Read Online Faded Cotton (Erotic Romance) by Lara Sweety - Free Book Online

asked.
    “Why can’t you see yourself married with a
husband and babies?” Laurel posed the question gently.
    Still sitting in the water, Jen hugged
herself tightly as the water treated her bent legs like islands,
water surrounding them. She laid her head on her knees and gazed
off into the distance.
    “None of them ever understand me or they
can’t handle my success or my schedule or something.”
    “Judging from the tough shell you retreat
into, it’s gonna take one hell of a guy to crack that safe,
sweetie. Give them a chance. I’m not saying that you don’t deserve
your career. I’m just saying it isn’t your only choice.”
    “I used to think I could save the world, you
know?”
    Laurel nodded for her to go on.
    “But I can’t. Solve a few crimes, process a
few criminals into the revolving door system. A few big cases, but
it no longer holds for me what it did as I worked my way up. I just
don’t know where to go from here. I suddenly don’t give a shit
anymore. I’m thirty for Pete’s sake.” She buried her face into her
knees and sighed.
    “If there is one thing I’ve learned, it is
that we can change, adapt and go on.” Laurel encouraged her.
“Jen, you can have your career and a family or walk away all
together. Cake is made for eating. It looks so good, but if you
don’t take a bite, you can’t taste it.”
    “But it’s all I know,” Jen breathed.
    “Yes, and that’s the problem. You have to
walk away from your comfort zone to see where it could lead you. My
family didn’t think I needed to go to college, but I did. I’m
better off for it. I went part-time until I finished my degree. I
still wound up running the farm, but I’m better at it than I would
have been otherwise. I’m part owner of a restaurant, too. I’ve been
able to do things I wouldn’t have been able to do if I hadn’t
stepped outside my comfort zone. If we ever get out of this mess,
you need to come to the farm and stay a while I think.”
    “Maybe.” Jen felt trapped and didn’t really
know how or what she needed to do to change it.
    They sat in silence for a while enjoying the
changing tide and the gentle touch of the waves. Jen broke in,
“Think we can get a massage?” She laughed. “We are supposed to be
on vacation, right?”
    “Mmmhmm!” Laurel agreed. The two women headed
back to the main house together, both feeling as if they had made a
new friend.
    __________________________
     
    Early evening approached and Jen found
herself relaxing at the hands of an experienced massage therapist.
She wasn’t quite sure how the masseuse found kinks she didn’t know
she had, but it felt fantastic. Her eyes closed and she allowed
herself to relax. Jen pondered what Laurel had said. Could she just
walk away? Do something different? Maybe get married and do the
happily-ever-after thing? What was keeping her from it? Why wasn’t
there a man in her life?
    It slammed into her with the force of a
freight train. Jolted, she opened her eyes and lifted her head,
reorienting. The cold case—her parents’ death. The therapist
gently pushed her head back down commanding her to relax. The case
had spurred her toward police work and driven her to excel in the
field, but she still hadn’t solved it.
    It haunted her. No team she had ever assigned
it to, could come up with anything more than she had. What was
missing in her thought process? She had to go back to the
beginning, dig harder, ask more questions, and push farther. At
least it would give her something to do while she was stuck on the
island. It was time to be freed from her continual life limbo. With
a clear goal in mind, Jen relaxed fully and nearly slept through
the rest of the massage.

Chapter 12
     
     
     
     
     
     
    Sinking into the center of her plush bed, Jen
didn’t feel like she wanted to move. She’d dried her hair, but was
so relaxed she couldn’t bear the idea of putting clothes on. For
once, naked felt incredible, liberating,—sexy. Her mind