Don't Let Me Fall

Don't Let Me Fall Plot Summary

Introduction

Rain slashed through the headlights as Ashlyn Peterson stared at her broken-down car on the dark roadside, her phone showing no available Uber drivers. She'd called Logan, her boyfriend of three years, begging for help. His response was cold: he was too busy. Twenty minutes later, headlights cut through the storm, and Colt Thorne stepped out into the rain—Logan's former best friend, the mysterious transfer student who'd been watching her from the shadows. This wasn't their first encounter. Weeks earlier, at a traffic light, Colt had airdropped his number to the "cute girl in the beater car." Ashlyn had deleted it immediately, loyal to Logan despite the growing cracks in their relationship. Now, as Colt approached through the downpour, she realized some encounters are inevitable. What started as a tutoring arrangement would become something that neither Logan's lies nor Ashlyn's fears could destroy—a love story built on broken pieces and second chances.

Chapter 1: When Hearts Collide: The Intersection of Endings and Beginnings

The airdrop notification lit up Ashlyn's phone screen like a neon sign: *Colt Thorne would like to share a note.* She sat at the red light, stealing glances at the mysterious stranger in the truck beside her. Dark hair pushed back from a stubbled jaw, sunglasses despite the afternoon shadows, lips moving silently to whatever song played in his cab. The type of dangerous attractive that made sensible girls do stupid things. *This message is for the cute girl in the beater who was staring at me at the light. Hope this is you. You should text me.* Ashlyn's thumb hovered over the delete button. Three years with Logan had taught her loyalty, even when that loyalty felt increasingly one-sided. She thought of Logan at hockey practice, surrounded by puck bunnies who knew his schedule better than she did. The stranger's truck turned right, disappearing into traffic, and Ashlyn deleted the message. But Colt Thorne wasn't done with her yet. When her car broke down weeks later on a rain-soaked highway, Logan's excuses came swift and hollow. Work. Prior commitments. Anything but twenty minutes to help his girlfriend. The storm hammered her windshield as she waited for an Uber that never came, each raindrop a reminder of how alone she'd become. Then headlights cut through the darkness. Colt emerged from his truck like some leather-jacketed knight, rain plastering his shirt against his chest. He didn't ask questions, didn't make her beg. He simply opened his passenger door and waited. When she hesitated, he walked home in the storm rather than make her uncomfortable, leaving her his truck and a simple instruction: take a hot bath. That night, Ashlyn realized she'd been holding her breath for months, maybe years. And Colt Thorne had just reminded her what it felt like to breathe.

Chapter 2: The Tutorial of Trust: Learning to See Beyond Facades

Professor Buchanan's offer seemed simple enough: tutor a struggling transfer student for teaching credit and extra cash. When the name "Colt Thorne" appeared on her assignment sheet, Ashlyn's world tilted slightly off its axis. The mysterious stranger from the truck, the one who'd rescued her in the rain, needed her help with statistics. Their first tutoring session crackled with unspoken tension. Colt sat too close, his dark eyes tracking her every movement as she explained probability theory. She caught him watching her lips form words, noticed how his fingers drummed against the table when she leaned forward. The air between them felt electric, dangerous. "You're not actually failing," she realized halfway through their second session. The man solving complex equations in his head didn't need help with basic statistics. "So why am I here?" Colt's cocky mask slipped for just a moment, revealing something raw underneath. His father had died during his senior year of high school, he told her. A car accident on the way to a hockey game. Colt had been the driver, had walked away without a scratch while his father died on impact. Hockey became impossible after that—every practice, every game a reminder of that terrible night. He'd thrown away his scholarship, his future, convinced he didn't deserve success. "You said your dad didn't raise quitters," Ashlyn said softly, remembering their conversation during the storm. Something shifted in Colt's expression, a crack in the armor he'd built around his grief. For the first time in years, he looked like he might be ready to stop running from his own potential. But between them sat the elephant neither wanted to acknowledge: Logan. Ashlyn's boyfriend lived in the same house as Colt, slept in the room next door. Every tutoring session was a betrayal waiting to happen, every shared laugh a step closer to a line they couldn't uncross.

