Free Always Watching by Lynette Eason

good enough to play, so I didn’t try out. I went home instead.”
    â€œAnd you regret it?”
    â€œVery much so, because now I’ll never know if I could havemade the team or not. I had a lot of friends on the team and missed out on being a part of it.” He hugged her. “I just don’t want you to miss out or feel that way.”
    Amy fell silent, staring over his shoulder at nothing, but he could see her processing his words. “You never told me that,” she finally said.
    â€œI know. It’s not something I like to think about very often.”
    She nodded, then cut her eyes at him. “So this is, like, a teachable moment, huh?”
    He gave a short laugh. “I guess you could call it that.”
    Her lips twitched and he wondered at the sly look in her eyes. “So maybe I should just not do the play, then I’ll have a teachable moment for my kid one day.”
    Wade blinked, then laughed. Out loud. “Amy Rene Savage, you crack me up. No, you should not be thinking of using this as a teachable moment for your kid. Trust me, you’ll have plenty by the time you have children.”
    She grinned at him, then tilted her head. “I’ll think about doing the play. One more question.”
    â€œWhat?”
    All levity faded. “Do you ever think about her?” she asked.
    Justine. He knew who Amy meant. The only woman since his wife’s death who had captured his interest if not necessarily his heart. And then she’d died too, and his world had been shattered once again. Wade’s throat tightened. “Yes.”
    â€œI do too. I miss her.”
    â€œI know you do.”
    â€œDo you still love her?”
    Oh boy. How did he answer that question? Lie? No. Definitely not. “Justine was a good friend, Amy. She understood me—actually we understood each other—and she was crazy about you.”
    â€œBut you were going to marry her so you must have loved her.”
    He frowned at her. “What?”
    â€œI heard you talking about it a couple months before she died. She mentioned you two getting married. You said you thought it might be a good idea. Justine left and you looked confused, so I didn’t say anything about it. So? Would you have married her if she hadn’t died?”
    â€œMaybe.” He cleared the lump from his throat. “I was thinking about it.”
    â€œEven though you didn’t love her?”
    He gave a silent groan. “I did love her in a way. I loved her as a friend, someone I enjoyed being with, spending time with. I thought that might be enough.” He’d married for love once upon a time and that had turned into a disaster. He’d figured why set himself up for more of the same? He decided to keep those thoughts to himself, but he knew that he’d been protecting his heart against the possibility of Justine leaving him like his first wife had. At least that was the conclusion he’d come to during many sleepless nights after her death. Now he was just filled with regrets. Justine had deserved better than that. Heck, he and Amy deserved better.
    â€œWhy did you think that would be enough?” she pressed.
    He sighed. He had no idea how to explain his relationship to Justine to his closest male friend, much less his almost teenage daughter. “I just did.”
    â€œYou’re weird, Dad.”
    â€œYeah. I know.”
    â€œI want to marry someone I’m madly and passionately in love with.” She clasped her hands to her chest, gave a dramatic sigh, and closed her eyes.
    He lifted a brow. “What do you know about being in love?” He left madly and passionately out of it. Her definition ofthose two words in the same sentence probably varied greatly from his. Please, God. Nope, he wasn’t touching that one. Yet. Maybe ever. A pang hit him. These kinds of conversations made him long for a woman who could talk to Amy. Martha loved her niece,