Free Something Worth Saving by Chelsea Landon Page B

filling orders in the back, so I tended to the register. When there weren’t any customers, I righted displays and watched the fire trucks as they pulled in and out, sirens and lights blazing and then silent upon their return.
    Brooke stopped by and said she’d just stopped by the firehouse, and was now on her way to get Amelia from school but wanted to check on me. “What happened last night? I thought you guys went out?”
    My head throbbed just thinking about it. “Yeah, first Ridley stopped by, and then my mom called. I didn’t tell him right away, so he was pissed.”
    “It’s just like him to be like that.” Brooke laughed, a light chuckle. “He doesn’t like to not know things.”
    That I knew. From the time I’d met Jace until now, I knew that. As did Brooke.
    “Do you and Logan ever fight?” I asked with an exasperated sigh. There’s nothing worse than thinking you’re alone, and right then, I felt like the only person with problems.
    Why is it that you feel slightly better when you know someone else has, or is, going through what you are?
    “Yeah.” Brooke shrugged, the motion endearing, as if she didn’t like to discuss their problems, if they had any. “Not heated arguments, but we don’t always get along. We fight just like every other couple out there.”
    It was hard to imagine that they did, but again, to say people never fight is unrealistic in terms of what life really is. No one has the perfect relationship, and no one is perfect themselves. We lie, cheat, steal, beg, sin, whatever you want to call our fault, we all have them. They just present themselves in different ways.
    Now look at me — was I trying to convince myself that nobody was perfect to make my own life seem better?
    Maybe a little.
    Before Jace, I had never felt that kind of fire or love. Never. I often wondered if it even existed and, more so, if I would ever find it.
    Before Jace, my experience had only been Ridley.
    Jace was the more experienced of the two of us, having been in a couple of relationships. Both ended badly.
    That got me thinking — would that be us eventually?
    Look at me. I’ve completely lost myself.
    “Did any of the night go okay?” Brooke asked, taking me from those thoughts and throwing me into a whole new set.
    Flashes of that night came back. The way he undressed me with his eyes at dinner. The subtle touches at dinner, and the way he took what he wanted in his truck.
    I also thought about his glare when my mom called, how quickly his mood changed, and the emptiness between us that night.
    When Brooke was in the shop, she couldn’t help but assist us. Creative by nature, she designed most of our flyers and special order forms. Picture rustic primitive designs with dark browns, reds, creams, and blues. We had a little bit of a country American theme.
    As I watched her, I wondered if she ever felt like this. So lost. “Do you ever wake up and wonder how your life got like this?”
    Brooke looked at me, her perfect button nose wrinkled at the bridge. “No.”
    Sometimes it was hard to talk to Brook about this crap. I knew she understood to an extent and did her best to empathize with me, but she really didn’t understand.
    Logan could be a foul-mouthed wise-cracking guy at the station, but he wasn’t like that around Brooke for the most part.
    “I know you think my life is perfect, and I don’t understand why.” Brooke gave me a side-eyed glance.
    Okay .
    Apparently she’s as perceptive as Jace. “I haven’t . . . let’s just say I’m more of the type of person who looks for the silver lining.”
    I laughed. “We saw that movie last night.”
    Shanna walked up front from the back room as a giggle escaped Brooke, her hand covering her mouth to capture it. “I know. The guys were giving Jace crap about it.”
    “Wasn’t his choice.” Moving from the round table display in the center of our large shop, I added, “I tried to get him to see Breaking Dawn with me, but he said