Read Online Breathe Again by Joelle Charming - Free Book Online Page A

idea.
    “Don’t apologize,” he said. “I wanted you to know. If I
didn’t, I wouldn’t have told you.”
    I didn’t know what to say. Fortunately, Jackson wasn’t
finished talking. “It was right after I started acting. Breast cancer. She died
the day after my first movie came out. It was obviously hard on all of us, but
she got to see me play my first part, and she was so proud of me.”
    “You say us , how many siblings do you have?” I
asked.
    “My parents had four boys, myself included. I’m the second
oldest.”
    I raised an eyebrow at him, taking a sip from my margarita.
“Four boys? That must have been . . . loud growing up.”
    I watched as he threw his head back, laughing. Jackson
laughed. At me. Again. The sound of it, that full-bodied laugh, straight from
his soul, caught me unprepared. It scared me, and I frowned.
    “What?” he said, once his laughter died down and he noticed
the strange look on my face.
    I just shook my head, forcing myself to take my eyes away
from him. “Nothing.”
    “What is it?” he said, the laughter gone from his eyes.
    I looked at him nervously. “It’s just that . . . nobody’s
ever thought I was funny before.”
    “That’s a lie,” Jackson said immediately.
    I just shrugged, returning my attention to the plate in front
of me. I felt Jackson looking at me, but eventually he started eating again
too.
    “It was loud growing up,” he said, pulling me from my
thoughts. “I don’t know how my mom did it, but she did. And she was so happy.
My dad was to. He never remarried, he was so heartbroken when she died.”
    I reached across the table, taking Jackson’s free hand. “I
really am sorry, Jackson. I can tell how much you loved her.”
    Jackson stared at me, and I refused to look away this time.
    “Love,” he said.
    “Love?” I asked, not understanding.
    “Just because she’s gone doesn’t mean I don’t still love
her,” he said, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.
    I looked at him, somewhat unnerved. “Of course,” I said.
    He let me eat in silence for a few minutes before speaking,
and when he did, it was the last question I wanted to hear.
    “Will you tell me about your family?” he asked. I knew it was
an intentional question. I hadn’t mentioned my family much, but I really didn’t
want to talk about it. Especially not after the conversation I’d just had with
my mother. I put my fork down and wiped my mouth with my napkin, but kept my
eyes on the plate in front of me.
    “No,” I said finally.
    His reaction proved that he wasn’t surprised by my answer.
    “So, tell me then. Why are you so . . . indifferent when I
tell you that I think you’re beautiful.”
    I glanced up at him. “You noticed that?” I asked.
    “I notice everything about you, Mellie Rose,” he said, not
moving his eyes from mine.
    I slid my finger around the rim of my empty margarita glass,
but eventually I sighed, resigned.
    “It’s the same question as before,” I said. He cocked his
head, looking at me curiously. He had no idea what I meant, of course. “Back
home, I was always just the pretty one. My entire life, I’ve been pretty or
attractive or beautiful. Everyone in my family knows it, and everyone in my
little town knows it. I’ve always known it too. It’s impossible not to, when
you’re constantly told that the only thing that makes you unique, the only
thing that makes you special or worth anything in life, is how beautiful you
are.” I said it in one breath, wanting desperately to get it out there without
second-guessing myself. I knew that saying it was the end of one chapter and
the start of something new.
    Jackson was looking at me with a mixture of fascination and
awe and confusion. I’d never said those things out loud, though I’d always
known them.
    “What do you mean, just the pretty one?” he asked, though
there was no trace of anything but gentle curiosity in his voice.
    “My older brother, James, was always