Getaway Girlz Read Online Free

off — I threw his only set of truck keys in the bushes!”
    “Good for you!” Wendy gave her a high-five from the front seat.
    “And you want to hear something funny? He found my sandals the next day and eventually gave them back to me. Dumb-ass.”
    Vivian finished her beer and pushed another into her koozie.
    “My divorce should be final in a week or so. I’m just glad I found out about the SPS —swimming pool slut. It helps explain things. I missed a lot of signs.”
    “So do you think you could forgive him and maybe y’all work things out?” Kate asked (obviously just married).
    “He did call in the middle of the night a few weeks after he left and before the pool incident and asked, ‘What’s wrong with me?’ I told him he had five people at home who loved him very much, but that was pretty much the only time he made any effort to reach out. He’s gone.”
    “How are the kids taking this? Have they met the SPS?” Wendy asked reluctantly.
    Vivian’s tears started up again.
    “They’re so young. They really don’t understand, but no, I don’t think they’ve met her. I’ve already called a child therapist, but she can’t see Audrey for two months. She just turned 4 so she asks questions, but she’s the only one, and she just wants to know why daddy isn’t home anymore. I can’t even use the word ‘divorce’ around her yet. The twins are too little to have any idea, and Lauren doesn’t get it, either. One day they will. I’ll just cross that bridge when I get there.”
    “I can’t believe you’re getting divorced,” Kate said.
    “Well, they say that 50 percent of marriages go south. When I took my vows I meant them. Sure, the FedEx guy at my office was tempting. I mean, he’s there twice a week, and he always seems to brush his fingertips across more than my hand when he gives me that little pretend pen, but come on. I wasn’t straying. Who has the time? Or energy?”
    “Apparently, he did,” Lucy muttered. Then she turned to Vivian. “Sorry.”
    “It’s okay.”
    “What about his family? What are they saying?” Kate asked.
    “They’re devastated. His parents couldn’t believe it when I told them the swimming pool debacle. The only person who wasn’t surprised was my lawyer. She knows Rick and had a sneakin’ suspicion something was going on. She even called the day after I found out about the SPS to check on me.”
    “Do you think she knew?” Wendy asked.
    “I think she knew something, but not everything. She asked if I wanted to change any of the divorce terms. I told her hell yes. I want it all . Before I was okay splitting some of the assets. Not anymore.”
    “Is Rick pissed?” Lucy asked.
    “Yeah, but he’s not fighting. I’m getting pretty much everything. Only thing Rick gets is a broken DVD player, an old microwave and a $500 piece-of-nothing property in the middle of nowhere.”
    “I can’t believe he would agree to that,” Kate said.
    “Well, with news of his affair spreading like wildfire across the courthouse, I guess he thought better of it. So now it’s almost done. Not exactly where I was expecting to be on my 30th birthday. Money will be tight, but things could be worse. For now, I just want to have a great trip, and I'll probably need lots of liquid encouragement along the way.” Vivian tilted her beer up.
    The rest of the drive they spent catching up — relatives, jobs. All of the families and extended families were good. Wendy’s 18-month-old niece, Lizzie, was responding well to cancer treatment from Dr. Burzynski in Houston. She had been diagnosed at 6 months old with a rare form of adrenal cancer and given only four months to live by other cancer centers. Though her tumors were shrinking, every day for her was a miracle.
    Lucy started Handel’s “Hallelujah Chorus,” and they all chimed in. They were in band, not choir, and it was a good thing nobody else could hear them. Lucy had a great voice, but the rest of them…not so