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

up. “Bo tells me you have a ‘friend.’ Is it serious?”

“Maybe. She’s a nice woman. Look, Callie. I don’t feel comfortable discussing her with you. I’m trying very hard to have a normal life now, to see to it that our son feels loved and safe.”

“Is this your way of telling me you’re moving on? That you’re completely over me?”

Wyatt ran his hands over his head. “Over you? No. I’m trying, but I can’t say I’m there yet.”

She looked up at him through lowered lashes. “I hope you never get over me. I’m not over you. At all.”

56

Grace was the first to arrive at Paula’s office. She found the therapist sitting at the desk in the reception area, staring down at something on the computer screen and frowning. There were dark circles under her eyes that even a careful application of concealer couldn’t hide.

Paula looked up and immediately clicked to close out the screen. “Hi, Grace,” she said. “How’s your week going?”

“My week sucks,” Grace said flatly. “Thanks for asking.”

Paula sighed. “Is there something you’d like to discuss with the group? Is this about your divorce?”

“It’s about my life, and right now everything in my life has been screwed up by my divorce, so yeah, I think you could safely say that.” Grace felt the tote bag slung over her shoulder move ever so slightly. She started to walk into the inner office.

“Grace?”

She turned to face the therapist.

“Things will get better. I know you think they won’t. I know it’s hard. But you have to trust me. I’ve been there,” Paula said. “The pain, the rage, the bitterness—if you can find a way to let go of all that, a huge weight will be lifted from your soul.”

Grace bit her lip. She wanted to confront Paula with everything she knew or thought she knew about her arrangement with Stackpole. But she’d promised Mitzi to stay quiet until they could absolutely prove their suspicions.

“You’ve been there?” She couldn’t resist. “Through a divorce? Where you lost everything?”

“That’s right.” Paula’s eyes met hers. “I moved here to Florida … afterwards. I started over with nothing. Well, next to nothing. It hasn’t been easy.”

The outer door opened, and Camryn and Suzanne came in. Their conversation came to an abrupt end.

“We’ll talk later,” Paula said.

*   *   *

“Friends?” Paula gestured around the circle. “We’ve got so much ground to cover before your completion ceremony next week. But first, I’d like to hear about how your life is going—recovery-wise.”

She was met with five blank expressions. “Anybody?”

Nothing.

“All right. I suppose we’ll just do this the-old fashioned way. I’ll call on you, and you’ll share. Camryn?”

“Recovery-wise? Dexter’s lawyer called my lawyer this week. He wants his mother’s dining room table. Claims it has happy family memories, and it’s the only piece of furniture he wants.”

“Did you give it to him?” Ashleigh asked.

“Umm-humm,” Camryn said, looking pleased with herself. “I hope he can find a good furniture refinisher, though.”

Paula looked at her over the top of her wire-framed glasses. “Did you damage the table?”

“Not me,” Camryn said, feigning innocence. “But the movers I hired, they were sooooo clumsy. They must have just thrown it into their truck, because when Dexter got it, the top was all scratched up and gouged. I guess it looked pretty bad.”

“How bad?” Grace couldn’t resist.

Camryn held up her iPhone and scrolled through her photo roll and tapped the screen. She held up the phone for the others to see.

“What’s that say?” Suzanne asked. “It looks like writing, on the tabletop, but it’s kind of dark.”

She handed the phone to Wyatt, who looked, squinted, and laughed. “It’s writing. Looks like it says … ‘Eat shit and die’? Is that right?” He looked to Camryn for confirmation.

“I was shocked,” Camryn said, barely able to concern her merriment.

“Never mind,” Paula said, annoyed. “You know, Camryn, if you keep regressing, acting out in these childish and vindictive ways, I’m not going to be able to sign off on your successful completion of these sessions. Truly, you’re only hurting yourself.”

Camryn muttered something under her breath.

“Ashleigh?” Paula turned to the next person.

“Recovery-wise, I am fantastic,” Ashleigh said. “Really. Forgive and forget. I even went out to lunch today with one of the girls in Boyce’s office, and I never asked one question about Suchita. I’ve quit driving by her house, too.”

Paula frowned. “I’m glad to hear that, but I wasn’t aware you were engaging in such unhealthy, obsessive activities. Remember, Ashleigh, the other woman wasn’t the problem in your marriage. She was only a symptom.”

“Whatever,” Ashleigh said. “I am in a very good place right now. An awesome place.”

“Happy to hear it,” Paula said. “I wish everybody could move in that direction. Suzanne? Are things going better for you?”

“Maybe a little better,” Suzanne admitted. “It’s still too painful to talk to Eric, but I finally e-mailed him and told him that Darby has been accepted for early admission to Elon.”

Paula beamed at her star patient. “Suzanne! That’s a real breakthrough.” She looked around the circle. “Friends? Let’s give Suzanne our approval.”

The others clapped politely.

“Darby’s his daughter, too,” Suzanne said. “I know she’s conflicted—she feels loyalty to me, but she misses seeing him.”

“Hmm. Maybe Darby would like to attend one of the ‘Daughters of Divorce’ seminars I’m going to be giving,” Paula suggested. “And I’ve been thinking that might be helpful for your daughter, too, Camryn.”

“No offense, Paula, but right now I can’t afford to pay for any more of your sessions,” Suzanne said. “Maybe I’ll get her some books from the library.”

Camryn coughed loudly and looked away.

“Grace? When you came in tonight, you seemed very down about things,” Paula said. “Anything specific going on?”

“Very specific,” Grace said, biting the words out. She recounted the events of the past few days in vivid detail. “Arthur’s going to sell the house. And I’m back where I started.”

“That’s such a shame,” Suzanne said. “I’ve been following your blog. It was such an adorable house. Do you have any idea who would do such a thing?”

“A very