Read Can't Bear To Run (Kendal Creek Bears, #1) for Free Online Page B

all I remember, really. Not because I got raging, black-out drunk, although I wouldn’t have minded that much. It was all just so surreal. They sang, I sang. The hours just melted by until the lights came on and the beefcake behind the bar called for final drink orders.
    “One more round?” I remember Karen asking. None of us needed it, but what the hell? It’s not like we were driving anywhere.
    When she returned, my friend had a look of concern on her face. And this is the only reason I remember this particular exchange. “What’s eating you, Raine?” she asked.
    I scrunched my forehead up, acting like I didn’t know what she was talking about. The problem with having the same friends for most of your conscious life is that they can see right through your bullshit without any problem at all. After a moment’s pause, I shrugged. “Just a lot going on,” I admitted.
    “Yeah? Anything terrible?”
    If only you knew, sister. If only you knew . “No, not really. Just normal stuff.”
    “Is it about Dan?” She may as well have been a psychic. Of course, I had told her about how he wasn’t such a good guy in our last conversation, but... yeah, I really didn’t know what to say. I looked around the bar again, hoping to see the guy I knew, deep down, I wouldn’t. The feeling kept gnawing at me though, and I couldn’t deny what I felt.
    “He’s gone.”
    “Wait, what? Dan?”
    “Yeah,” I said, talking a long drink.
    “Like he left you? Are you serious?”
    I nodded. It wasn’t entirely dishonest. “He went camping, like I said.” I had to be careful not to talk my drunk ass into a corner and admit what I’d done, but just saying some of that stuff took the weight off my chest little by little. “He called a little while before I got here and told me he wasn’t coming back.”
    Her eyes were as wide as saucers. “He... that’s... what a fucking prick.”
    I nodded. “I don’t know why. I guess maybe he found someone else? It’s all just really weird.”
    Karen and Matt were both just shaking their heads. “What are you gonna do?” Matt asked. “I mean, just thinking practically – for money or whatever. And did you get a lawyer?”
    “No,” I said. “I mean, not yet. I should. As far as money goes, I have enough for a while. That should be fine.” It was sort of true, but not as much as I was trying to let on.
    “Jesus,” he said. “This is... I hate to be blunt, but you don’t seem all that upset about it.”
    Hearing him say that was like having an ocean wave slide over me. It was suffocating, but warm and hauntingly comfortable. “I guess,” I began and then bit my lip. “I guess I’m really not. Things haven’t been all that great for a while.”
    After a few minutes spent sitting in silence, Karen spoke up. “Well, you know what? You deserve better than someone who’d do that to you. You should go get that bartender to take you home.”
    She smiled, and then started laughing.
    This is what I missed. Karen’s irreverent sense of humor, Matt’s serious demeanor tinged with just a dash of sardonic wit.
    “Maybe I should,” I said. “But I was thinking about going on a road trip. You know, just kind of drive around and see what I can see?”
    The two of them looked at one another. “You might want to think about that for a while,” Matt said. “You don’t want to do something you’ll regret later.”
    Karen shrugged. “I dunno. I’ve never regretted anything I’ve done as much as I’ve regretted things I wanted to do, but didn’t. You don’t have anything holding you down, you know? Don’t have to worry about kids or a job or anything. When the hell are you gonna have a chance like this again?”
    Just listening to the back and forth had at once steeled my reserve, but also cracked my wall just a hair. Before I knew it, I had been chewing on my lip for so long that a shock of pain went through me. “I’m scared,” I said. A tear ran down my face, though again