Read Unfinished Hero 03 Raid for Free Online Page A

up. Somehow, both of us sharing
     this crush and both of us crushing huge did not destroy our relationship. It could
     happen to girls of that age, regardless of the fact that neither of us had even the
     remotest shot of that particular dream coming true.
    This was how close we were.
    I adored her.
    She gave that back to me.
    Now she was married, had a daughter and another one on the way.
    I thought her husband Mark was a jackass , but no matter how close we were, I did not share this with KC. At least not openly.
    She thought he walked on water.
    My thoughts on this subject were that this mostly had to do with him being particularly
     talented in the bedroom, something which she shared, in detail, even if it meant I
     had to become really good at fighting my lip from curling in disgust. A feat I bested , and now I was a practiced hand , seeing as they had sex. A lot.
    I didn’t want to think this of my bestie , but it could also have to do with him making a very decent living.
    She said he was a lot sweeter when people weren’t around.
    I hoped that was true.
    Now she was freaking with me about Raiden , who I had not (outside of when I was cleaning toilets, vacuuming, dusting, doing
     laundry and changing sheets) been able to get out of my head.
    So I was making an afghan that would eventually make me a silly huge amount of money,
     drinking wine and letting KC and my home work their magic.
    I grew up in my house and bought it from my parents when they moved, thus I got a
     screaming sweet deal.
    At my behest, they’d sold all the stuff inside before they moved so I could make it
     my own.
    And that I did, going to every antique shop from Denver to Cheyenne to Albuquerque.
     I wallpapered. I painted. I refinished. I restored. And I made my childhood home all
     about me.
    Countrified splendor with a healthy dose of quirk and a hint here and there of edge
     to knock off some of the pretty, cutesie and girlie.
    It was fabulous.
    Like my front porch with its white posts and railings, latticework at the edges of
     the posts where they meet the porch roof, its swing and wicker furniture with mismatched
     cushions and pillows that said what my grandmother’s porch furniture said.
    You’re welcome here , so sit back and stay awhile.
    I lived there , and again , like my grandmother, when it was warm I was out on my porch in my swing, sitting
     back and staying awhile.
    Like now.
    “What do you think this means?” KC asked in my ear.
    “I think it means Mrs. Miller told her son to check on Grams , and he’s a good guy so he’s going to mow her lawn,” I answered.
    “It does not,” she returned and I smiled.
    “It does, KC.”
    “How about this scenario?” she began. “He got a load of you bei ng cute and goofy and he’s into that , so he popped by your Grams on a day when ever y -freaking-body knows you go over there to get another fix of Hanna - Style Cute and Goofy.”
    I burst out laughing , and after I did this for a bit, still laughing, I told her, “Seriously, I’m not his
     type.”
    Silence then, “You know his type?’
    I had also not shared that I saw him with the pretty, cool skank. That had been too
     painful to share , and further, I adored KC , and even though she was married that didn’t mean she couldn’t crush , and I didn’t want to pollute her fantasy either.
    Now, however, was the time to share.
    Forcing nonchalance, I answered, “Yeah. I saw him making out with someone a while
     back. Lots of hair. Lots of chest. Lots of tight clothes. Skinny-minnie and short.”
    More silence then, “That’s damned disappointing.”
    It was.
    But whatever.
    “Anyway, half of Willow troops to Grams’s and offers to help out. It was a Miller’s
     turn,” I told her.
    “I prefer to think Raiden Ulysses Miller is into cute and goofy, not skinny, short,
     big-boobed and big-haired,” she retorted.
    I preferred to think that , too .
    I ncidentally, like every girl who knew him way back then, KC thought