Free Wildflower (Colors #4) by Jessica Prince Page B

hoping my face didn’t betray me as I caught Navie’s denim-colored gaze and pasted on a happy smile.
    “I’m so happy for you, babe.” And it was true. If there was one person I knew in my life that deserved the utmost happiness, it was Navie. So the loneliness gnawing at me from the inside was an unwelcome feeling.
    “Thanks, honey. How are you? How was your Thanksgiving?”
    “It was good. I woke up early and made the entire meal from scratch—”
    “Wait…” she interrupted, her face transforming into an expression of terror. “You cooked ?”
    “Yes,” I answered on a huff. “Is that so hard to believe?”
    “Oh, God. Is Ethan okay? Is he alive?”
    “It wasn’t that bad!” I yelped as Navie burst into a fit of contagious giggles. “Okay, so it was that bad. But no one ended the night dead and/or hospitalized.”
    “Well that’s a bonus.” Her laughter trailed off and, from the look of concern in her eyes, I knew what was coming next and did my best to brace for it. “I’ve given you time, sweetheart,” she said sympathetically.
    “I know.”
    “But I have to ask. It’s time.”
    I sucked in a deep breath and released it with an, “I know that, too.”
    “God, Harlow. You were married? Why didn’t you ever tell me?”
    “Because I’m embarrassed about it,” I admitted weakly. “Who wants to openly admit that they were divorced by the age of nineteen because they were careless and made some pretty epic mistakes?”
    Navie’s face grew fierce as she declared, “You know you never have to be embarrassed about anything, Harlow. Not with me. Never with me.”
    She was right, I knew that. And the knowledge that I’d kept something like that from her made me feel small. “I’m sorry.”
    “It’s okay, I just wish I’d have known. You were always there for me. You never gave me the chance to return the favor.”
    Guilt washed through me as I thought about how my and Navie’s friendship started. When we met our freshman year at NYU, she was this scared, broken girl who had convinced herself she wasn’t worthy of love. Growing up in foster care all her life had taken a serious toll on her self-confidence, but I’d seen something in her from the very first day, and I was determined to be her friend. It took a while for her to open up to me, but once she finally did, it solidified our friendship, making it the strongest I’d had since Chloe.
    “What happened?” she coaxed gently.
    “I got pregnant,” I confessed in a quiet voice. “I was seventeen, just a few months from turning eighteen. Noah’s parents were these super-strict religious folks who demanded we get married because we couldn’t have a baby out of wedlock.”
    “Oh, God,” Navie gasped, her hand coming up to cover her mouth.
    “We were young and immature, and we thought we were so in love and were going to be together forever, you know?” I laughed humorlessly, trying to stop the tears that built in my eyes. “It was a mistake. We never should have gotten married, Navie. We had no idea how to be grownups.”
    “But what… what happened?”
    I kept my eyes downcast as I relived that part of my life. “I lost the baby.” At that, the tears broke free. It wasn’t because I was still eaten up about the miscarriage. It was painful and heartbreaking when it happened, but it had been years and I’d managed to move on. But the weight of everything that had happened around that same time; the loss of the baby, my marriage ending, the love I thought Noah and I had for each other crumbling, it all still sat heavy on my chest when I opened myself up enough to think about that time in my life.
    “Oh, Harlow.” At the sound of Navie’s voice, I was pulled from the past back into the present. Looking at the screen, I saw her deep blue eyes filled with tears. I couldn’t have that. I couldn’t have her crying for me. We had exciting news we were supposed to be celebrating.
    “I’m fine,” I offered. “Seriously,