Chapter 3: Tangled Webs: Navigating Love, Loyalty, and Deception

The Taylor House party pulsed with bass and bad decisions. Ashlyn had avoided Logan's teammates' gatherings for months, claiming they weren't her scene. The truth was messier: she'd grown tired of watching women hang all over her boyfriend while he smiled and did nothing to discourage them. But Logan had been persistent, almost desperate for her to attend this particular party. She found him in the kitchen, tequila pooling in some girl's navel as he lapped it up like a starving man. The sight should have hurt more than it did. Instead, Ashlyn felt the curious detachment of watching someone else's life fall apart. When she tried to slip away unnoticed, she nearly collided with a couple making out against the bathroom door. The man had his back to her, but she recognized those shoulders, that dark hair. Colt looked up mid-kiss, his eyes finding hers in the dim hallway. His gaze traveled slowly down her white dress, and something predatory flickered in his expression. The woman in his arms was oblivious, lost in her own pleasure, but Colt seemed suddenly aware of nothing but Ashlyn. "Wanna join?" he asked, his voice a low growl that sent heat spiraling through her chest. She fled to Logan's room, where they made love with a desperation that felt more like goodbye than reunion. But even with Logan moving inside her, Ashlyn's mind wandered to dark eyes and dangerous smiles. She'd moaned Colt's name in her head while Logan chased his own release, and the guilt of it made her sick. Later, in the hallway between their bedrooms, she encountered Colt again. He was shirtless, gray sweatpants hanging low on his hips, and she was wrapped only in a towel. The air between them crackled with unfinished business. "You think of me when he takes you?" Colt whispered, caging her against the wall. His breath was warm against her ear, his body heat making her shiver. She couldn't answer, couldn't lie, couldn't tell him the truth that would destroy everything. So she gave him his shirt back instead and pretended her hands weren't shaking.

Chapter 4: Confronting Shadows: When Past Betrayals Surface

Logan's text arrived like a death sentence: *I found someone else. We're over.* Three years of relationship reduced to ten words on a phone screen. No explanation, no conversation, just digital dismissal at its cruelest. Ashlyn stared at the message until the words blurred, rage building in her chest like pressure in a steam kettle. The Taylor House was dark when she arrived, but Colt answered the door in those same gray sweatpants that haunted her dreams. She meant to demand Logan's location, to force the confrontation he'd avoided. Instead, she found herself pressed against Colt's kitchen wall, his mouth claiming hers with a hunger that made her knees weak. "We aren't dating," he said when she pulled away, guilt-stricken about betraying her best friend Mia. The fake relationship had been Colt's idea—protection for Mia from her abusive ex-boyfriend, Shorty. But in that moment, with Colt's hands on her face and his truth spilling between them, none of it mattered. They made love against that wall with desperate intensity, months of wanting compressed into frantic touches and whispered confessions. Afterward, as they caught their breath, Ashlyn realized she'd never felt so complete. This wasn't the comfortable routine she'd shared with Logan—this was fire and need and the kind of connection that left permanent marks on your soul. But the shadows of their past weren't finished with them yet. Logan's betrayal ran deeper than simple infidelity. At a party weeks later, he cornered Ashlyn with a revelation designed to destroy: Colt's high school girlfriend Brooke, the one whose cheating had broken him, had been sleeping with Logan all along. Logan claimed Colt was using Ashlyn for revenge, weaponizing their history to wound her where she was most vulnerable. Standing in that hallway, Logan's words hanging in the air like poison, Ashlyn felt three years of manipulation crystallizing into clarity. She'd been his safety net, his guarantee of stability while he played the field. Now he wanted to rob her of the happiness she'd found with Colt, unable to accept that she'd moved on without him.

Chapter 5: The Ice Melts: Healing Through Vulnerability and Truth

The hockey rink felt like a cathedral, vast and echoing with ghosts. Colt stood at center ice, stick in hand, staring at the empty stands where his father should have been cheering. For the first time since the accident, he'd agreed to play in an actual game. Ashlyn watched from the penalty box as he took his first shot, the puck flying true into the upper corner of the net. "He's been practicing for weeks," Theo told her, pride evident in his voice. "Said he couldn't disappoint his good luck charm." Colt's teammates had accepted his return without question, understanding that some wounds take years to heal. Even the coach seemed moved when Colt finally stepped back onto competitive ice. The game itself was poetry in motion. Colt moved like he'd never left, reading plays before they developed, setting up his teammates for scoring opportunities. When he finally scored his first goal, the crowd erupted, but Ashlyn only saw his eyes searching the stands until they found hers. His smile was radiant, transformative, the expression of a man who'd finally forgiven himself. Later, in the locker room tunnel, she waited as reporters peppered him with questions about his return. "I had someone remind me that my dad didn't raise quitters," Colt told them, his gaze finding Ashlyn through the crowd. "Sometimes you need the right person to show you who you're meant to be." They drove to his childhood home afterward, where she met his mother and sister over Sunday brunch. Becca Thorne welcomed Ashlyn like a long-lost daughter, sharing stories of Colt's father and the close-knit family that had never stopped believing in his eventual return to himself. For a girl who'd grown up feeling like an afterthought to her own parents, the warmth was overwhelming. "You brought my boy back to us," Becca whispered as they cleaned dishes together. Ashlyn understood then that healing wasn't just about individual wounds—sometimes love required rebuilding entire families, teaching people how to hope again.

