Page 3 of Trip

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JJ

To say JJ was nervous was an understatement. It was like that anytime she had to spend extended time with Meri and the kids. The weight of secrets was crushing, but worse, the weight of a lie.

Not to mention the picture that would be there taunting her with how life could’ve been, if not for Jake.

The father of Meri’s children and the reason she’s not Mrs. Cristofer James Adams. Cris had been leaving for basic and she’d known he had a ring in his pocket to replace the promise one he’d given her the year before. Meri blabbed. But by the end of the week at the cabin, nothing was ever the same.

Meri announced her pregnancy, Cris found out what he thought was the truth about her and Jake, and it left her with a shattered heart.

Doing these cabin getaways with her best friend and kids was still tough after all the years that had passed. The saving grace of it all was she didn’t have to face Jake or Cris ever again.

Not a day passed in the last decade that she didn’t think of Cris, she missed him, longed for him. That was why she had a string of failed relationships and a marriage that didn’t even make it from the “I do’s” to the filing of the papers.

JJ tried. She really did. Even went through a year and a half where she slept with every guy who gave her the time of day, trying to recapture something that was long gone.

Cris had been her first everything, and there was no replacement for that. Even though she tried to find one.

She looked down and nope, still couldn’t see her feet without leaning forward. Other than sex, she’d also turned to food. She wasn’t to where her health was a concern, but she was definitely fat according to men, bitchy coworkers, and gym ads.

“Lucky for me, I’m well proportioned.” That’s how she’d landed a job as a plus-sized model. It was the first shot of happiness she’d glimpsed since Cris branded her with the scarlet letter and left for the Army.

Standing on the porch of the cabin in the wee hours of the morning, she called Meri as instructed.

“Hello, gorgeous.”

“Don’t hello gorgeous me. Where is the damn key? I’m freezing my tits off out here and since they’re literally my best asset, I can’t afford that.”

“First, JJ, they are not your best asset. You are a lot more than a great rack and an ass that makes men beg.”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah. I have a sparkling disposition and a sunny personality. Now, where the hell is the key and why couldn’t you just text me?”

“Because you’re my best friend and I wanted to make sure you got to Tahoe safely. Did you? Is the driver already gone?”

JJ turned and watched the red taillights fade into the distance. “Yeah, I should’ve just driven myself. Now I’m stuck here until you show up. Which is soon, right?”

“Yeah, about that. I got tapped for holiday shifts, so the soonest I can make it is Christmas morning. But don’t worry, the cabin is all stocked up. One more thing—”

“Can it wait until I’m inside? Where the fuck is the key? The snow is really coming down now.”

“There’s a key in the snowman’s hat and another above the door. One should be there.”

JJ reached up and felt the ledge. No key. “Shouldn’t they both be here?” Lifting Frosty’s hat revealed what she was looking for. She inserted it on the fourth try and turned the knob.

Something about her friend’s entire attitude was off. Add in the tremor in her voice and the wording about keys and JJ’s suspicion ratcheted up. “Why is the key above the door not—”

“Jessika. I can’t take it anymore. You two can’t. Ten years is a long time for the two people I love most, outside of my kids, to be miserable. I don’t know what happened, but it has to end.”

JJ didn’t bother correcting her friend for using her proper name. She was too emotionally charged to do it without being a bitch. She’d dropped that name when she tried to shed the past.

The bag slipped from JJ’s hand, landing with a soft thud on the porch. The sleeping figure on the couch, barely wrapped in a towel, didn’t move at the sound. She reached forward and closed the door softly. “What have you done?” she whispered in horror.

“What I’ve done is give you two a chance to hash out your shit. I don’t care if you end up beating the crap out of each other or fucking like bunnies. Either way, it ends this Christmas. Personally, I’d love for my two best friends to end up together, but if that’s not how it plays out, we all live with it. What I can’t live with is seeing the two of you pine away for each other when you’re both right there in Vegas. As a matter of fact, you live seven-point-two miles from him. How you haven’t run into each other is beyond me. Instead, I had to go above and beyond to get you both to Tah—”

“Stop bragging. This is serious, Meri. I can’t go in there and face him. You don’t understand. I can’t face him and hide the truth, I never could.”

“Then don’t, sweetie, let it all out. It’s time.”

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