Meant to Be by Jessica James Page B

throw away the affection and
generosity of a man like Rad for money and power. Then she decided
to change the subject. “Wynn and Rad seem really close.”
    “ Yeah, they are.
Inseparable.”
    “ So you’ve known Rad a
long time too?”
    “ I started dating Wynn
about four years ago. It didn’t take me long to learn it was a
package deal.” Heather laughed. “Rad is part of the
package.”
    Lauren smiled. She could feel that
warmth and love from everyone here. It seemed like a very
tight-knit group. If you loved one, you had to love them
all.
    “ Same would be true of you
if you stick with Rad.”
    Lauren glanced up at Heather with a
questioning look, not understanding.
    “ Wynn and I are part of a
package deal.”
    That made Lauren laugh. “Sounds good
to me. Three for the price of one.” She turned over on her side and
propped her head on her hand. “So is this get-together celebrating
something in particular or do you do this all the time?”
    Heather hesitated, as if figuring out
what exactly to say. “No, it’s not exactly a celebration. The guys
are leaving for… some training, so it’s kind of a
send-off.”
    “ That’s nice.” Lauren lay
back on the blanket and put her hands behind her head. “It seems
like everyone gets along… like you’re one big family.”
    Heather grinned. “Yes, some of them
can get a little temperamental at times, but we’re still pretty
tight-knit.” She pointed to some of the other women sitting around
the fire. “I don’t know if you met Molly, the redhead there in the
middle. That’s Tork’s girlfriend. And the brunette on the end is
Connie. That’s Bipp’s better half. They came late.”
    “ Thanks. It’s nice to know
who goes with whom.” Lauren stopped and blinked at her own words.
Why did it matter to her who went with whom? She was leaving in the
morning and would never see these people again. For the first time,
she felt a tug of regret.
    They were both silent for a moment,
listening to the laughter and the low hum of voices around the
campfire as they combined with the gentle pounding of the waves on
the shoreline.
    “ How about you and Rad?
Where’d you meet?” Heather grabbed a towel and threw it across her
legs for warmth. “You two really seem to click.”
    Lauren swallowed hard. “Yeah, we do,”
is all she said.
    “ You seem so comfortable
and at ease with each other.” Heather paused and looked over at
her. “Like you know what the other one is thinking.”
    “ Well, he knows what I’m
thinking, that’s for sure.” Lauren got up and grabbed a beer. “The
other way around, not so much.”
    Heather chuckled. “Yeah, Wynn is the
same way. Pisses me off sometimes.”
    “ Maybe we knew each other
in another life,” Lauren said musingly.
    “ Sometimes it feels like
that.” Heather’s gaze shifted out into the darkness where Wynn and
Rad had disappeared. “It seems like I’ve known Wynn forever. I
don’t know what I’d do without him.”
    “ So when’s your
wedding?”
    “ Next Spring. April…
hopefully.”
    Lauren didn’t have time to question
Heather about what she meant by hopefully.
    “ Hey, girlfriends! What’s
going on?” Annie came up from behind them, carrying her flip flops
in one hand and a small cooler in the other. “I see the guys
deserted us.”
    “ Yeah, they should be back
soon.” Heather patted the chair. “We saved your seat.”
    Lauren smiled. She worked
almost exclusively with men and did not recall ever having any
female acquaintances she would call friends . The women she did come in
contact with were, for the most part, catty, spiteful, and shallow.
Yet these two women were not like that at all. They appeared
intelligent, sensible, and kind, and had accepted her as one of
them—part of the family.
    Annie sat down and opened the cooler.
“How about a wine cooler, girls? I’m sick of beer.” She gave one to
Heather, but Lauren shook her head and held up her bottle. “Still
working on this,