Jennifer Crusie Bundle Read Free Page A

is what you’re so upset about. You’re free. You can do anything you want. What’s wrong with you?”
    â€œI feel stupid,” Lucy said.
    â€œWhat?” Tina leaned forward. “You? You’ve got more brains than…”
    â€œNot real-life brains. I have science brains. But real life?” Lucy shook her head. “I don’t even know what happened in my marriage. I know it was awful for me, but I would have sworn to you that Bradley was happy and he loved me, and then out of the blue, I come home and find him with a blonde. In my house. And she says they’ve been having an affair in my bedroom, and he flusters around, obviously guilty, and when I get upset, he leaves.” She sat back. “He just leaves.”
    â€œMen,” Tina said.
    â€œSo I don’t have a clue where I went wrong. The only thing I’ve ever known for sure in my whole life is that I’m smart. And now I’m not even sure about that. It’s upsetting.”
    â€œWell, if you think he was angry about the house…”
    â€œIt’s not just that he cheated on me. It’s that he won’t talk to me now. In the lawyer’s office, all he said was, ‘Is this what you want?’ And I said yes, because it was, but…” Lucy bit her lip. “He hasn’t even come by to pick up the rest of his papers and things. It’s like a chunk of my life just dropped out of sight.”
    â€œOh.” Tina shifted uncomfortably. “Well, I may have had something to do with that.”
    Lucy froze. “What did you do?”
    â€œWell. You know how upset you were when you called me that day and told me that Bradley and the blonde had just been there?”
    â€œWhat did you do?”
    â€œWell, I had the new locks put on….”
    Lucy nodded. “What else did you do?”
    â€œWell, when he came to the door to talk to you…”
    â€œHe came to the door to talk to me?”
    â€œYou were upstairs in your bedroom crying.” Tina paused. “I was…angry.”
    â€œOh, no.”
    â€œI know, I know. I lose it when I get angry.” Tina lit another cigarette, inhaled, and blew out another stream of smoke before she went on, faster now to get it over with. “Anyway, I told him that if he ever tried to talk to you again, I would have private detectives digging up every slimy thing he’d ever done, and that I would personally see that they all made the front page of the Inquirer, and that I would also find every asset he possessed and take it from him.”
    Lucy looked at her, stunned.
    â€œI think I might also have mentioned bodily harm. I was really upset. You never cry.”
    â€œSo that’s why he hasn’t called? You are something else, Tina.”
    â€œI’m sorry,” Tina said. “But I could just see him talking you back into that damn marriage. I couldn’t stand seeing you unhappy anymore.”
    â€œI wouldn’t have gone back. But I would have liked to have talked to him.” Lucy took a deep breath. “I love you, Tine, and I appreciate everything you’ve done for me, but you’ve got to get out of my life. It’s my life.”
    â€œI know, honey.” Tina fiddled with her cigarette. “But you need help. I mean, I let you pick the restaurant and look where we ended up.” She glanced around at the plastic walls and the chipped Formica. “This place is a dump.”
    â€œI had a reason for wanting to come here,” Lucy said. “Bradley wrote to me. He said if I’d have lunch here with him, he could explain everything.” Lucy looked around the cheap diner again, perplexed. “It doesn’t seem like his kind of place.”
    â€œDo you want him back?” Tina asked. “I’ll get him back if that’s what you want.”
    â€œNo.” Lucy pressed her lips together and stabbed her salad again. “That’s not