Free Beneath the Surface by Gracie C. McKeever Page B

around her waist and leaned close to her ear, slowly tracing the outer shell with his tongue, and creaming her panties when he whispered, “Let’s go find out.”
    That night was the beginning. Not of hand-in-hand moonlit walks and whispered sweet nothings, but the foundation of a friendship that was based on more than just sex.
    The sex was good. The sex was great, just not the end-all and be-all. Jade wouldn’t have stuck around all these years if she had believed the relationship was all about sex and not shared interests and likes or similar senses of humor.
    Not that she’d been sitting at home twiddling her thumbs nights.
    She and EJ were not exclusive, though he was one of the most stable and constant forces in her thirty-four-year-old existence. No matter what was going on in her life, or where she was, she always found herself drifting back to him and him drifting to her.

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    Gracie C. McKeever
    Jade hated the terminology, had never thought of herself as much of a “drifter.”
    She was a determined individual with purpose and goals, and when she put her sights on something, she wound up walking away with the prize.
    Somewhere along the line she had gotten sidetracked, dropping her guard and forgetting to protect her borders against outside interferences. Interferences like Ms.
    Uptight Personal Shopper.
    She was going to have to step up her program and face the challenge; she hadn’t faced one in a while outside of her job, and decided she needed the practice. After all, nothing worth having was easy to get.
    And Jade Aliberti always got what she wanted. Always.

    * * * *
Evelyn couldn’t wait to get back to her office to call Angela, had almost dialed her on her cell from the car, but decided against it as conversations between her and her sisters tended toward the gesticulating emotional side, especially when they were discussing family matters.
    She touched base with her secretary, Daphne, as soon as she got back to the office, picked up her messages and made a few phone calls to her clients before telling Daphne she didn’t want any interruptions for at least the next half-hour, and shutting herself in her office. She was glad she pulled in the type of commissions and had the rank that warranted such freedom, but knew she earned every unchecked moment.
    Angela interrupted the answering machine and picked up just as Evelyn prepared to leave a message. Evelyn understood why the delay when she heard the ruckus in the background. It sounded like her two nieces were giving their mom a way to go.
    “The purchase price of my two youngest has just gone down to fifty cents a piece,” Angela said and Evelyn chuckled. She imagined Danni and Tina tying their mother to a homemade stake in the backyard of their suburban ranch house before they unraveled Angela to let her answer the phone.
    “Oh, don’t you laugh, auntie . They’re just like you were when we were coming up.”
    “Come on now, I wasn’t that bad. Besides, you used to love my tagging along when we were kids.”
    “True, true.”
    Evelyn wasn’t surprised by her sister’s ready agreement.
    Angela had never made any bones about wanting kids of her own since she was a kid herself, the maternal instinct burning bright in her from kindergarten on. She’d practiced her mothering skills on her dolls and her younger siblings every chance she got.
    Evelyn remembered many a day of Angela visiting a girlfriend’s house for a play date with Evelyn and EJ in tow in their little red wagon. She’d gotten a lot of pre-teen raised eyebrows and a few cancelled play dates, but it never deterred her from bringing along any of her brothers and sisters who wanted to come along for a ride. Angie’s motto: 44
    Beneath the Surface
    take me, take my brothers and sisters. “So what were they doing to get you all flustered before I called?” Evelyn asked now.
    “The usual. Valentina’s teasing Danielle about a crush this boy at school has on her, and Danielle’s