Free Bound to Surrender (South Jersey Bound Series) by Tess Lamont

Ben’s best man?” Lisa asked.
    Jillie’s cheeks pinked. “I bet he’s...you know...into stuff.”
    Lisa cocked her head to the side and nodded. “Seems plenty alpha to me.”
    Christina bit her lip. Jil was going to risk her pride to get what Christina already had.
    Ben had grown up with her and Jillie and Eric, but Lisa had come into their lives through Ben, so Lisa probably didn’t know about Jillie’s life-long crush on Eric. Jil was laying it all on the line.
    “This is huge,” Christina said.
    The waitress delivered the shots.
    “Lisa is marrying Ben,” Jillie said, “and you are having hot, wild sex with...”
    “Bryce,” Christina supplied.
    “Ooh, nice name,” Lisa said.
    “I know,” Christina replied.
    “Hey,” Jillie interrupted. “As I was saying, if you all can do it, so can I. I’m gonna get my man.”
    Her man. In her mind, Christina kneeled at Bryce’s feet while he placed a warm and comforting hand on her head. If she could trust him with her pain, why couldn’t she trust him with her heart?
    Lisa lifted her shot. “To bright red bottoms.”
    “And the men who get us there,” Jillie added.
    Christina lifted her shot.
    To Bryce.
    She knocked back her drink.
    And the messy, scary start of a new life.
    ****
    Christina needed to talk to her son before she braved seeing Bryce. Unfortunately, Michael hadn’t answered his cell, and when she’d tried his other number, his father had picked up.
    “Tell Mike I called when he gets in, would you?” she asked her ex.
    Joe was silent for a long moment. “Do you have anything you want to tell me about?”
    “What’s that supposed to mean?”
    “Nothing, I just thought maybe... Oh, never mind. How have things been going?”
    “Fine,” she answered warily. “How is Marie?” Two years and she could finally say his new wife’s name without feeling nauseous.
    “Good. She and Michael have called a truce.”
    “Really?” Christina thought she would feel jealous, but the lightness in her heart seemed more akin to relief. “How did that happen?”
    “Softball.”
    “What?”
    “Soft. Ball,” he enunciated.
    “I heard you,” she said, rolling her eyes.
    “When Marie was in high school, her team made it to the state championship. They’ve been trading war stories.”
    Great. Athletes.
    “Christina?”
    She didn’t like the sound of his voice...too serious.
    “Are you going to be okay when Michael goes to boarding school?”
    She’d been avoiding thinking about it, knowing she’d have a few weeks with Michael in August. “I’m putting off dealing with it.”
    “Avoidance is what you do best.”
    “Good-bye, Joe.”
    “Wait. Sorry, I shouldn’t have baited you. There is something I want to say.”
    Christina cocked her head. “Yes?”
    “You did a good job raising Mike.”
    Whoa . No words came. A funny sensation burned behind her eyes.
    “I know you and I have had our differences,” Joe said. “But Michael is amazing. He’s really good at communicating, and he never shies away from difficult things. I just said you avoid things, but that’s really not true.”
    Christina threw up her wall. “You just feel guilty about putting me through this boarding school thing.”
    “This school’s going to give him opportunities we can’t. But if you truly have concerns, let’s talk.”
    Pain seared through Christina’s chest. She pressed her lips together and waited for it to pass. She pictured her son the night he’d told her he wanted to give boarding school a try.
    “No. Michael wants to go.” As she said the words, she knew they were true.
    “That doesn’t mean it’s going to be easy for you.”
    Christina pulled the phone away from her ear and looked at it as if it were broken. Who was this man? Not the Joe she knew.
    “Christina?”
    This was just too weird. “I, um, gotta go.”
    “One more thing.”
    “What’s that?”
    “Relationships can work sometimes. Just because I was an ass doesn’t mean you