I'm Not Afraid of Wolves (The Cotton Candy Quintet Book 4) Read Online Free Page B

the four of us made quite the group. I’d been worried about not fitting in with Sara’s friends, but it seemed like we’d been doing great.
    I checked the time on my otherwise worthless phone. 10:05pm. I wondered if everyone was in bed. Or if I could find Sara and ask her what’s up.
    “It’s pretty, isn’t it?”
    I looked up to see Andrea standing in the doorway. This was the first time she and I were able to talk alone, mano a mano .
    I grinned at her. “I agree with Sara—why would you ever go back to Atlanta? When you have all this?”
    She chuckled and took another chair next to mine. “I suppose I could get satellite internet and work freelance for a few clients to make a living. But…” She sighed. “I think I would die without a Thai restaurant nearby. Or a mall.”
    I laughed. “Yeah, that is one of the drawbacks.”
    “Plus, my boyfriend works in Atlanta, so that would put a damper on things.”
    “That it would. Long distance is hard.” Not that I’d ever had the chance to really experience it myself. Shane had been overbearing, making me feel claustrophobic. Long distance never figured into our relationship.
    “Is there anyone special for you?” Andrea asked. “Back in…?”
    “Jacksonville?” I finished for her. “Nah. I used to be married, but that ended.”
    “Oh,” she said with a frown.
    “It was a good thing,” I corrected her. “I got out of a bad situation.”
    “Makes me appreciate Reggie all the more,” Andrea said after a time. “You have to hold onto the good ones.”
    “Yeah, you do.”
    “Officer Donnelly sure took an interest in you,” she said playfully.
    “So you know him?” I asked with a grin.
    “Oh yeah,” she said, stretching in her chair. “Big guy. Doesn’t talk too much.”
    “He seemed nice.”
    “And hot,” Sara added, diverting both of our attention to her as she came out on the deck. “Mind if I join you?”
    “Not at all,” I said, taking another sip of wine.
    She shut the sliding door behind her and looked out over the railing. “Emily already conked out. I think she had too much.”
    Andrea chuckled. “She can NOT pace herself.”
    “My case won’t last at this rate,” Sara said in a mock-mournful tone.
    “Neither will my books,” I said, holding the paperback up.
    “Hey,” Andrea said, “we’re here to relax. No worrying about running out of stuff. We really are only about forty minutes from civilization. We’ll be fine.”
    “Yeah,” Sara said distractedly. “Yeah, we will be fine.”
    Her words hung in the air, and I wondered if Andrea picked up the melancholy in them. I watched my sister, and now that I was paying attention, I could see the lines of worry in her face, how she masked everything with her boisterous personality.
    I realized then how much I had missed her over the years. I missed how a lot of things were in the past.
    Finally, after what seemed to be an eternity, Andrea stretched and yawned. “Well,” she said. “At the risk of sounding like an old grandma, I think I’m going to go to bed. After all, I’m supposed to relax, right?”
    I nodded, glad that this could be my moment alone with Sara. “Yep.”
    Andrea got up from her chair while stifling another yawn. “I’ll see you guys in the morning,” she said.
    “Night!” I called after her.
    “Good night,” Sara said softly.
    When the sliding door locked, I turned my gaze onto Sara and watched her, waiting for her to bring up her story. I wanted her to be the one who talked first, if only because I didn’t want to prod her too much if she was traumatized by whatever this was.
    But if she was going to try to weasel her way out of talking to me, she had another thing coming.
    “Wow,” she murmured softly. “Look at that full moon.”
    I picked up a note of fear in her voice. “Yeah,” I said cautiously. “It’s beautiful.”
    “I used to think so.” Sara turned around and looked back at me. Her eyes were wide with fright and the