Barely Behaving. JENNIFER LABRECQUE
laugher.
“Nope. Wrong on both counts. I’m a reformed romantic who’s evolved into a realist.” It was almost embarrassing to recall her naive certainty at seventeen that she and Jerry would love one another forever. That had died a swift but painful death when she’d caught him boinking Lilly Lawson. She’d hoped for love ’til death do us part when she’d married Allen. By the time she’d married Earl—she wasn’t proud to admit it, even to herself—there’d been a hint of desperation in her pursuit of true love. “After three matrimonial rounds, I’ve figured out men consider fidelity a mutual fund investment.”
Olivia uttered a compound obscenity Tammy’d never heard her use before. Actually, she didn’t think Olivia knew words like that.
“Did you learn that from Luke?” It was still mind blowing Olivia had married a rebel like Luke Rutledge instead of Luke’s straight-arrow brother, whom she’d dated. Almost as strange as Tammy and Olivia becoming close friends and confidantes after thirty years of uneasy sisterhood.
Olivia smirked and pushed her tortoiseshell glasses more firmly on her nose. “No. I already knew it. But he does encourage me to use it.”
“Well, don’t get all wigged out about my exes. The way I see it, they did me a favor. Who knows if I would’ve even finished massage therapy school and I probably wouldn’t have opened my own business if I’d stayed with Earl.”
Indignation rolled off Olivia. “What a load of rot, telling you he was sleeping around because you were too busy with classes and work.”
Tammy shrugged and turned on the blender, grinding the fruit and ice to a smoothie. “He was an affair waiting to happen. If it’d been up to Earl, I’d still be doing acrylics in his sister’s salon and asking him for grocery money each week.”
Olivia would never know the half of it. Earl had made Tammy’s life hell. A shiver slid down her spine. Just talking about it made her appreciate what a close call she’d had.
Olivia swore again.
“You like that word don’t you?”
“It’s appropriate.”
“Well, at least half of it’s on target, but I don’t think it’s fair to drag his mother into it. Anyway, I’m kicking butt in the best way possible. Living well is the best revenge. I’ve got my own house, my own business, and I’ve done it on my own. All of them thought I was nothing without them. Hell, for the longest time, I thought I was nothing without them.”
Another mood shift struck again and Olivia teared up. “I am so proud of you. You’ve done great.”
“Thanks.” Olivia’s approval meant a lot to her. “I have done great.” Tammy loved her small house, her business and her newfound independence. She was doing better than great—not too shabby for the white-trash girl with the bad reputation whose mother abandoned their family and whose father couldn’t kick the bottle. And it had only taken her fifteen years and three bad marriages to find herself. She wasn’t about to get off track again.
She poured their liquid lunch into two glasses.
“I’d like to propose a toast,” Olivia said, hoisting her glass. “Goodbye, Earl.”
“I’ll drink to that.” She clinked her glass against her sister’s, elated to close that chapter of her life. She didn’t even want to talk about it anymore. She was her own woman now. “And here’s to spending the rest of my day off working on my Vitamin D therapy.” Tammy laughed at Olivia’s blank expression. “I’m going to work on my all-over tan.”
“You’re nuts. It’s November.”
“It’s gorgeous outside—a record high today and then it’s supposed to be twenty-five degrees cooler tomorrow. Plus the Walters’ place next door has been sold. That means my naked tanning days are numbered.”
And it was one of her favorite things to do. Between a screen of trees and her fence, she couldn’t see Mrs. Flander’s house to her right at all. Unfortunately, the Walters’ backyard offered an unencumbered view of her patio about halfway down the fence line.
“Go for it.” Olivia glanced at her watch and jumped up. “Gotta run. We’ve got a seniors’ book club meeting at the library in half an hour. Thanks for the smoothie, congrats on getting rid of Earl and enjoy your afternoon naked.”
“Thanks. Maybe I’ll get lucky and run into Mr. Right Now.” Olivia shook her head. Tammy laughed and pressed several smoothie additive packets into Olivia’s hand. “Don’t forget to drink one a day. It’s good for you and the babelet.”
“Yes, boss.”
Tammy waited until Olivia reached her car before she closed the front door.
It was time to get naked.
1
“I LIKE IT ALREADY.” Niall Fortson stood next to the U-Haul beneath the sprawling oak that encompassed the postage-stamp front yard. He breathed in deeply, filling his lungs with fresh, clean air.
As an army brat, he’d traipsed from military post to military post, all the while craving a place where he could put down roots and start a family. A place similar to his grandparents’ small town, where he’d spent his summers chasing fireflies at dusk and fishing the deep pools along the banks of the muddy Cohutta.
Colthersville, Georgia, was just where he wanted to be.
Gigi, a Pomeranian Chihuahua mix, and Memphis, a cream puff disguised as a bull mastiff, clambered out of the moving van.
Cissy Simpson, the local Realtor, kept a careful eye on Gigi and Memphis as she beamed and gestured toward the residential street with its modest frame houses. “It’s an older neighborhood, but quiet and the backyards are nice and big.” She flashed a professional smile and herded him up the walkway. “Just what you ordered and quite a deal.”
He followed Cissy toward the broad steps fronting the porch. Gigi and Memphis dashed around the yard, marking bushes with the frenzy of dogs in a new place.
“The dogs like it.”
“Good.” She smiled tightly at the dogs. Definitely a cat person. “Now let’s see…the front steps have been replaced. The whole house has a fresh coat of paint….”
His mind wandered while she ran through her litany of the owner’s improvements. The rambling frame house with its mullioned windows was a far cry from the brick-fronted Georgian tract mansion he’d shared with Mia in their cookie-cutter subdivision. He already preferred this.
And he’d feel the same even if he wasn’t still mildly—okay, actively—pissed off that Mia had flushed eight years together down the toilet rather than marry him. It wasn’t Colthersville or the move she’d objected to. They’d always planned on Niall buying into a small-town practice and on getting married. But when the time came, Mia had been willing to make the move but not willing to marry him, regardless of how important it was to him.
She’d dictated they could move on her terms or he could leave alone.
He’d left. The house. The furniture. Her. He’d grabbed his animals, his books, his veterinary journals and a hodgepodge of stuff from his college days that Mia had relegated to the basement, and left. Yeah, it still rankled.
“So, are you ready to see the inside?” Cissy stared at him expectantly.
He shook off the past. “Let me get the cats out first,” he said.
Cissy waited by the front door while he retrieved the cat carriers from the front seat of the moving van.
Niall mounted the steps with Tex and Lolita. “This is the new place, guys.” The cats blinked, still mellowed by tranquilizers.
“You’re a veritable Dr. Doolittle.” Cissy eyed the cats much more