Page 94 of True Abandon

“I changed my mind. I can’t do it,” I cry out.

“It’s not as far as you’re imagining. All you have to do is trust me. I promise I’ll be here to catch you.”

“You’ll drown!”

My palms are sweaty. I grip it harder, but my feet still won’t move. I can’t jump when I’m shivering with fear.

I can’t believe I let him convince me to climb up here. He knows I’m petrified of heights. It’s like how he brought me on the catamaran even though he doesn’t know how to sail. It’s classic Jackson. Like the time in school, he told me we should see how far his car could get with the gas light on. We wound up stranded in the outskirts of Virginia wheat fields, hiking to the nearest gas station. And let’s not forget about the day he booked himself into a ridiculously overpriced hotel room just to see how far he could push me into forgiving him. The thought makes me so damn angry I want to jump off the damn cliff and hit him in the jaw.

“I’m not going anywhere. You can take all day if you want, but I’ll be here waiting to catch you.”

His words make me laugh because I believe him. If this week has proven anything, it’s that Jackson Davis is one hundred percent committed to his promises.

Six days. He’s still here.

A decade later. He’s still here.

Since I was sixteen-years-old, I’ve been hopeless for this guy. It’s as if I’ve abandoned all rational thought and lived a life where he’s the beginning and the end. Not because he’s tainted me—because he’s part of me.

“I don’t want you to be afraid anymore.” His words echo through the rocky enclave and shoot straight into my heart.

With a burst of adrenaline, I launch my feet off the rock and swing my body away from the cliff.

A whoosh runs through my tummy as the ground gives way and suddenly I’m dangling twenty-feet in the air. I can see Jax below, but my hands won’t unclench.

The rope has gone as far out as it possibly can and starts to swing back toward the tree.

“Let go!” he shouts, and on command I do.

I let go.

Of the fear.

Of the pain.

Of the memories.

Of the mistakes.

I let go.

My body flails as I fall from the sky. The drop causes me to smack my back against the water, and a stinging sensation creeps up where my body hit the surface.

I plummet under.

It’s dark and murky, and I can’t see a thing.

For a moment, I become lifeless, letting my body become one with the dark until a current of pressure builds around me, the water pushing me up, acting as an opposing force to my body. I kick my arms and legs and ride to rise to the surface.

When my head breaks the surface, I look up at the gorgeous, clear, blue sky and am quickly in Jax’s arms as he exclaims, “You did it!”

I smile. A bright, huge, beaming smile. Despite the pain on my back, I relish in the fact, “I jumped off a cliff!”

“You did,” he’s beaming as he pulls us toward the shallow area.

When my toes touch the ground, I look up and catch my breath. The cliff now seems dwarfed, a mere rock that’s not nearly as high as it seemed before I leapt.

“You wanna jump again?” he asks. His skin glistens in the heat, and a bead of water trickles down his sculpted chest.