Scarlett Red: A Billionaire SEAL Story, Part 2 (In the Shadows) Read Online Free PDF Page B

want?”
    She presses her lips together, then shrugs. “I’ll adapt. I’ve done it before. I can again.”
    “Flexibility is good,” I say, nodding.
    “Being versatile is key .” Pulling her car alongside the curb a short walk from the docks, she cuts the engine. “That’s another thing I learned in my gazillion therapy sessions. A plan is only as good as the variables you can control. Multiple plans assure you’re prepared for the ones you can’t.”
    As Cynthia gets out of the car and smiles at me with a confidence worth envying, I climb out too. She’s not really pretty per se, but she exudes vibrancy and has a shimmering light in her eyes that tells me she won’t give up until she succeeds. And isn’t that really half the battle in the pursuit of happiness? Accepting who we are and going for what we want?
    What do I want? My aunt is right that finishing this last book means I’ll have to face the fork in the road that is my future, and I’m not sure which path I want to take. Not a single story idea worthy of writing down has come to me lately. Yet the other path back to helping others through journalism has been effectively shut down for now. Why am I in such a rut?
    “Come on slow poke,” Cynthia says, waving me forward.
    I put one foot in front of the other and lift my head higher. Screw the non-forkness of my path. I’ll plow a new road if I have to!
     

     
    “I don’t know if this is such a good idea, Cynthia.” I eye the stream of men heading into the bar next to Bayside’s restaurant with reluctance. Granted, they look harmless enough. Just a bunch of hardworking men stopping by for a beer after work. A few guys close to our age, who were also waiting on Bayside to open in an hour, had stepped into the bar. When the door closes behind the last guy, she grabs my arm.
    “Come on, T! It’s called Spurred. How fun is that? Did you hear that honky-tonk music? Half the guys who went in were wearing boots. I’ll bet some are even dancing. I’ve always wanted to learn the two-step.”
    As much as I don’t want it to, Bash’s comment about the bars around the restaurant bleed into my thoughts. I grip the bottom of my purse, feeling for the stun gun deep in its depths at the same time a Jeep pulls up. While I’m debating, two college-aged girls hop out of the vehicle. Laughing and chatting, they stroll up the wooden steps and past the wicker chairs on the bar’s porch, then walk inside as if it’s their regular hangout spot.
    Straightening my spine, I push my hair over my shoulder and hook my arm in Cynthia’s. “Let’s go!”
    With an old-style saloon feel of rough-hewn wooden tables, chairs and a scuffed-up dance floor, the place is packed with people at the bar vying for drinks. Beer bottles in hand, many have already spilled onto the dance floor, one big mass of moving bodies.
    “Looks like you won’t be doing any two-stepping tonight,” I tease Cynthia.
    She shrugs, scoping out all the guys. “The night is young. Let’s get a drink.”
    We make our way through the crowd and approach the bar where I order a beer and she orders a glass of white wine.
    “Really?” I look at her and sweep my hand silently to the crowd around us.
    She shrugs while we wait for the bartender to make our drinks, calling out over the loud din. “You can take the girl out of the city, but you can’t take the city out of the girl.”
    Just as the bartender puts our drinks down, an arm encircles my waist and some guy behind me nuzzles his scruffy-bearded chin along my neck. “Hello there, Gingersnap.”
    I turn and push against his chest, disentangling him from my waist. “Back off or this Ginger will snap.”
    He puts his hands up, eyes filled with amusement. “Ooh, she’s a feisty one. I’ll see you on the dance floor.”
    I roll my eyes and turn to pay for my drink, muttering, “Dream on.”
    Cynthia snickers in my ear. “Gingersnap. You have to give him points for originality.”
    “I don’t