Up in Flames (Crash and Burn, Book Two) (A Military Romance) by Eva Grayson Read Free Book Online Page A

going to take a couple this summer and probably finish my degree in the fall.”
    I give her a high five. “Holy shit, congrats! You’re on a roll.” I dig into my pasta salad. “We should go out tonight to celebrate. Margaritas at One Tequila?”
    Her beaming smile turns to a low flush on her cheeks. Her mouth quirks. “Dane and I are going to dinner tonight, but maybe next week?” She pauses and sucks in a breath, dropping her hands to her lap. “We talked last night. He told me he thinks we should move in together at the end of the month.”
    “And how do you feel about that?”
    Her eyes brighten. “Excited. I mean, I spend most nights over there anyway. And when I’m not there, I just lie in bed missing him.” Her soft sigh makes my heart melt…and simultaneously pinch in envy. God, I want that.
    A pair of warm, familiar dark eyes flash in my mind, and I blink away that thought. Nope. This is about her, not about me and Cole. “Sounds wonderful,” I say. “I’d love to have that too.”
    She reaches over and strokes my forearm, her brow furrowing. “Hey, you okay? You seem…off lately. I keep meaning to ask you but I don’t want to pry. But I’m not being a good friend if I don’t let you know I’m concerned—and that I’m here for you.”
    My throat tightens. Good friend. That’s the crux of my issue, isn’t it? How to go back to being a good friend when every single square inch of me, from my skin to my lungs to my stupid heart, wants more.
    I exhale. Then I spill it all out—about the incidents with Cole, about my sister (glossing over our disastrous past; that’s still too hard to confess to anyone), about my confusing feelings. The whole time, she stays quiet, letting me blab on.
    When I’m done, the silence stretches between us for a moment. At the tables around us in the lunchroom, people are laughing and talking and eating. I, on the other hand, feel like I just puked my guts up on our table.
    Emme finally says in an even tone, “Wow. That’s a lot of stuff to happen in a week.”
    I blow out a laugh. “Yeah, tell me about it. I don’t know what to do. I don’t know the right thing to tell Christina so she doesn’t hate me forever for what’s happened. Even if I tell her we’re just friends now, it’s gonna weigh between us, regardless if nothing happens with her and Cole.”
    She leans forward. “Do you want to be just friends with him?”
    I pause, swallow. Shake my head. It’s the truth, and I need to tell it to someone. Need to admit it to myself. I’m spending all this energy telling myself we should be just friends, but deep down I know I want more. I have to stop lying to myself about it. It’s probably crazy, and it might be suicide for our friendship, but the more time passes, the more I want to give it a shot. I don’t know how Cole feels, but I have a suspicion he might want the same thing. That this isn’t just physical for him.
    Her face softens in sympathy. “What a hard spot for you. I’m sorry. Can I offer a bit of advice?”
    “God, please. Yes.”
    “It sounds like you really care about your sister and don’t want her to get hurt. But if you can’t help the way you feel about Cole, then you can’t help it. Christina’s happiness is important, of course, but it shouldn’t come before yours. And I think she’d expect that, especially if she cares about you too. It would probably hurt her to know you’re struggling this hard over the situation.”
    “Yeah, probably,” I say. It’s too uncomfortable for me to face the reason why she still has justification to hang on to her bitterness toward me. The fact that she let it go and has worked on rebuilding a relationship with me…well, I don’t deserve it, but I’m grateful for it anyway. “I’m just scared that I’m going to screw things up with her.” And push her away for good.
    “You’re not doing this to be cruel. Christina might be upset at first, but I think after she mulls it over,