Read Online The Fear of Letting Go by Sarra Cannon - Free Book Online

truck and grabs two beers. She shoves them in the back pockets of her jeans. “After all that talk of wanting to hang out with me, you're going to let a little thing like a fear of heights get in your way?”
    I swallow a thick lump of fear and get out of the truck. “Hang out, yes. Climb an old water tower and fall to my death? Not so much.”
    She laughs and grabs my hand. The simple, spontaneous touch sends a shot of adrenaline straight through me.
    “I won't let you fall,” she says.
    “That's very sweet,” I say. “But considering I probably outweigh you by a hundred pounds, I don't think you can keep me from falling.”
    She stops and turns to face me, but doesn't let go of my hand. “If you're really that scared, I'm not going to force you to go. You're welcome to sit down here by yourself for a while, if you want. I'm going to go up and enjoy the view.”
    I take a deep breath and look at the metal rungs of an old ladder running up the side of the tower. It's so high, my palms sweat just thinking about it.
    “I don't know,” I say. I want to spend time with her, but I have always had a hard time with heights, and this is extreme. “Why don't we just put the tailgate down on the truck and hang out here? Or drive over to the beach?”
    She shakes her head. “You're all talk, aren't you?”
    “What's that supposed to mean?”
    “The other night when you came into that bar, you were telling everyone how tired you are of your life. The same dates. The same parties. Always doing the same things over and over without any real sense of adventure,” she says. She looks up at the water tower. “Well, here I am, offering you a little adventure, and you're too scared to even give it a try.”
    I inhale, my eyes locked on her face and that mischievous look in her eyes. She's testing me.
    “There has to be something else we can do that doesn't involve climbing thirty stories on a water tower that's been out of commission for fifty years,” I say with a nervous laugh. “This is dangerous.”
    “Maybe I'm dangerous, too,” she says in a low, sexy tone, her eyes narrowed. She's biting her lower lip and oh god, she's killing me with that look.
    I groan and clear my throat. “You know exactly what you're doing to me right now, don't you?” I look at the first few rungs of the ladder and my heartbeat races. Of all the things she decides to test me with, this, is the one thing that would make me hesitate, and I have a feeling she knew that before she even brought me here.
    “You say you want something different? This is your chance to mix it up a little,” she says. “Let's see what you're made of, golden boy.”
    Jenna steps closer to the ladder and puts one hand on the metal bar.
    I turn around, run a hand through my hair. Crap, can I do this? “There aren't even any safety precautions,” I say. “Look at this, it's just a bunch of thin little bars going up the side. One misplaced foot and it's goodbye forever.”
    “That's the way a lot of things in life are,” she says. She's already five or six rungs up. “Doesn't mean it isn't worth taking the risk.”
    I laugh and shake my head. “Shit,” I mumble.
    “You complain about your life, but the truth is, you intentionally live inside your safe little bubble, never daring to step outside of it,” she says. “Face your fears. Push yourself to the limits. It's the best way to know you're really alive.”
    With that, she turns and starts climbing so fast, she's twenty feet up before I even have a chance to breathe.
    I lean against the hood of her truck, my hands clammy and cold.
    This is insane. I should just let her go up and come back down. Let her make her point. Preston's too scared to change. Fine. It's not worth risking my life to go up there.
    Right?
    I turn and look up at her. She's halfway there with no sign of slowing down. She also hasn't looked back once to see if I'm following her.
    But at least she hasn't fallen. How many times has she done