One More Night with You Read Online Free

could no longer mourn the relationship; could no longer force herself to miss him. It was closure, yet it left her at loose ends.
    She had circled back to that strange place she found herself each time she ended things with a lover, harping on the past again, stuck in old dreams of the treachery and violence and heartbreak that had stolen her capacity to move on. It’d been practically five years since the shooting, but it might as well have been five minutes.
    She would never be free.
    â€œI need to dig into this workout, all right?” She’d been at it over two hours already, stirring around endorphins, trying to burn off tension, but what did trivial details matter? “Whatever you tracked me down for, let’s talk about it later.”
    Concern pulled at Charlotte’s full lips. “If the guy’s name can incite rage, then you need to put some things in check.”
    â€œIt’s not that.” Balancing her weight to her uninjured hip, she mopped her face with the bottom of her midriff top. It wasn’t about Parker, who’d been a diversion to keep her body sated. In DEA, diversions and one-time-only sex had been practical. After she’d packed her stuff in her Camaro and driven toward a new life in Nevada, they’d become few and far between. “We weren’t aiming for an engagement and a happily-ever-after.”
    â€œBut Parker thought you were, didn’t he?”
    â€œHe was mistaken. That’s meant for some people, like you and your fiancé. But as for me—” she shrugged, gave her best attempt at a carefree laugh “—I’m meant for something else. Good times. Flings. One-nighters.”
    Charlotte smiled, hooking her arm around the mannequin’s neck. A mane of curly ebony coils bobbed about her shoulders. “Then let discretion be your friend. My parents might not react too kindly to paparazzi catching you taking walks of shame. It won’t reflect so well on the franchise, is what they’d say.”
    â€œSpoken from experience? Who caught you sneaking out of Nate Franco’s place with your panties in your hand?” About this time last year Charlotte had struck up a naughty affair with a fellow trainer—who also happened to be the son of the team’s shady previous owner. A suspension, a resignation and a hell of a lot of drama had ensued, but Joey tried not to linger on that.
    Where her moral compass had guided her, and what she’d done in the name of friendship and for the sake of the law, still weighed on her. Somewhere in the recesses of her thoughts was a sense of dread that whispered her day of reckoning awaited her.
    Maybe the unexplainable feeling that she was being followed wasn’t so crazy, after all. But she wouldn’t tell Charlotte that.
    â€œI’m Marshall and Temperance Blue’s employee first and their daughter second,” Charlotte said. “What’s best for the business prevails over all else.”
    â€œThat is effing depressing.”
    â€œA fact that’s not likely to change, and what you can look forward to, now that you’ve joined the drug prevention initiative. But I predict Ma and Pop will be spending more time at the stadium than at camp. Let’s hope that gives you some breathing room.”
    â€œThey told you I said yes?”
    â€œMa did. Last night we met up with the seamstress for another gown fitting. More alterations to be done. Oh, hang on, I need to download some veil designs.” She plucked her phone from an embossed leather handbag. A couple of taps and swipes and she dropped the phone back inside. “So the reason I found you this morning is about the wedding. You never confirmed that you’d be my maid of honor.”
    Right, that. Charlotte had asked last month and Joey was still stalling. Rejecting the honor would hurt her friend’s feelings. But accepting when all she could imagine was limping down the aisle