. End of story .
    “ Yeah, I know it happens. A lot. Seniors going after freshman. But that doesn’t make it right. And your mother? You might have been fine with it all but could you imagine if your mom had ever found out? I mean, I didn’t know your mom. But I knew of her. I mean, Jake was my best friend so I knew a little about your mom because Quinn and Luke were best friends. And our parents went to church together.” Carly cringed because he was right. She’d never actually thought of that. “She would’ve thrown my ass in jail for statutory rape in a heartbeat. Don’t tell me she wouldn’t have! She wouldn’t even let Quinn sleep over at Jake’s and Quinn was twenty-two ! I mean, I didn’t know that then, obviously. But looking back, I don’t doubt that your mom would’ve nailed my ass to the wall. There’s almost a four year age difference between us. It doesn’t matter now, but it sure did then.”
    Carly let out a sigh. For the first time, she was finally grasping his side of things. Maybe he hadn’t been such an ass, after all.
    “If she would’ve found out that her barely fifteen year-old was messing around with a guy who had been legally an adult for almost a year? Yeah,” he said with a shake of his head, “you can bet she would’ve made sure I paid for that. I couldn’t take the chance. You know I only got into college because of a football scholarship. My family couldn’t have afforded to send me. Not only could’ve I landed myself in jail, I could’ve had my whole future swirling down the toilet. Not to mention your reputation swirling right along with it if that ever got out. No fucking way was I going to let that happen to you.”
    She folded her arms across her chest as a tear trickled down. She angrily swiped it away. There was no way that was true. He couldn’t have been tryin g to protect her? Not back then. Could’ve he? He had torn her heart right out, shredded it to a point beyond recognition and then tossed it on the floor at her feet. All in the name of protecting her?
    Looking back, she was sure it was hormones, or an obsession that left her so twisted up in him. Or likely, an obsession fueled by hormones , but she’d really thought she loved him. And he had destroyed her, whether he’d meant to or not.
    Jesse was watching her as the emotions and realizations swept over her.
    “Carly, I wanted you. I’ve always wanted you. I haven’t always been the best at being a stand-up guy. I was young and scared and stupid. I handled the situation like a complete jackass. But back then, I was trying to do the right thing in my own, messed up way. Those other girls—”
    “You couldn’t have hurt me more if you’d tried,” she admitted.
    He hung his head. “Yeah, I know. I see that now. At the time, all I could think about was trying to push you away. But later, I realized how much I hurt you. And then, all those years you spent trying to hurt me back, I thought I deserved it. But I want to move past that. I swear, I never in a million fucking years thought we’d end up here, right now, with all of this fucking baggage between us. All because of what happened when we were fucking kids.”
    She swallowed hard. “If you’re trying to romance me, you’d be doing a better job of it if you cut out the f-word.”
    He hung his head for a second. “You’re right. You have me so worked up.  You always get me so worked up. I’m sorry.”
    “Why did you wait so long to tell me?”
    “I’ve been waiting for you to be ready to hear it. So I’m throwing it out there. Because at this point? What do I have to lose? I thought for sure I lost you to that douche. But somehow, I lucked out. Last night, I realized I might just have a chance. And