Read Jaci Burton for Free Online Page B

close . . .”
    Lacey waved her hand in the air. “I can stil get my master’s.
    You make it sound like my whole life is over just because I’m
    taking some time off.”
    “Are you though? Just taking some time off? You’ve
    changed so much, Lacey.”
    “Have I? I think I’m stil the same. Maybe I’m not the way you
    want me to be and you don’t like that.”
    “No, that’s not it at al .”
    “Isn’t it?” Lacey put her elbows on the countertop and
    leaned forward. “Look, Ava. I love you. We’ve been best
    friends forever—we’re so close we’re like sisters. But we both
    have to grow up. I know you like your life orderly, where
    nothing ever changes. But everything evolves—including
    relationships and people. Life comes along and we have to

    rol with it. I had a chance at adventure and I grabbed it.
    There’s nothing wrong with that.”
    “Of course not.” She made Ava sound selfish. Was she?
    She hadn’t thought so. She was just worried about her best
    friend.
    “And I’m thril ed you’re here and experiencing my new life
    with me. Maybe it’l —I don’t know—take you out of your
    regimented lifestyle and teach you how to bend a little.”
    “Excuse me?”
    Lacey laid her hand over Ava’s. “You like your life the way it
    is, the way it’s always been, where you fol ow the same
    pattern that’s been laid out for you your entire life. You’re very .
    . . control ed.”
    “What? I am not.”
    Lacey laughed. “Yes, you are. You have to be in charge.
    That’s not a bad thing. It’s just the way you are and always
    have been. You like everything orderly and in a way that you
    can control it. I used to be the same way. And it worked fine for
    me for a while, but now it doesn’t. After I met Bo I realized how
    much I was missing—how much life I was missing. Now I want
    something different. I want this life. Maybe later, I don’t know.
    And maybe this wil give you a chance to experience
    something unique and new and who knows what wil happen
    to you because of it. It’s a chance to let your hair down a little
    —get a little messy. Give up a little of your control. You could
    use it.”
    Now Ava felt like she was defending her own life and her
    own choices. “There’s nothing wrong with my life. I’m doing
    exactly what I’ve always wanted to do.”

    “Of course you are. School, more school, and becoming a
    social worker. You have a flowchart with every step—every
    day, every month, every year—mapped out so you know
    exactly where you’re going. No deviations. I know it’s what
    you’ve wanted forever. But it’s okay to step away from
    academia now and then and experience a different side of
    life, Ava. There’s a whole real life out here that’s not in
    textbooks.”
    Ava blew out a breath, tried to hold in her irritation. “Of
    course there is. I know that.”
    Lacey smiled. “Good. Then let’s just have fun this week.”
    Lacey made it sound so simple, when Ava knew it wasn’t.
    Lacey hadn’t just decided to go on vacation, or even
    sabbatical. She’d tossed everything about her life into the
    trash to do . . . what exactly? Hang with a biker? Did she even
    have a job?
    Lacey had planned on becoming a psychologist. She
    wanted to help people. Her entire life had been focused on
    her studies. Her goal was her career, her future. Just like
    Ava’s had always been.
    And then just like that she’d tossed it al away. Years of
    education, the momentum of undergraduate and graduate
    school. Lacey was going to be so far behind now. Ava just
    couldn’t fathom it. Not the Lacey she knew.
    But this Lacey didn’t want to talk about school or what she’d
    given up. This Lacey only wanted to have fun.
    It was a lifestyle Ava simply couldn’t comprehend. And that’s
    why she was here, to see if she could figure out what the lure
    was that would account for Lacey tossing aside her education

    in favor of a romance with a biker.
    And maybe, just maybe, convince her