Read Wildflower (Colors #4) for Free Online Page B

everything I needed for an epic Thanksgiving feast.
    I was going all out. Homemade mashed potatoes and giblet gravy just like Grammy used to make. I bought the biggest turkey I could find, and sprung for the fresh sweet potatoes as opposed to the stuff in a can. I was going to make Grammy’s signature dressing and pumpkin pie, green beans almondine, and macaroni casserole from scratch. Not to toot my own horn or anything, but I was feeling pretty pleased with myself.
    I heard someone calling my name from behind me just as I tossed the can of cranberry sauce into my cart. I knew my culinary limits and homemade cranberry sauce wasn’t happening.
    Glancing over my shoulder, I sucked in a deep breath at who I saw standing in the aisle. “Chloe,” I breathed. I watched as her lips parted in a wide grin just before she rushed toward me. I don’t know what I’d been expecting, really. Part of me thought she’d punch me square in the face, for sure. Not that I would have blamed her. Chloe had been my best friend all the years I’d lived in Pembrooke, but when I ran for the hills I hadn’t just cut off all contact with Noah. With the exception of Ethan and Grammy, I had closed everyone out. She tried to reach out a thousand times, but I left every call and message unanswered.
    What I hadn’t expected was for her to break down in tears in the middle of aisle four and wrap me in a hug so tight the air was instantly expelled from my lungs. “Oh my God,” she sniffled against my shoulder. “It’s so good to see you, Low-Low. I’ve missed you so much.”
    My own eyes burned as I returned her embrace, squeezing just as hard. “Chloe,” was all I could get past the lump forming in my throat. I squeezed my eyes shut and buried my face in her familiar strawberry blonde curls as different memories from growing up together assaulted my senses. “I’ve missed you, too,” I whispered.
    There was no telling how long we stood there because I lost all sense of time as I got swept away in the familiarity of my old best friend. When she finally pulled back, I let go, reluctantly, not quite ready for it to end.
    “Oh, God, Harlow.” Her green eyes sparkled with sympathy as she looked at me. “I’m so sorry about Lucille. I was thinking of stopping by to talk to you after the funeral but I figured you were already dealing with enough as it was. I didn’t want to cause you any more stress than you were already feeling. I planned on stopping by after Thanksgiving. I wanted to give you some time…”
    A typical Chloe reaction, always putting the wellbeing of others first. It was one of the things I loved most about her. Standing there in front of the woman I’d basically abandoned, for all intents and purposes, I felt like the world’s biggest asshole for how I handled things.
    It was at that very moment that the weight of everything in my life came crashing down on me. Standing right there in the middle of Smith’s grocery store, I broke down into loud, body-shaking sobs. The loss of Grammy, leaving my friends behind in New York, moving back here , knowing Noah was just a few miles away at any time, not having any idea what I was doing with my life… it all became too much. And Chloe’s undeserved kindness on top of everything else caused the dam to break.
    “I-I’m such an asshole ,” I sputtered loudly, unable to bring myself to care who was around to hear me having my breakdown.
    “What? What are you talking about?” Her voice was full of concern and confusion as she pulled me back into a hug and let me cry like a baby on her shoulder. “You’re not an asshole, Harlow.”
    “Yes I am!” I demanded. “You’re being so nice to me! I don’t deserve it, Chlo. I left you behind. I was a self-centered brat who didn’t think about who I was hurting when I ran away and I left you behind! That’s the definition of an asshole. You should hate me right now, you should be punching me in the face, not hugging me.”
    Chloe