She typed a reply to the family wishing them a Merry Christmas and then sat staring at time ticking away slowly on the bottom of her computer screen.

This night was dragging on.

Ignoring the other emails, she opened Facebook. It was a mistake, but she did it anyway.

Having fifty-six friends, it didn’t take her long to scroll through the new posts. Stopping on Cassie’s, she felt a wave of remorse so strong she struggled to breathe. She’d promised her friend things would be different this time... She’d promised Reed.

And if she could only find that work/life balance everyone talked about, maybe things would be different. She’d be able to keep that promise.

So far, she’d been unsuccessful. The next day, no matter how busy she was, she was taking time to call her friend to say Merry Christmas.

Maybe she should do her own JibJab video...

Lord knows, she had time.

Scrolling through her friend’s recent posts, she scanned the photos of Cassie and Arlene decorating her artificial pink Christmas tree, Diva passed out on the homemade, quilted tree skirt with all four paws in the air. The red-and-green boots on the puppy’s feet and matching sweater made Erika smile and tear up all over again.

Damn, she even missed the dog.

Next were pictures taken at the Christmas parade the week before. Cassie, Tank and Kaia looked like they belonged on a Christmas card. Their smiling, happy faces with the holiday backdrop made it impossible to know that the three of them were dealing with their own issues.

Or maybe they weren’t anymore. Had at least one of them gotten their happy ending in time for Christmas? Just in case, Erika made a Christmas wish that her friend would get what she really wanted under her tree that year—a six-foot-two hunk of solid muscle who was also a single dad.

Pictures posted just an hour before made her heart skip... Christmas Eve at The Drunk Tank. Pictures of Cassie, Tank, Wade, Tyler, Tiffany and a redhead she was immediately envious of with her arm around Reed. The picture had her longing for a Christmas Eve that she hadn’t had since her mother’s death. One surrounded by family and friends... People she loved. A man she loved.

She stared at Reed’s smiling face, committing the image to memory to replace his look of sadness and disappointment on the day they ended things. Watching him walk away had been hard...but the reality that things were over between them hadn’t hit until now, when she was alone and the silence of her downtime only screamed how lonely she really was.

What she’d give to be there with them.