Full Moon Read Online Free PDF Page B

signed up for a kickboxing class.
    “I’m down another five. Brings me to twenty-two total. It’s a drop in the bucket in terms of how much I need to lose, but at least the scale’s going down, not up. Now, no more dodging. Why were you grinning like the Cheshire Cat when I got here?”
    Josie gestured to the second floor. “Come upstairs with me while I finish doing my makeup and I’ll tell you.”
    Shelly nodded and followed her up, then put the lid down on the toilet and made herself comfortable.
    Josie picked up her mascara. “I don’t think Tony likes the idea of me going out.”
    Shelly tilted her head in annoyance. “So what? He gave up the right to give a shit when he signed his name on those divorce papers.”
    “Oh, I know that. It just feels good to get under his skin. I really think that arrogant idiot thought I was going to spend the rest of my life sitting in this townhouse, crying over him.”
    Shelly picked up a tube of lipstick, testing the color on her hand. “Then good. I’m glad he’s irritated. Serves him right.”
    Josie brushed some blush on her cheeks. She’d wanted to talk to Shelly since her last night out, but between Shelly’s long hours and the fact that Tommy was almost always within earshot, she hadn’t had a chance.
    “I’m feeling better than I have in a long time.”
    Shelly frowned. “I didn’t know you were feeling bad.”
    Josie lifted one shoulder dismissively. “I don’t mean I was depressed or anything. I just mean I’m feeling more hopeful about my future.”
    “What was wrong with your future?”
    Shelly had always sort of idolized Josie. And Josie had never bothered to correct her friend’s mistaken assumptions because Shelly’s belief in her made her feel stronger than she really was.
    Problem was, lately, she was tired of hiding, of pretending to be something she wasn’t.
    “I didn’t leave Tony.”
    Shelly stopped putting on the lipstick and stared at her. “What do you mean?”
    “He left me.”
    “But I thought you said after you found out he was having an affair, you filed for divorce.”
    Josie looked down at the sink and forced herself to tell a truth she’d hidden from her friend for nearly two years. Shame had kept her quiet. “No. He confessed to the affair and moved out. And I actually fought with him, asked him to stay. I thought maybe we could work things out. I figured we’d go to counseling, I’d forgive him for the affair, he’d swear to never see that woman again and all would be well.”
    “Why would you do that?”
    Josie bit her lower lip. “Tommy. My parents divorced when I was young and I swore I’d never put my kid through that.”
    “So you’d put up with a cheating husband?”
    “No. Hell no. The affair would have had to stop. I couldn’t live with that, but…” Josie paused, trying to figure out how she could explain. Shelly’s parents were still married—happily married—after thirty years.
    “But what?” Shelly prodded.
    “It’s different when there’s a child involved. If it had just been me and Tony, and he’d cheated on me, I would have kicked his ass out in a New York minute. I would have tossed all his shit out on the lawn, changed the locks and never looked back. But I couldn’t do that because of Tommy.”
    “Tommy loves his dad.”
    Josie nodded. “So much. And Tony, for all his faults—and believe me, he has a ton—loves Tommy. There’s nothing I wouldn’t do for my son.”
    “Even if it meant living with a philandering husband?”
    Josie rubbed her forehead. “I hope to God I would have been strong enough to dump him if the affair continued.”
    “You don’t think you would have?”
    “I don’t think he only had one affair.”
    Shelly frowned. “What?”
    “There were other women. I never caught him and he never confessed as much, but…yeah, I’m sure there were others.”
    “I’m sorry, but I still don’t think you would have put up with the cheating forever. You have too