Read Online All She Ever Wanted by Barbara Freethy - Free Book Online

to succeed, was now being called to account for the murder of her best friend.
    Had Natalie read the book? Did she have any idea who was after her?
     
* * *
     
    Natalie couldn't sleep. She'd been tossing and turning since she'd returned home from the hospital just after midnight. It was now almost three a.m. and her eyes felt dry, incapable of closing. She supposed she could read. The book was on her nightstand just waiting for her to pick up where she'd left off. But she was afraid.
    Turning those pages would take her back to a place she didn't want to go. A place where youthful dreams had flourished, where passion had run her life, where friendship and love had been more important than anything else. She'd loved those girls, Emily, Laura, and Madison—loved them as she'd never loved anyone in her life. For fifteen months, a blink of an eye, she realized now, she'd been a part of something special, wonderful, irreplaceable.
    A knot of sweet emotion made it hard to swallow. She closed her eyes, willing sleep, blessed oblivion, to come, but instead the past came rushing back to greet her.
    Emily sat up in the twin bed next to hers and turned on the light. She wore her brown hair in two long braids, which made her look about twelve, especially when combined with the pink T-shirt that said girls rule, baggy pajama bottoms, and thick socks that didn't match.
    "What's wrong?" Natalie asked, blinking against the bright light. "It's two o'clock in the morning."
    "And you can't sleep. I heard you tossing and turning."
    "Sorry, I'll be quiet. I just have a lot on my mind."
    "You always do," Emily said with a rueful smile. "What is it this time?"
    "Money, bills, loans, classes, grades, everything."
    "I can always lend you money if you need it. No questions asked."
    "Thanks, but I'll make it on my own."
    Emily shook a finger at her. "That's just it, Nat. You don't have to do everything on your own. I'm here. I'm your friend. And I can help you. All you have to do is ask."
    "I'm not very good at asking, and you should stop offering so much. People will take advantage of you."
    "I wish they would," Emily confessed. "I spent so much of my childhood alone in my room, protecting myself from germs or recovering from one illness after another that I got really tired of my imaginary friends. And they got so bored, they all ran away," she added with a laugh that wasn't quite true.
    Natalie stared into Emily's beautiful face and saw the lingering shadows of loneliness in her eyes. She knew that Em had suffered from acute asthma as a child. Every mild cold, had turned into pneumonia or bronchitis or some other disease, often requiring a hospital stay. Her parents had done everything but put her in a bubble to keep her safe. Thankfully, as she got older her asthma and her immune system had improved and she'd managed to convince them to let her go away to college and start living her life.
    Emily opened the drawer between their beds. "I have an idea," she said, as she pulled out a small cardboard box. "If we're not going to sleep, we should wax."
    "What?" Natalie turned onto her side, propping herself up on one elbow. Her dad's big gold watch hung heavy on her arm. "Wax our legs? Now? You're crazy. It's the middle of the night."
    "That's when the hair grows." Emily held up the box in her hands that showed a picture of two smooth legs. "I saw this on television. You put the wax on your legs, cover it with strips of paper, leave it on for a couple of minutes, then pull. Hair gone."
    "Great, we'll have bags under our eyes but perfectly hairless legs. What we really should do is study." She was surprised when Emily picked up the phone next to the bed. "Who are you calling?"
    "Maddie and Laura. They'll be mad if we wax without them."
    Natalie was still considering that logic when Emily started talking. "We're going to wax our legs, watch TV, and eat popcorn. Natalie can't sleep."
    "I could try," Natalie protested, but her words fell on deaf ears.