“Since Christmas,” he answered. “We kind of got together out in the barn the night of the Christmas party.”

That’s when she hung up, and tears began to stream down her face like a raging river. She curled up in a fetal position on the sofa and cried until her sides ached, her head pounded, and there were no more tears. Her phone pinged, and she opened it to find two messages. The first one was from Mitzi, asking her if she wanted to join her and Paula for a girls’ night out that evening. The other was from Lyle.

She opened the latter and read that he was sorry, but he was happy and he hoped that someday she would forgive him. Evidently, tears could be replenished at the drop of a hat—or maybe in this case, the opening of a message.

Jody got a fistful of plastic grocery bags from a cabinet drawer and headed back down the narrow hallway. Like a bolt of lightning, it hit her—Lyle had to have taken money from their savings to pay for their little weekend honeymoon.

Strewing bags the whole way back to the living room, she started to cuss instead of cry. Her hands shook as she typed in the right codes for her online banking account. Yesterday, there had been more than three thousand dollars in the joint checking account. Now there was only a thousand. And the savings account was gone, all but for one hundred dollars.

She sank down to the floor and leaned her head on the sofa, hoping to stop the room from spinning. There wasn’t a thing she could do about it. She and Lyle weren’t married, and they’d opened the joint accounts years ago. But come Monday morning, she’d be at the bank when it opened, and the meager amount still there would be transferred to one in her name only.

Her phone rang and she almost didn’t answer it. No way was she talking to him again—not right then or maybe ever. But then she saw Mitzi’s picture.

“I need you and Paula. It’s an emergency,” her voice quavered.

“Are you sick? Did someone die?” Mitzi asked.

Jody started to sob uncontrollably again. “Just come out here, please.”

“We’ll be there in five minutes. Don’t do anything stupid until we get there,” Mitzi said.

“Okay,” Jody blubbered.

She was still sitting on the floor, staring at her phone, when Mitzi and Paula burst through the front door. “Look.” She held it up. “He didn’t sell the property to Quincy. He was having an affair with a younger woman. And he took all our money to take her on a honeymoon and God knows what else, and all I’ve got is a travel trailer. It leaks and it doesn’t even have a bathroom. I gave up everything for him! His sister even came from Houston for the wedding. I gave up steaks and fried chicken so I’d be thin like he wanted, and he married a chubby woman who dresses like a hooker. I became a vegetarian!”

Mitzi sat on the floor with her and took the phone from her hands. “Who is this a picture of?”

“Remember I showed it to y’all after the Christmas party at the ranch last year? Lyle married her yesterday,” Jody screamed. “He’s on his honeymoon with our money right now. Married her. Because she’s pregnant, she gets a honeymoon and a damn marriage license.” Her voice came back down to a whisper. “What am I going to do? And look at this.” Jody tapped the phone a few times and handed it to Mitzi.

Paula eased down on the other side and slung an arm around Jody’s shoulders. “What am I lookin’ at?”

“Our bank account. It’s almost all gone.” She covered her eyes with her hands.

“Okay, start at the beginning.” Mitzi turned the phone off.

Between bouts of hiccups, sobs, and anger, Jody started with when she’d gotten home the night before and told them what all had happened right up until that moment and then asked again, “What am I going to do?”

“You’re going to move in with us.” Mitzi handed her a box of tissues from the end table.

“And if you want us to, we’ll buy three shovels and bury his body in a place where he’ll never be found.” Paula hugged her even tighter.

“Y’all only have two bedrooms. I can’t move in with you.”

“We have a living room with a sofa that makes out into a bed. The mattress is thin, so we’ll take the one from your guest room to go on top of it,” Mitzi said.

“And we’ll take whatever else that you want. We’ll load up your truck and be out of here in an hour,” Paula said.

“I can’t do that,” Jody argued.

“Yes, you can, and you will,” Paula said.

“I could just take a room upstairs in the business.” Jody wiped her cheeks and tossed the tissues toward the trash can, glad to have the support of her friends.

“No, you don’t need to be alone.” Mitzi got to her feet. “First thing is the mattress. You don’t want the one you’ve slept on with that cheating sumbitch, do you?”

Jody shook her head. “I can’t believe this is happening.”

“You’ll get past the denial and the numb feeling, and then you’ll get mad,” Paula said. “We’ll get your personal stuff, and then we’ll trash this place if you want us to.”

“No, I want his new little pregnant wife to see me everywhere in this place.” Jody rolled up on her toes. “The picture box is in my closet.” Like a woman on a mission, she stomped down the hallway and brought down a cardboard box. While Mitzi and Paula folded and put her clothing in garbage bags, she picked out several photos of her and Lyle through the years. She was tempted to tuck them in the cabinets, stick them on the bathroom mirror, and maybe even slip them under the pillows on the bed. But she couldn’t do it.