Page 23 of As You Wish | AllFreeNovel

“Probably not,” I answered. “This is just for today.”

“You should get one of those boards,” Wren said. “Like a real investigator.”

“Yes,” I replied. “I wanna lick your brain.”

Mollie laughed and Wren went red in the face. “Why would you say that?”

“It’s true! You all love me for being real.”

All of the women smiled. “Of course we do,” Grace said. “And we’ll figure this out together.”

I returned the smile and faced the wall. I was glad I’d gotten out of the house. There were times when I needed to be alone, and then times I needed to be reminded that I had friends. Things were tough and I missed Gabriel more than I could say, but my circle had grown. Once, I had only trusted him, but I’d replaced him with multiple others after he left.

My life wasn’t empty.

If I’d left, I’d have none of this, and Gabriel and I wouldn’t have worked out anyway. He’d always be looking ahead and never behind him. He’d always move on.

I believed I would have been included in that.

Or at least that was what I told myself every night when I couldn’t get to sleep.

“Are you gonna be okay looking into this?” Grace asked.

I paused before turning. “Yeah, of course.”

“You can always talk to us if anything else comes up,” Mollie added.

“I will,” I replied. “But this year, I don’t want anything to come up. I want to focus on this and nothing else.”

“All right then,” Wren said. “We’ll focus on this. No more men for Jade.”

“Nothing can knock me off course.”

At that moment, another smile crossed my face. I really believed that I had this.

I was about to be proven so wrong.