Ladies' Night Andrews, Kay (great novels .txt) 📖

hysterical in front of Bo. That was bad. But everything happened so fast … I completely lost it.”

“He’s a sensitive kid,” Wyatt said. “I know it’s hard to do, but, for his sake, we really have to try to keep things on an even keel.”

“I know.” Callie nodded and took a sip of coffee. She gazed out the window at the parking lot. When she turned to look at him, her eyes were brimming with fresh tears.

“It’s over between me and Luke,” she said, her lower lip trembling. “And not just because of the car. Everything he told me? Everything he promised me? It was all just a big fat lie. He lost his job. There is no transfer to Birmingham. He just told me that because he assumed he’d get a new one with another company there. He’s known for three weeks now, and he never said a word. Just kept bullshitting me. About everything.” She held up her naked left hand. “My ring? Not real. Not even a good fake. And you know how I found out? I took it to the jewelry store in the mall yesterday, because I wanted to have it sized, and the girl behind the counter actually laughed at me when she saw it. It’s a friggin’ cubic zirconia.”

Wyatt winced. “Did you ask Luke about that?”

“Yes. Of course, he had all these bullshit excuses. He tried to tell me he gave me a fake ring because he was having the real one custom-made, and it wasn’t ready yet. He’s got lies and excuses for everything.”

“Geez. I’m sorry, Callie.”

“Not as sorry as me,” she said bitterly. “What do I do now? I can’t stay with him. I won’t. I told him that this morning. I can’t marry a liar.”

“What’ll you do?” he asked.

She shrugged. “I have no idea. I just know I won’t stay under the same roof with him. Not another night. I can’t have Bo exposed to somebody like that.”

“Well, of course, Bo can stay with Dad and me for as long as you need him to. But where will you go?”

“Good question. I don’t exactly have a lot of options. Most of my girlfriends? As far as they’re concerned, I’m the slut who cheated on her husband. They all made it pretty clear they couldn’t stand Luke.”

“What about your family?”

“Ha! My parents are barely speaking to me since our breakup. They always thought you walked on water, Wyatt. Anyway, I’m not about to move back to South Carolina. What would I do there? Get a job selling made-in-China sombreros at South of the Border? Anyway, Bo would hate it there. And the schools suck.”

You didn’t care what Bo thought about Birmingham when you thought you and Luke were moving there, Luke thought.

“What about Kendra?” he asked.

Her lips twisted. “My baby sister is just itching to get a chance to say, ‘I told you so.’ She never liked Luke, either. Guess maybe I should have polled all my friends and family before falling in love with him and ruining my life, huh?”

Funny how it didn’t occur to Callie that she wasn’t the only one affected by her affair with Luke Grigsby. She probably just considered her husband and son as collateral damage.

“You’ve always gotten along with Kendra. Surely she wouldn’t turn you away, right? Until you get things figured out?”

“Maybe.” Callie didn’t sound convinced. She grabbed a paper napkin from the stack Wyatt had brought to the table and used it to blot her eyes.

“Oh God, Wy,” she whispered. “How could this have happened? You were the best thing that ever happened to me. And I let you walk away. Can you ever forgive me?”

Wyatt twisted his own paper napkin into a tightly wound ribbon. “What’s done is done.” What does she want from me? he wondered. “You just need to figure out how to get your life back on track, with the least amount of disruption to Bo. He’s had more than enough of that in the last year.”

“I know, I know,” Callie agreed. “I’ll call Kendra right now. I can probably stay with her for tonight, at least.”

“What about a car?” Wyatt asked.

“That bastard Luke traded my Civic in when he got the Mustang,” Callie said. “I drove his old Jeep over here. And he’s crazy if he thinks I’ll give it back. He owes me. Big-time.”

“At least that’s something,” he said. “Look, Callie. I’m sorry, but I really need to get back to the park. We’ve got a group of thirty kids coming in with a day camp in an hour, and they’re expecting a guided tour and a performance from Cookie.”

“I know you’re busy,” Callie said. “You don’t have time for my soap opera. Go on. I’m just going to sit here for a while and try to get my wits about me before I go back to Luke’s and start packing up my stuff.”

He hesitated. “So … we’ll plan on keeping Bo at the park, at least through the weekend. Is that okay with you?”

“Sure,” she said, shrugging. “What are you going to tell him? About Luke and me?”

“Nothing,” Wyatt said. “I’ll leave that to you to figure out. You should probably call him later today, when you’re calmer. You don’t have to tell him the gory details yet. Just let him know you’re okay.”

Callie reached across the table and squeezed his hand, clinging to him. “I will. And I won’t cry anymore. Not in front of him, anyway. Thanks, Wy.”

“You’re welcome,” he said, slowly sliding his hand away from hers. “Good luck with Kendra.”

*   *   *

On Monday, Grace was just unloading the last of her second batch of painting supplies from her car when Arthur’s car pulled up to the driveway.

It took him a few minutes to emerge from the car, and when he did, Grace thought he looked tired. Tired and defeated. He walked, stiff-legged, toward where she stood, right outside the front porch.

“Hi, Arthur,” she called.

“Hi there, Grace.” He looked down at the buckets of paint she’d stacked