Free Liam: Branded Brothers by Raen Smith

class to ensure she made it on
time, and just like that, they became friends. Jill was the only friend Charla
had.
    “You could have been waiting all day,” Jill said with a
smile, poking her head up from the menu.
    Charla shook her head and waved a waitress over. “No
kidding. You’re going to be late for your own funeral.”
    “And wedding most likely,” Jill quipped. “Unless you do your
job and get me there on time.”
    “That’s what maids of honor are for, right?” she said
quietly. After Jill had found out about Charla’s broken engagement to Rex, she
refused to talk about her wedding, but Charla insisted she talk about it even
though every mention felt like tiny razor blade cuts on her skin. She should be getting married, just like Jill. “I won’t let you down.”
    “Rex is a cheating, lying, scumbag,” Jill reminded her.
Charla looked up to see her best friend’s adamant eyes. “Remember that.
Scumbag. You’re lucky you’re not marrying him.”
    “I know,” Charla replied. “It can still hurt though, can’t
it?”
    “Hell yes, it can still hurt, but you’ll find someone else.
Someone who will treat you right. Someone who won’t get blowjobs from some
floozy blonde. Someone who will love you unconditionally, crappy Corolla and
all,” Jill said with a smile. She reached out her hand and gave Charla’s a
tight squeeze. “Where’s the list?”
    “I don’t want to…” Charla said, shaking her head as a
red-bobbed waitress in her fifties appeared next to them.
    “What can I get you ladies today?” The waitress grabbed a
pen from the back of her ear and held it above her pad of paper.
    “Tell my friend she’s beautiful, and she deserves more than
a cheating scumbag for a fiancé,” Jill said.
    The waitress leaned against the table, looking down at
Charla with sympathetic eyes. “Honey, you’re beautiful. You don’t deserve a cheating
scumbag for a fiancé. Trust me, I had one of those. I was married to a lying
sack of shit who stole my money and ran off with a blonde half my age.”
    “Why is it always a blonde?” Charla lamented.
    “Hey,” Jill said, pointing to her honey yellow hair.
    “I’m just saying,” Charla defended with a shrug. “It’s
always the blondes.”
    “Whatever. I’ll have a Greek salad with the dressing on the
side and a water with a slice of lemon,” Jill said, closing the menu. “And for
the record, I’m not one of the blondes who steals other men.”
    “I’ll take the same,” Charla said to the waitress. “And
thank you. As sad as it is, I’m happy to hear I’m not alone.”
    “You’re never alone, honey. We’re all in this together,” she
replied before she leaned in closer to Charla, “At least the brunettes are.”
She tapped the pad on the counter and chuckled before she walked away.
    “What?” Charla shrugged her shoulders at Jill’s accusing
eyes and laughed.
    “Get out your sheet of paper,” Jill ordered. “I’m going to
keep making you do this every time you get those sad puppy dog eyes. You look
like you didn’t get any sleep last night, you know that? You’re skin’s flat and
your eyes are glassy. You need a B12 shot?”
    “I’m fine,” Charla said. Jill was a fanatic about
supplements and keeping her body in tip-top shape and it showed. She had the
body of a Greek Goddess, not too thin but not too muscular. She took her
profession and health to a level of dedication beyond Charla’s comprehension.
    “And you’re okay with Jack and everything?”
    “I had the nightmare again last night,” Charla said quietly,
leaning across the table. “I’ve had it every night since Jack died. Something
about watching Jack died stirred up that memory. No matter how hard I tried to
erase it from my mind, I can’t.”
    Jill was the only other person that knew the truth about
that night.
    “Charla,” Jill said, reaching over to grab her hand. “It was
too late anyway. There was nothing you could have done.”
    Charla