Kiss Me Again. Jessa James

never come to terms with her being gone. It had been so hard for them both when they got married, not having her there, not having her blessing.

      It had been tough for me too. I hated the idea that the girl I adored was now my stepsister, but I didn’t take it half as badly as Lucy did. To her my mom and her dad getting married was a betrayal she simply could not get past.

      I wondered if she was still angry, or if maybe I could find a way now to be the friend she had so needed then, but that my idiotic, hormonal teenage brain couldn’t bring itself to be at the time. I’d been angry too. I had wanted her too badly. The new sudden change from best friends – and almost more – into being siblings had made it insanely hard to be around her, and my desperate attempts to make her listen, not just react, had made her push me further away too.

      But unlike Luce, I had known that Joanna, her mom, had schemed to ensure her husband would be cared for and loved by her best friend even on her death bed. And I was stubborn. I couldn’t, and wouldn’t condemn my mom, or Tom for doing what Jo had so begged them to do – not even for Lucy.

      They deserved to be happy too, and I know they found solace from the pain they had both been through in each other, and real love grew between them. It wasn’t just about Jo’s dying wish; it was about what made them both feel whole again. I would never want to deny anyone that feeling. I hoped every day that I would find my better half so I could be whole again too. And here she was, in Providence, Rhode Island - and suddenly the mountain I had to climb to gain her trust again seemed even higher than when I had no clue where she was!