She might be as different as light and shadow from them, but she was pleasantly surprised they were connected in a comforting way. She’d spent so much time fraternizing with the guys in recent years—partly because she’d believed them easier to be around, mostly because as a female in the military, guys were what you tended to be around most—she’d forgotten how nice it was to have a drink with girlfriends.Patience Saunders had been a varsity football cheerleader and an unlikely but fun friend. Her athletic ability had extended beyond short skirts and pom-poms so she and Max had participated in many of the same sports. Max wasn’t surprised she was now a Phys Ed teacher at the same grammar school they’d once attended…or that she was married with two kids under two.Julie and Jae Jennings were identical twins but had gone out of their way to disguise that fact even when their mother had tried to dress them alike as kids. When Jae had stumbled across goth fashion, she’d latched on to it tightly, and even now favored black nail polish and hinted at body piercings beyond the one visible on her left nostril.Still, as much as Max was enjoying catching up with them, her gaze endlessly trailed to the man behind the bar, noting how’d he changed…and how her feelings had stayed the same.“God, Jax is still as hot as he was in high school, isn’t he?”
