Wildflower (Colors #4) by Jessica Prince

babe. It was a long time ago. It sucked when it happened, but I’ve gotten over it. I swear.”
    She looked at me with uncertainty as I tried to convince her that I’d moved past it all.
    “That’s not really something you get over, honey.”
    My skin began to prickle with unease as she focused on me. I felt like I’d been placed under a microscope and she was searching for whatever she could find to prove I was lying to her and myself; that I still carried that hurt with me.
    I wasn’t broken, not in the way Navie had been growing up, but there was no denying that I was a little cracked. I’d just had several years of practice covering that crack up. But being back in Pembrooke, seeing Noah again, it proved that my patch job might not have been as sturdy as I’d hoped.
    I forced my voice to be strong as I told her, “I’m trying. That’s all I can do, right?”
    She gave me a resolute nod. “Right.”
    I blinked my eyes rapidly, trying to stave off the flow of tears that were threatening to break through. “Please don’t ask me about the baby, okay? It’s not that I still carry that around with me, but it’s just… it’s not something I like talking about, okay?”
    “All right,” she whispered.
    “He was here,” I forced myself to admit. I felt like I had a heavy weight sitting on top of me, keeping me from taking a full breath and the only thing I could do to breathe normally was talk about it. “At dinner last night. Ethan invited him.”
    There were those types of friends who thrived on gossip, who wanted the juicy details of every dramatic situation. Then there were those like Navie, the kind that instinctively knew how far they could dig before it was time to pull back. The kind that put aside their desire to ask questions in order to give their friends what they needed most. So instead of foaming at the mouth for the nitty-gritty on Noah, she simply asked, “And you’re okay?”
    That was the thing about Navie Collins, she always seemed to know exactly what I needed. And that’s what she gave me.
    “Yeah,” I replied honestly. “I am. It’s still strange, seeing him, being around him. But it was… nice.”
    “And we like nice, right? We can handle nice?”
    “We can handle nice,” I grinned. “I’m not going to hold my breath that I’ll always be okay around him, but for now… yeah, I’ll take nice over awkward.”
    “You know I’m here for you if you ever need me, don’t you?”
    “I know, sweetie. And I love you for that.”
    “I love you too. And I’m just a phone call or plane ride away. You call, I’m there.”
    I smiled sincerely at my friend’s fierce determination. “Just like that?”
    “Just like that. Benefits of marrying a dude with money is I can purchase last minute plane tickets whenever I want.”
    At that, I laughed. “Good to know. Now can we please talk about your wedding? No more heavy, okay? I’m officially maxed out on my daily dose of heavy.”
    Navie’s eyes narrowed before she finally relented. “I’ll give you that play,” she told me, pointing her finger at the screen. “But only because I’m getting married, so I should automatically be the center of attention.”
    I smiled at her teasing grin. “Only if you promise I get to be a bridesmaid.”
    “Of course!” she shouted. Then we spent the next hour talking about all things wedding. I told her about Chloe and her bakery, convincing her that a trip to Pembrooke for the sole purpose of a pastry from Sinful Sweets alone was totally worth it. I told her about my potential job teaching photography. We talked about how Rowan proposed and how her foster brother, Carson, had taken it. I laughed my ass off as she went into detail about how he’d put Rowan in a headlock while shoving dinner rolls in his mouth and shouting “ choke on it, bitch !”To say that Navie’s brother and Rowan had a tumultuous relationship was putting it mildly.
    By the time I hung up, that sadness in the pit of