Naked Ambition

“Divorce is too good for him.”

“The only thing I want from my marriage is what I brought to it,” Susannah said bravely. “Just Banner Manor. And it would do me good to have sex with somebody else. Anybody, really. Maybe even a few people,” Susannah added, the idea taking hold.

“I’m going to sleep with everybody I can,” Ellie assured her.

Imagining all the hypothetical studs, Susannah said, “They wouldn’t even have to be very cute, would they?”

“No. The whole point would be to get our minds off J.D. and Robby.”

“I can’t watch J.D. pack his bags,” Susannah admitted. “I’d feel too sorry for him and maybe have pity sex. He’s the one who should move into Hodges’ Motor Lodge.” It was where all husbands in Bayou Banner went during separations.

“You have money. You’re still handling J.D.’s finances.”

She could write herself a check for the trouble he’d caused her, but Susannah never would. “I don’t want J.D.’s money.” She’d settle for the ghost of the man she married. She’d been so sure she was marrying a guy who would run a tackle shop his whole life, and who’d be a good daddy to his kids.

“We can share a place until he leaves Banner Manor,” Ellie urged. “I’ll lend you cash until he’s out of the house.”

It would only be for a week or so. “I hate leaving him in Banner Manor, even for ten minutes.” Especially with Sandy there. Fighting tears, she told herself that the other woman was no longer her concern since she was leaving J.D.

“It won’t be for long,” Ellie said. “Your folks left the house to you. J.D. doesn’t need it. Between a lawyer and Sheriff Kemp, all those people will be gone soon.”

By then, Susannah should have racked up some flings and J.D. would be just a memory.

“I just wish he wasn’t such a…” Pausing, she searched for the right words and settled on, “Alpha man.”

“Him and Robby both. Alphas of the Delta.”

Susannah almost smiled at the play on words, but her heart was hurting. Suddenly tires screeched outside. She and Ellie craned their necks to peer through Delia’s window just as a late-model black truck swerved on Palmer and turned down Vine.

“J.D.,” Susannah muttered. “He’s going to kill somebody driving like that. And with my luck, it won’t even be himself.”

“At least he’s not in that new boat,” Ellie muttered.

Named the Alabama, the cabin cruiser was docked at a marina on the river. Given the wild company J.D. was keeping, Susannah had blown a gasket when she’d seen it, knowing that somebody would eventually was going to get hurt. “You’re too cautious,” J.D. had said. “You’ve got to loosen up, Susannah. Have a good time.”

Like he did last night, Susannah thought once more, an image of Sandy’s nude body flashing in her mind. “He’s probably headed to June’s. I told him I was going there, and that you were on a business trip, so he wouldn’t follow me here.” Her voice broke. “Oh, Ellie, what happened to him?”

“Fame. He changed, Susannah. He wasn’t always like this. He used to be one of the best people I know.”

Susannah’s eyes narrowed. Suitcases were piled in the backseat of Ellie’s car. “You packed already?”

“My flight’s in an hour. I came to say goodbye.”

Goodbye? Susannah stared at the corner of Palmer and Vine, from which her husband had just vanished. The intersection had been a landmark as far back as she could remember, but now J.D. was out of sight and Ellie was saying goodbye. Susannah was at the crossroad, too. She loved J.D. Still, she deserved a more stable life with a man who wouldn’t betray her.

“J.D.’s obviously not home now,” she found herself saying. “So…I’ll run in and grab a few things.”

“Really?”

Susannah nodded. “I’ll come with you, Ellie.”

A heartbeat passed, then the two women said in unison what they always had when making a new memory together. It was the phrase that had prompted them to have the charms on their necklaces engraved, one that had started so many sentences of their conversations. “Remember the time.”

Already, both could hear the other saying, “Remember the time we were sitting in Delia’s Diner? You know, the day we left J.D. and Robby?”

In years to come, it might well prove to be their most pivotal decision. “Remember the time,” they whispered, eyes locking. Then they hooked pinkie fingers, shut their eyes and made silent wishes. A moment later, after leaving bills on the table, they headed toward the door.

“Ladies!” Delia called. “You didn’t clean my plates, and now I’m going to have to wash them! You didn’t even eat your dessert. Where are you going in such a hurry?”

“On an adventure,” Susannah called as she opened the door.

And then she and Ellie linked arms and stepped across the threshold, toward their future.

Chapter Two

Eight months later

“SUSANNAH, YOU’RE MORE FAMOUS than J.D.,” Ellie teased, smoothing a hand over her black cocktail dress and looking around Susannah’s restaurant. “And any minute now, you’re going to get the call saying J.D. finally agreed to your terms in the divorce!”

“Don’t forget your polling company has been just as successful. Besides, none of this would have happened without you and Joe,” Susannah said breathlessly, her heart full to bursting as she glanced around the cozy eatery she’d opened six months before, then at Joe O’Grady the man who’d unexpectedly walked into her life. “When the foxhole shuts, the rabbit hutch opens,” her mama had always said. Still, Susannah was nervous about getting the call she expected from her lawyer tonight.

At noon, when she’d spoken to J.D. for the first time in eight months, he’d said, “Susannah, come home. Come tonight. Now. We have to talk.”

“Not after what you did.”

“I didn’t sleep with her.”

“Liar.”

“Listen to me, sweetheart.”

Against her will, she’d felt his voice pulling her heartstrings. “Are your friends still in our house?”

Our house. She’d said the words, knowing Banner Manor would remain hers and J.D.’s even after he was no longer allowed inside. “They’re not my friends.”

“At least you finally realized that.”

“I’ll get everybody out.”

That meant he hadn’t yet. “Promises,” Susannah managed to say. “I can’t see you,” she’d added, then kicked herself for even having considered it.

“Just do it. We’re worth it. What about all the years we’ve spent together? Come to town. Don’t meet me at the house. That way you won’t see any other people. Go to the Alabama,” he’d coaxed, picking up on her vulnerability. “Just you and me. No lawyers. No music people. There’s a direct flight in two hours. I checked. You’ll be at the airport in Bayou Blair by seven this evening, on the Alabama by eight. Just go outside right now and catch a cab to the airport. Don’t pass go. You know we can’t get a divorce.”

It was just like him, spontaneous to a fault, showing he’d never change, but she’d begin to weaken, anyway. “I can’t.”

“You have to, Susannah.”

“Why?”