Read Away From You (Back To You Book 2) for Free Online Page B

the straps of my black heels, grimacing. My feet already hurt and we’d
only just arrived. Another mental note for the next ball – wear heels
that were already broken in.
    “Yours,
too?” Ellie asked, nodding at my feet.
    I blew out a
breath. “Beauty is pain?”
    Matt shook
his head and took a swig of his beer. “Maybe you should have picked more
comfortable shoes.”
    “I can’t
wear Nikes with my ball gown, dear.” I glared at him.
    “You could,”
a voice from behind us spoke up, “or you could wear these fancy numbers.”
    I turned
around to see a female Marine. She gestured to her feet, so I looked down and
smiled at her shiny black pumps with less than a two-inch heel. She wore them
with black nylons and a knee-length skirt, as per the female dress uniform. If
anyone could make that uniform look pretty and feminine, she could.
    “They
certainly look more comfortable than mine.” I allowed with a grin.
    Matt and
Spencer both greeted the pretty blonde woman warmly but with respect, calling
her Corporal Wheeler. She introduced herself to us as Jordan, or Jo, for short.
I liked her immediately. There was just something about how she carried herself
with an easy confidence that commanded respect. It must be hard to be a woman
in such a man’s world sometimes. Jo seemed to handle it well, though.
    Her date, an
attractive man in a perfectly tailored grey suit, seemed very out of sorts. I
couldn’t tell if he was intimidated by all of Marines in the room or if he was
just socially inept. Either way, I kind of wished that he would go play a slot
machine or something rather than just stand at our table with an awkward
expression on his face. Matt and Spencer were deep in conversation with Jo and
some other Marines that had wandered over, so I decided to engage with the
Barney Stinson lookalike.
    “So, what do
you do, Paul?” I prayed that I’d remembered his name correctly.
    “I’m a court
reporter.”
    “Oh, that’s
cool! I know a few lawyers. My friend over here used to date one and he told us
about a lot of interesting cases he’d worked on. Do you have any exciting
stories?”
    He shrugged.
“Not really.”
    Well,
clearly he lacked the charm and wit of Barney Stinson. I tried again, but only
because it would have been worse to just let the conversation die off right
there.
    “That still
sounds like a cool job, though. How did you get into it?”
    He shrugged
again. How annoying. “I dunno. It seemed like a cool job.”
    Yikes. Abort
mission! I had no idea what a confident and outgoing girl like Jo saw in this
guy, other than his great sense of style. I caught Ellie’s eye across the table
and realized that she’d witnessed that whole exchange and was about to crack
up. I tilted my head toward the bathroom and she took the hint.
    “We’ll be
back.” She kissed Spencer on the cheek and we made a beeline for the ladies’
room. We started laughing before we were even out of earshot.
    “He is so
awkward!” Ellie giggled.
    “You’re
telling me! I didn’t know you were listening; why didn’t you didn’t jump in to
save me?”
    She waved a
hand. “I thought you were doing a great job all by yourself.”
    “Oh, clearly .”
    I pushed
open the heavy, wooden door to the expansive restroom. There was a beautifully
dressed woman at every sink touching up her make-up or primping her hair. We
squeezed into an open spot at the mirror to do the same.
    “So, has
Spencer seemed off to you tonight?” Ellie asked as she powdered her nose.
    Alarm bells
immediately went off in my mind. Of course he was ‘off.’ He was planning to
propose to her tonight. I’d been watching him like a hawk – no pun
intended – wondering when the big moment was going to come.
    “No, why?” I
took the compact that she handed me and touched up my own face.
    “I don’t
know. I can’t explain it. He just seems… off.”
    She looked
genuinely concerned. I hated that she was jumping to the wrong conclusions, but
I