“I’m not going to pretend I don’t love you or that I don’t miss you, Adam, but…but I...” I stammered, my voice fading off.
“You’re scared, Caroline. I know you are. Hell,” he said with a soft laugh, “I’m scared too, but like you once told me, I think it’s a good thing to be afraid. If we weren’t, it wouldn’t be worth it.”
He stood before me pouring his heart out to me and yet I couldn’t say anything. I was paralyzed by the fear of the unknown, of giving my whole heart to Adam because I was afraid of what that would mean. I wanted to say something, but I couldn’t. My silence told him everything though.
“I tried…but it wasn’t enough,” he eventually said, his voice fading into nothing as his hand reached up, gently stroking my cheek again before his touch was gone. He looked into my eyes once more before turning around and starting to walk away.
I stood frozen, staring at where he’d just stood, like a ghost in my memory even though it’d only been a few seconds. The heaviness his absence left behind was like a punch to my gut and I knew I couldn’t let him leave. I was afraid of loving him, but as he walked away I knew I was even more afraid of not loving him. I’d told myself it couldn’t work between us because I didn’t want the spotlight. I didn’t want the attention being with him would give me. I didn’t want my heart broken again, but I hadn’t even given it a chance. I hadn’t given myself a chance. I hadn’t given him a chance. I’d convinced myself we were too different even though I knew we weren’t that different. Deep down we were just two kids from the same small town who had fallen in love. It didn’t matter who he was or who I was. The bottom line was we belonged together. I’d given up on him, on us, and on myself. As I watched him walk away, I wondered how much happiness I’d miss out on if I continued to let fear control my life.
“Adam! Wait!” I called out and he stopped, turning to look at me, the hurt I’d caused him still tattooed on his face. “It’s enough!”
Our eyes locked again and I could feel the tears in my eyes as I stared ahead at this man who I loved so much and who obviously loved me. He’d done everything to show me that and he had to know that I knew. It only took me a second to decide what to do. I ran to him, reaching up and placing my hand on his chest. I could feel the beating of his heart and I closed my eyes for a moment as the rhythm pounded gently against my palm. I had this man’s heart. I had it fully and I wanted to give him mine, no matter what it took. No matter how difficult it might be. Slowly, I opened my eyes and raised my gaze until it met his.
“You,” I choked out, “are enough.”
I could feel the relief as he breathed out and placed his hand over mine. Just the touch of his fingers on my skin caused me to tremble. The love I felt for him and the love I knew he felt for me was worth any hurdle life might try and throw at us and no matter how many people tried to come between us. He was worth it. We were worth it.
“I’m sorry, Adam. I’m sorry about everything. I’m sorry for hurting you. I’m sorry for…” I said quickly.
“You don’t need to be sorry,” he said as he ran his hand over my hair.
“So many guys would’ve given up on me. They would’ve just let me go.”
“Well,” he said, a slow smile curling up on his face, “I’m not those guys and you’re no ordinary girl. You’re worth fighting for. You caught my heart, Caroline, and I could never let you go.”
“Thank you for not giving up on me, Adam.” I said, reaching for his free hand and curling my fingers with his.
“I’ll never give up on you, Caroline,” he said gently. “And don’t ever give up on me, okay?”
“Never,” I whispered and as I looked up into his eyes, something told me everything would be okay. I didn’t know what would happen in the future, but I wanted to try. I wanted to try for us. Someday I’d learn to accept everything that came with loving him. I would be as strong as he believed me to be and as strong as I knew I could be. I knew it wasn’t always going to be easy. I knew there would be hard times. I knew sometimes I’d want to give up, but I also knew Adam loved me like I’d never been loved and would never be loved again. Men like Adam DeLain came around once in a lifetime and I wasn’t going to miss my chance.
His mouth turned up into a smile as his eyes moved slowly over my face and then he brushed a piece of hair behind my ear.
“I love you, Caroline,” he said.
“I love you, Adam,” I replied softly and as he gently pressed his lips to mine, I knew at that moment, my life would never be the same.
~Find out what happens next in Silver Falls, Book Two.~
COMING SOON
A Note from the Author
Thank you so much for reading Catching Caroline. I hope you enjoyed the book! I had fun combining two of the things I love most: romance and baseball! In this book, I tried to do something different than my previous works. I hope you enjoyed the outcome and all of Caroline’s antics. I have to say, I had fun writing her, especially her bad luck with dating. And in case you were wondering, Caroline’s encounter with Dr. Dylan is actually based on a true story (not mine, thank goodness!). I couldn’t make that up! I’ve been wanting to use that story for some time now and I’m glad I finally found the book for it.
I’m currently working on the sequel to Caroline and Adam, tentatively titled Keeping Caroline or Craving Caroline. I haven’t decided yet! I also plan at least one more book beyond the sequel, so stayed tuned for more visits to Silver Falls to see what happens to Caroline, Adam, Sawyer and Erica.
I have to say a special thank you to Emily, Sara and Nidhi. You are my writing buddies and I so appreciate your time and willingness to provide honest feedback to me. You truly mean so much to me and I’m grateful writing has brought us together.
As I always do, I have included a playlist, which features some of the songs that inspired this book. None of my books would ever get written without songs. The entire playlist is available on Spotfiy.
If you enjoyed the book, I would be so grateful if you would take a few moments to leave a review on Amazon or Goodreads. Reviews help more than you know!
If you haven’t already done so, please check out my other books, all available on Amazon in eBook form and paperback.
The Home Series
Last Train Home (Book One)
Far From Home (Book Two)
Carry Me Home (Book Three)
The Long Road Home (Book Four)
Finding Home (Book Five)
Close to Home (Book Six)
Pieces of Home (Book Seven)
A Place Called Home (Book Eight)
The Tomorrow Series
My Tomorrow (Book One)
The Heart of Tomorrow (Book Two)
Today, Tomorrow and Always (Book Three)
Every Breaking Wave
After the Sky Fell Down
Here With Me
Thank you again so much for reading. Your support means more to me than you could ever know. I love hearing from readers, so feel free to drop me a line at [email protected] or join my Facebook page (Megan Nugen Isbell-Author) to stay up to date on new releases and giveaways!
Happy Reading!
Best regards,
Megan
Catching Caroline Playlist
Sweet Caroline-Neil Diamond
Brick by Brick- Train
Parachute-Train
You Better Believe-Train
Play That Song-Train
Inevitable- Anberlin
Heartbreaker- LEVV
Some Kind of Beautiful- Tyler Ward
Beautiful Addiction-Nate Feuerstein
Living Louder-The Cab
In Another Lifetime-Zoe Sky Jordan
Lightning in a Bottle-Eli Lieb
To Find My Way to You-Bebo Norman
Not Right Now-Jason Gray
Caroline the Wrecking Ball-O.A.R.
Peace- O.A.R.
All This Time- OneRepublic
Hold Us Together-Matt Maher
Let�
��s Hurt Tonight-OneRepublic
I Will Find You- O.A.R.
Shattered-O.A.R.
All Along-Remedy Drive
Fall Asleep-Jars of Clay
Merry Go Round-Suzie McNeil
You Belong to Me-Grey Holiday
Happy-Secrets in Stereo
Belong-Cary Brothers
Castle on the Hill-Ed Sheeran
All of the Stars-Ed Sheeran
Catching Caroline (Silver Falls Book 1) Page 37