My (M26) wife (F26) became besties with my ex (F25) and is upset that I don’t like it

**TL;DR at bottom**<br><br>Our story:<br><br>My high school sweetheart (Ashley) and I (Tommy) broke up when we were 19 or so. I no longer had feelings for her but I still loved her as a person and enjoyed spending time with her. She on the other hand didn’t want to be friends and I could tell still had feelings for me. It made it very awkward and I decided I couldn’t have her in my life until I met my current wife (Olivia). <br><br>After Ashley and I broke up, she went away for college, while I stayed in our hometown (where we currently live). The only reason I know this is because she had a social media account that she kept active. It had very few posts but she did post about things like family deaths, birthdays and stuff like that. I followed her on it to make sure she was doing ok.<br><br>Back in October of last year, I noticed she was back in town. Only because she posted a photo of a restaurant she was eating at that I knew was in our city and the GPS pin confirmed it. I also noticed (from her public posts) that she had a child now.<br><br>Well fast forward to new years, my wife and I were out drinking in the town we live in. The first bar we hit up, Ashley was there with a couple other people (I assume relatives or close friends) and her child. I tried my hardest to avoid her, but she saw us and came up to me and started talking to me. She told me how “cool it was that our lives brought us to the same place again” and she also introduced me to Olivia. They started talking and got along and after we left Ashley and I swapped numbers to text and catch up. I told Ashley that I wasn’t looking to get too involved in her life again because I didn’t want to lead her on or make her uncomfortable again, but also still cared for her. She said she would be happy to have me back in her life. We only texted a couple times every few weeks to talk about stuff that had happened since we broke up.<br><br>Well, around March Olivia and Ashley started texting independently of me. I asked my wife what they were talking about and she said Ashley had asked about us buying our first house together this year and if she could pick Olivia’s brain about something because she had a realtor license. It seemed like they were developing their own friendship, so I let it go.<br><br>Then in April, Ashley invited us over to her house for a BBQ and Olivia was super excited about it, so we went. It was awkward at first, but they seemed to really get along and we had a decent time there.<br><br>And that brings us to our issue now. As of the last few weeks, it feels like Ashley and Olivia are best friends or something. This last week alone they’ve gone to a bar together (it was Ashley’s birthday, which Olivia told me about from Ashley telling her), gone fishing and to a lake, a sporting event, and they also went to Ashley’s church together. Along with that they’ve probably spent 20+ hours FaceTiming each other. It just feels really weird to me that my wife is so close to my ex. <br><br>I’m not sure if it’s something mentally wrong with me that this is bothering me so bad or if it’s just reasonable that I don’t want my wife to be friends with my ex, but either way I brought it up with my wife and she got pissed that I had an issue with it.<br><br>She lays out her side of things as: Ashley and her are best friends now and it’s wrong for me to try and keep that from happening. She says that it’s not fair to her or Ashley that their friendship gets ruined because of something that happened years ago. She also says that just because Ashley and I were in love years ago doesn’t mean they can’t be friends now. And lastly, she basically called me a coward for not being able to handle the relationship dynamic between the three of us.<br><br>So I guess I’m just here asking if it’s reasonable for me to not want this friendship to happen? Or am I overreacting and being a coward?<br><br>**TL;DR:** My wife (F26) is now best friends with my HS sweetheart/ex (F25) and is upset that I don’t like it.