Single in Suburbia Read Free Page B

raised a perfectly shaped eyebrow. “Anyway,” she said, “I think you handled yourself really well tonight. And I figured you might need this.” She handed Amanda a business card. “I used her for all three of my divorces; she’s not afraid of anyone or anything.”
    The field lights snapped off. Coach Donovan and the boys started up the concrete stands toward them. Amanda looked down at the card. It read, Anne Justiss, Attorney at Law . And underneath her name, Get them where it hurts; in their bottom line.
    Dan Donovan reached them first. He slipped an arm around Candace’s shoulders and waited while Amanda and Brooke stood and dusted themselves off.
    “If you need any help getting Wyatt to practice or anything, Amanda, just give me a call.” He ruffled Wyatt’s hair and gave Brooke a nod. “I hope Hap will be back in town for Saturday’s game.”
    “That’s my understanding.” Brooke smiled tentatively at her stepson, but he walked right by her without responding.
    Amanda fingered the crisp white business card as they made their way up to the parking lot, their voices echoing in the late night emptiness. Clutching her jacket around her, she repeated Anne Justiss’s tagline to herself. She didn’t actually know what Rob’s bottom line was; finances had never been her thing.
    But she could definitely use someone who wasn’t afraid of anything. She only wished the same could be said for her.

 

    chapter 3
    A nne Justiss didn’t look like a man-eater. In fact, with her short stylishly wispy blonde hair, cornflower blue eyes, and upturned nose, the attorney looked kind of like Cameron Diaz. Or the wholesome girl next door your mother would want you to hang out with.
    “I understand Candace Sugarman referred you to me,” she said as she met Amanda in the doorway of her large corner office in the pricey midtown high rise and showed her to a seat opposite her desk.
    “Yes.”
    The attorney settled in her chair and folded her hands on the top of her glass and lacquer desk. “Candace is an unusual client. Completely proactive. We worked together a number of times.”
    Amanda shifted uncomfortably in her seat. The idea of even one divorce made her palms sweat.
    “Why don’t you fill me in on your situation.”
    “It’s nothing particularly novel, I’m afraid,” Amanda said. “My husband moved out a couple of months ago in order to find himself.”
    “And has he?”
    “I don’t know, but he, um, seems to have found a girl named Tiffany. I got to meet her at our son’s baseball game the other night.”
    The attorney’s eyes narrowed. “I hate that they think they can just run off and do whatever they like. How many children do you have?”
    “Two.”
    “How old are they?”
    “My daughter’s fifteen, Wyatt’s twelve.”
    “Do you work outside the home?”
    Amanda shook her head. “No.”
    “Is he still paying all the bills?”
    “I, um, think so.”
    One blonde eyebrow went up. “But you don’t know ?”
    Amanda swallowed and wiped her hands on the sides of her skirt. “Rob’s always deposited a certain amount in the household account each month and that hasn’t changed. I assume he’s still paying the mortgage and the car payments. He’s, uh, always written the checks for the bigger stuff.”
    “And your savings? Stock portfolios? Other joint accounts and assets?”
    “I don’t know.”
    Anne Justiss held Amanda’s gaze with her own. “If your husband came home tomorrow and told you he was sorry, would that be enough for you?”
    Amanda thought about that one. Her wounded pride shouted absolutely not, you can’t let him get away with this! But the frightened part of her, the scared, shaking part deep inside, wasn’t so sure. “I don’t know.”
    “May I be brutally honest with you?”
    Amanda swallowed. “Do you have to?” she joked, but Anne Justiss didn’t smile back.
    “In my experience once a man moves out and starts another relationship, especially if he’s