Hold My Breath by Ginger Scott
Fractions of seconds can do lots of damage. One decision can ruin lives. A blink can be tragic. And loving a Hollister…can hurt like hell.
I would know.
They say the average person can hold their breath under water for two full minutes when pushed to the extremes. Will Hollister has been holding his for years. The oldest of two elite swimming brothers, Will was always a dominant force in the water. But in life, he preferred to let his younger brother Evan be the one to shine.
Evan got the girl, and Will…he got to bury all of the secrets. A brother’s burden, the weight of it all nearly left him to drown.
The daughter of two Olympians, my path was set the day my fingertips first touched water. My future was as crystal clear as the lane I dominated in the pool—swim hard, win big, love a Hollister.
My life with Evan burned bright. He gave me arms to come home to, and a smile that fooled the world into believing everything was perfect. But it was Will who pushed me. Will…who really knew me.
And when all of the pieces fell, it was Will who started to pick them up.
In the end, the only thing that matters are those few precious seconds—and what we decide to do while we still have them in our grasp.
Love Words from Will to Maddy
From an 18-year-old Will Hollister to Maddy Woodsen before he leaves for college. He never sent it.
Dear Maddy,
I know this letter is way too late. I know I should have said these things before this day. But I’m sitting here in my bedroom surrounded by stuffed duffle bags, taped boxes and a college schedule I don’t even understand, and all I can think about is how I’m going away for State, and you’ll be here.
It isn’t fair that I’m older. It isn’t fair that my brother is younger. I’ve seen the way he looks at you, and I know how easy it would be for you to look at him like that right back. Sometimes…I think you do see him that way. But I’m begging you not to. God, Maddy, I’m begging. I love my brother. You know I do. But he just isn’t good enough for you. There. I wrote it. You have no idea how hard any of these words are for me to write. I need to write them, though. Even if your eyes never see this paper, I need to write the words. They’re killing me.
You know when it happened. I know you know. You must. The world slowed down for both of us, I’m convinced. You climbed on the rope swing at the lake, scared and shivering. I held on with you. I held on to you. I saw you then. Most of our lives you’d always been my cute friend, the one I raced and wanted to beat, but in that moment you became the one I loved. I love you still, and I will always love you, and it hurts leaving this place without telling you any of this, without kissing you…just once. But it wouldn’t be fair to you. You have so much ahead. You’re on a road I’ve finished, and I don’t want to rob you of experiencing any of it. Two years is a big age difference right now, but one day…it won’t be.
One day, we’ll both be older. You’ll be ready. I’ll be brave. I’ll tell you then. I’ll tell you everything that’s in this letter and more. I’ll love you like you deserve. I’ll hold you through it all. But for now, I’m just writing this as a wish. Don’t give your heart to my brother. That’s the only thing that will make everything impossible. I’m selfish for asking, I know, but my heart has chosen you. I’ll love you even if you do choose him. I won’t be able to help it. And if you do, I’ll never say a word, because I would never want you to feel guilt for living. I love you too much for that. I will hope for now. And when the time is right, I’ll share these words with you.
Love,
Will
A Never Ending Promise by Marisol Celestia is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.
About the author
Ginger Scott is an Amazon-bestselling and Goodreads Choice Award-nominated author of several young and new adult romances, including Waiting on the Sidelines, Going Long, Blindness, How We Deal With Gravity, This Is Falling, You and Everything After, The Girl I Was Before, Wild Reckless, Wicked Restless, In Your Dreams, The Hard Count and Hold My Breath.
A sucker for a good romance, Ginger’s other passion is sports, and she often blends the two in her stories. (She’s also a sucker for a hot quarterback, catcher, pitcher, point guard…the list goes on.) Ginger has been writing and editing for newspapers, magazines and blogs for pretty much ever. She has told the stories of Olympians, politicians, actors, scientists, cowboys, criminals and towns. For more on her and her work, visit her website at http://www.littlemisswrite.com.
When she’s not writing, the odds are high that she’s somewhere near a baseball diamond, either watching her son field pop flies like Bryce Harper or cheering on her favorite baseball team, the Arizona Diamondbacks. Ginger lives in Arizona and is married to her college sweetheart whom she met at ASU (fork ’em, Devils).