Chapter 6: Finding Home: Building a Future from Broken Pieces

The confrontation with Logan came like a storm breaking over calm waters. At another Taylor House party, he cornered Ashlyn with his revelations about Brooke and Colt's supposed revenge plot. But instead of destroying her faith, his words only crystallized her certainty. She'd seen Colt's vulnerability, held him through nightmares about his father, watched him rebuild himself piece by careful piece. "You never loved me," she told Logan with startling clarity. "You owned me. There's a difference." The truth of it felt liberating, like shedding skin that had grown too tight. She'd mistaken possession for devotion, desperation for dedication. When Colt found her after the confrontation, rage blazing in his dark eyes, she watched him make a choice that defined everything. He could have walked away, avoided the drama, preserved his friendship with Logan. Instead, he chose her. His fist connected with Logan's jaw with a sound like breaking branches, three years of betrayal concentrated into one devastating blow. "He made you question whether I love you," Colt said later, his knuckles bruised and bloody as they sat in his truck during another rainstorm. "That's unforgivable." Ashlyn understood then that some loves require protection, that choosing someone means being willing to fight the whole world for them. The seasons changed, bringing new challenges and deeper intimacy. Colt met her hippie parents in Maine, somehow charming them into becoming the present, involved family Ashlyn had always craved. She watched him play hockey again, the arena erupting every time he touched the puck. Their fake tutoring sessions became real study dates, then real dates, then something deeper than either had imagined possible. Logan transferred schools, taking his toxicity elsewhere. Mia found the courage to report Shorty's harassment, finally free from the fake relationship that had protected her. The Taylor House became a real home instead of just a party venue, filled with chosen family and Sunday dinners.

Summary

In the end, Ashlyn Peterson learned that falling in love isn't about finding someone perfect—it's about finding someone worth becoming perfect for. Colt Thorne showed her that healing happens in layers, that grief can coexist with joy, that sometimes the bravest thing is letting someone see your worst moments and choosing to love you anyway. Their relationship began with deception—fake tutoring, hidden attraction, loyalty divided between past and present—but grew into something unshakeable through radical honesty. What began as two broken people hiding from their pain became a testament to redemption's possibility. Ashlyn found her voice, learned to demand the love she deserved. Colt returned to the ice, to his family, to the future his father would have wanted for him. Together, they built something neither could have created alone: a love story that didn't erase the past but transformed it into foundation stones for something beautiful and lasting. In a world of temporary connections and digital dismissals, they chose the harder path of showing up, speaking truth, and falling—really falling—without guarantee of being caught, trusting that some risks are worth taking when love is the prize.

About Author

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Kelsie Rae

Rae reframes contemporary romance through her engaging narratives, particularly in the realm of "hockey romance," which melds love stories with the dynamic world of sports. Her books frequently delve into themes such as age gap romance, sports heroism, and the complexities of relationships involving single dads and childhood crushes. These narratives are character-driven and rich with emotional depth, allowing readers to connect with the protagonists' journeys through life's challenges, including financial struggles and the transition into adulthood.\n\nFor readers seeking stories with emotional resonance and character intimacy, Rae's works offer an accessible entry point. Her "Don't Let Me" series, along with other works like the "Wrecked Roommate" and "Advantage Play" series, showcases her ability to blend personal growth with romance. As an author, Rae connects with her audience through her themes of personal development, creating a strong reader engagement. Additionally, her personal interests, such as photography and baking, subtly infuse her storytelling with a unique personal touch, enriching the narrative texture and making her bio intriguing for those interested in contemporary romance.

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