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Tara

I was running late Again Only tonight wasn’t just our regular girls’ night out, it was my birthday Gretchen, ood reason for being late, not even if it was because so on the side of the highway It was my responsibility as a law enforcerim ell taken care of

But still, it was a night to celebrateMr Blakely’s truck to shower and quickly change into sorih the brown color did reen eyes pop But I knew Gretchen, Eva and Sophie wouldn’t see it that way, so I put on a pair of jeans that hugged thighs with a tad too le, but made my extrereen top that I found on sale on my last trip to visit my cousin Ry and my aunt Betty in Tulip, and my favorite—okay, only—nude pumps I was only fifteen minutes late, so I decided to take a few more to avoid any comments about how I could have at least tried with my appearance

Sisters were exhausting So were female friends

I loved theues didn’t give a damn if I had on heels or make up They probably wouldn’t even notice if I let loss, a little product to make my brown hair look more touchable than wild and scary, and soo

I hoped

You could never be too sure if you were prepared to celebrate your birthday, especially with close friends and family But I was as ready as I would ever be to admit that at 31, I was officially over thirty

And single

And not a detective Yet

I orking on it though Sort of

That’s what I told myself as I stood outside o inside and face the revelry

“It’s kind of hard to start a birthday celebration without the birthday girl”

Mara’s droll tone turnedcouples and groups of people having a good ti honey brown eyes

“You’d be surprised” I noticed she wasn’t alone “Hey Joss, how’s it going?”