Free Unraveled (Holding On Book 3) by Meg Jolie Page B

put her through, she couldn’t stand to be reminded that she meant nothing to this man either.
    He blinked at her, looking genuinely surprised. “Cricket, nothing about you is easy. Nothing about you has ever been easy.”
    Just like that, the heat was back.
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    8
    Jesse was torn between his body’s desire to go search out some caffeine and his desire to pull Carly in a little closer. It was easier when she was sleeping. There was no telling what she would do once she woke up. She was fiery and unpredictable. His desire to hold Carly a little longer won out because he wasn’t sure if he would get another chance.
    He couldn’t see her face because she was on her side, curled away from him. That didn’t keep him from looping his arm around her waist, pulling her in a little closer. She let out a sigh but didn’t awaken.
    H e closed his eyes, trying to shut out the slant of overly-bright sunlight that was slicing its way through the crack in his curtains. His thoughts wandered to the unexpected events of the past two days.
    Bart hadn’t warned him that Carly was at Shady’s. That had been like an emotional kick in the gut. Seeing her without warning when he hadn’t really seen her or spent any time with her since…Hell, it seemed that he couldn’t even remember when.
    He realized that wasn’t true. He remembered when. Exactly . It was two and a half years ago. It was the night before the McGrath’s annual Fourth of July barbeque. Jake McGrath, Luke’s brother and Quinn’s husband at the time, had been his best friend.
    He’d asked Carly to go to the cookout with him. She’d refused, giving him some lame excuse about too many friends and family being there. For some reason, that had pissed him off in a way it never had before. So what if their friends and family were there? So what ?! He was so far beyond ready to move onto more than just fooling around with her.
    That’s what they’d been doing for years. He’d gone along with it because Carly was younger than him. She had a wild side wider than the Grand Canyon. He’d wanted to give her some time to live her life. But that summer, she’d turned twenty-one. He’d decided he’d waited long enough.
    When he’d asked her to be his date, where— yes —friends and family would be, and she’d turned him down? Something in him had snapped. He was tired of the games the two of them had been playing and he thought she should be tired of them too. So when she’d declined his offer, he’d asked Betsy to go.
    Another huge mistake because things with Betsy had escalated faster than he’d thought they would. But that, he was sure, was his own doing. The heat of their relationship had been fanned by the flames of his frustration with Carly. He screwed around with Betsy too long. Long enough to screw everything up.
    Asking Betsy to that barbecue had been one of the worst decisions of his life. He never could’ve foreseen how that one simple act would spiral into what it had. In no time, it seemed, Carly had met someone else.
    Never had he thought she’d end up engaged to the bastard.
    And never had he thought she’d end up back at his house. Not under any circumstances.
    When she’d asked to come home with him the other night, he’d cursed himself the whole drive, telling himself he should’ve told her no. Sent her on her way with Jemma, brought her back to her parents, brought her over to Luke’s…Just something that didn’t involve bringing her to his house.
    Then she’d wandered down his hall, stripping as she went. Not looking back.
    It had been torture. Absolute torture. And more torturous still to just let her go to his room while he crashed on the couch. But he knew he would’ve felt even worse if he’d followed her. Or at least, he thought he would’ve. Because he’d thought, at