Page 38 of If You Say So

“Okay,” I shrugged.

Riel’s eyes narrowed.

“Come on,” Captain Morgan ordered, gesturing to me. “You can come keep ol’ whiner over here

company.”

Captain Morgan grabbed my purse that I had sitting on the counter and left, leaving me no choice

but to follow.

“Whiner?” I asked quietly.

“Apparently I bitched and moaned too much about coming here,” he muttered darkly as we

walked toward the seat.

There was already a chick putting the extra leaf in the table, and another pulling up an extra chair.

I was sat on the end between Riel and a woman that I should know the name of but didn’t.

I sat down and offered her a smile.

“I should know your name,” I admitted as I reluctantly took my seat. “But I can’t remember.”

She smiled sadly. “My name is Piper. I grew up with Luca.”

I nodded once.

That was where I knew her.

Luca had a lot of friends that he’d grown up with, and if I wasn’t mistaken, Piper had a twin and a younger sister that looked exactly like her.

“Nice to see you again,” I lied.

It wasn’t nice to see her.

In fact, it brought up the painful memories of the last time that I had seen her.

Luca had taken me to a party at the ‘compound.’ The place where the men of Free and their

families had lived. I’d met a ton of people that day, and Piper, if I wasn’t mistaken, had been a major influencer in Luca deciding to sign on for another four years of service to the Navy.

And look where that got him.

I shut off that vicious thought in my head, knowing that it would take me nowhere good.

Seriously, if there was one thing that I knew I didn’t need to do, it was play the blame game.

Piper didn’t realize that she’d influenced Luca at all.

And even then, Luca was a grown-ass adult when he’d re-upped.

Piper nodded her head soberly.

“It’s good to see you looking well.” She nervously fidgeted with her shirt.

I did snort at that.

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