Free The Loss (Heartache series #1) by Vicki Green Page B

time telling Jase goodbye, but he was sweet and didn’t ask any questions. I felt his lips kiss my forehead, and I swear I can still feel them now. I hit my Bluetooth and call Hailey on the way home.
    “Girl! Where in the hell have you been? I’ve been trying to get ahold of you since yesterday.” Silence and then a sigh. “Are you okay?” The sadness in her voice breaks my heart. What a shit friend I am.
    “I’m okay. Hey, what’re you doing for dinner tonight?” I try to sound uplifting but not sure it’s working.
    “Uh, having dinner with you?” I can hear the smile in her voice, and I relax.
    “Yes, you are. Come over to Moms at six. Don’t be late!” She laughs and agrees then I hang up as I turn the corner onto my street. Bill’s rental car is in the driveway, and I take a deep breath as I pull in beside it. As I get out of the car and walk up the short sidewalk the front door opens, and I stop.
    “Sweetheart, glad you’re home. Come here,” Mom says with a smile. I walk up the two small steps and into her arms. She hugs me tight, and I feel safe. “I made your favorite tuna fish salad. Come eat.” I give her a smile and loop my arm through hers as we walk into the house. I don’t see Bill anywhere as we walk down the short hallway then into the kitchen.
    “Where’s Dad and Bill?” I sit down at the table and watch her busy herself getting plates and the bowl from the fridge.
    “Oh, Bill wanted to see the new office building downtown so Dad drove him. Men! I swear! Who cares about a stupid building?” She brings everything over and sits down next to me, filling my plate with tuna fish salad and plops some crackers down too. My favorite! She fixes her own as I start to put some on a cracker and take a bite. Yum! You’d think I wouldn’t be hungry, but suddenly I am. “So, you know I don’t pry in your business but Bill was pretty upset last night when you didn’t come home.” I stop chewing and look over at her as she takes a bite of her own. She lays her arm on the table, still holding her spoon with tuna fish on it and looks over at me sighing. “Just the strangest thing. I got the feeling that instead of being worried, which he had no reason to be anyway, he acted more like he was…. mad.” She puts the tuna fish on another cracker and takes a bite. I’m frozen, waiting for her to speak again. “You know. We don’t know Bill very well yet but why would he be mad when you’re home visiting your friends, the place you grew up where everyone knows you?” She looks down and starts scooping more onto another cracker. “It’s not like you’re in a big city where you could get into trouble. I just don’t understand, I guess.”
    I set my spoon down on my plate, along with my cracker, and lean over, putting my head against her shoulder. “Oh, Mom. I was with Jase last night.” My eyes look up until I can see her face. I expected to see shock on it, but instead there was a smile. I feel her hand against the side of my head patting it. 
    “I figured either that or you were with Hailey but then she called me looking for you. There’s nothing wrong with catching up with your best friend, honey.” I lower my eyebrows and frown. “But it’s more than that, isn’t it?”
    I sit back up and sigh loudly. “It’s complicated. Everything’s so complicated. I wish we could go back to the days when we all were together, hanging out, and playing ball. Why does everything have to change?” I feel like a whiny teenager again.
    She reaches across and pats my arm. “Change can be good or bad. It’s what you do with it.” I look into her loving eyes and feel their warmth. “Sometimes we make the wrong choices but you know what?” My eyes widen with her wisdom, and I’m anxious for her to finish. “The good thing about those is we can change them to the right ones. It just takes some strength, some support and some determination.” She sits back and picks up her cracker and spoon,