Into the Blue (A Wild Aces Romance) Read Online Free Page B

a friend request.
    Oh, holy hell, I definitely should not have sent him that message.
    I’d spent all day Sunday obsessing over why he hadn’t answered, whether I wanted him to answer, whether I
should
want him to answer, and finally concluded that he had realized it was opening a can of worms and he was being the wise one, whereas my judgment had clearly failed me.
    He’d sent me a friend request. That one was a game changer.
    I stared at it for what felt like an eternity, wondering if accepting would be a sign of personal growth or enabling my crazy. It had taken me years to get over him, years to get to the point where the sound of his name didn’t send a dagger through my heart. Why would I risk that again?
    Adulting was fucking hard.
    I picked up my cell and hit the first number on my speed dial.
    Lizzie had been my best friend since we were kids who’d bonded over our disdain for naptime in pre-K. She’d beenthere with me throughout the totality of my relationship with Eric and, more importantly, had held my hand—and occasionally, my hair—as I’d struggled to move on from the devastation he’d wrought in my life. She was happily married now with a little boy, and if there was anyone whose opinion mattered, it was her.
    She answered with a weary sigh and yelled, “Dylan, do not stick the action figure up your nose. Dylan . . .”
    I grinned. My six-year-old godson was a little terror, and I meant that in the best possible way. I babysat frequently so Lizzie and her husband, Adam, could go on date nights, and I had quite a few gray hairs that hadn’t been there before thanks to Dylan’s antics. Of course, he always ended the night cuddled in my lap, his expression that of a perfect angel, so he pretty much had me and all the females in his life wrapped around his finger.
    “Okay, I’m back. Sorry. I cannot
wait
until Adam comes home.”
    “Daddy!” Dylan yelled in the background.
    “Yes, Daddy is going to come home soon and you should
definitely
show him all of the tricks you learned at your Aunt Caroline’s.”
    I grinned again. Adam’s younger sister was notorious for teaching Dylan pranks that drove Lizzie nuts every time she babysat.
    “Okay, I’m really back this time. He can run in circles around the yard for a while and burn off steam. Mama needs a break.”
    I winced. “I shouldn’t have called you during the day. I know you have your hands full. Sorry. It was stupid.”
    “Please. It was a break from pulling little green Army men out of my son’s nose. You calling is pretty much the best thing that’s happened all day. What’s up?”
    I took a deep breath. “He friend requested me.”
    There was no need to explain who
he
was. I’d already told Lizzie all about my awkward run-in with Eric and my stupid message.
    “Ohmigod.”
    “Yeah.”
    That was the best thing about our friendship—we might have been in different places in our lives, but she was always right there when I needed her, and she always understood how big things were for me. She’d been the one to hold my hand through my parents’ funeral, even as we were both children struggling to deal with our grief. Lizzie’s mom took me shopping for my prom dress; she taught me how to do all the things my mom would have shown me if she’d been alive.
    “What are you going to do?”
    Lizzie was also the best because she didn’t pass judgment, even when she probably should have.
    “I don’t know.”
Liar.
“Accept it, I guess. I mean, I have to, right? It would look petty if I didn’t.”
    “You want to.”
    “I don’t know. Maybe. Yes.”
    “Where do you think this is going to go?”
    “I don’t think it can go anywhere. He lives in Oklahoma. He’s in the Air Force. Who knows where they’ll send him next? I’m here and I have no intention of leaving.”
    I’d worked hard to become a deputy solicitor—essentially South Carolina’s version of an assistant district attorney—and I loved my job. All of the