But she wasn’t in a joking mood tonight.

“Are you finally going to tell me what’s been bugging you?” Aiden asked. Aiden was a great guy. He was Jay Graves’s son—the Army CID agent she’d become close to while investigating a huge case earlier in the year. “There’s absolutely nothing you could’ve done to stop that bombing. You can’t take that on your shoulders.”

“It’s not that.”

“Well, I don’t have to use my cop skills to know that something is up.”

She’d promised herself she’d never date a cop after what had happened to her. One violent attack by her superior at Arlington PD had changed her forever. But Aiden couldn’t be more different from the monster who had hurt her.

“You’re right about something bothering me, but it’s not the bombing.” She took a breath. “You know how much my friendship with the ladies means to me. The three of them have welcomed me and Lexi into their friend group. When Lexi got sent abroad on assignment a few months ago, it became just me and the three of them. I don’t know what I’d do without them now that I’ve experienced friendship like that.”

“I’m sensing a but is about to come out of your mouth. Whatever it is, I’m here to listen.”

Just one of the many things she loved about Aiden. In fact, she felt like she’d fallen in love with Aiden the first time she ever met him. But she needed time—a lot of it—to build a healthy relationship. Thankfully, Aiden was patient and loving. “You’re going to think I’m being petty.”

He took her hand. “The last thing I’d ever call you is petty. No-judgment zone here. Just tell me what you’re feeling.”

“I feel like an outsider. I know I have no right to feel that way. These women let me into their lives. They were doing fine without me. But now that I’m in the group, I can’t help but feel like there are secrets that I’m not a part of, and that hurts my feelings.”

“Oh, Izzy, that’s a completely normal reaction. It’s hard when you feel like you’re the one on the outside looking in.”

She nodded. “The weird thing is that I’ve never felt this way before. They’ve always gone out of their way to make me feel included. Even though they all went to law school together and have that tight bond, I didn’t feel excluded. Then the bombing happened, and everything has gotten weird.”

“How do you mean?”