There's Always Plan B Read Online Free PDF Page A

years.”
    Carly refused to translate that into momspeak.
    â€œOf course you and Neil may work everything out and get back together,” Rhonda added.
    â€œUnlikely,” Carly said. “Not only wouldn’t I take him back, but I can’t imagine anything making him want to go back to his old life.”
    â€œI’m so sorry, dear.”
    Her mother patted her arm.
    Carly frowned. “Sorry about what?”
    â€œThat Neil left you for someone else. Is she much younger and prettier?”
    Carly didn’t know if she should laugh or cry. “No, Mom. Neil didn’t leave me for anyone. There’s no other woman. He just wanted to go find himself.”
    Â 
    Carly escaped to her room after dinner. Tiffany was going to watch TV with her grandmother and Carly took the opportunity to sneak away.
    It wasn’t that she didn’t want to be with her family, it was that she needed time to think. Nothing had turned out the way she’d thought and that was going to take some getting used to.
    At night the ocean was a blanket of darkness. She opened the windows, and although she couldn’t see waves or even whitecaps, the sound of the sea was audible and she could smell the salt air. At least that was as she remembered. But the rest of it—not so much.
    Carly settled on the window seat and stared into the darkness. At what point had her life taken this unexpected turn? Had there been signs along the way? Had she simply not been paying attention? Sure, things with Neil hadn’t been great for a while, but it hadn’t occurred to her that divorce was an option. They had a child together; there had been vows. She’d chosen to spend her life with him and a few disappointments along the way hadn’t been a reason to change her mind.
    So why had he changed his? Had his experience been worse than hers, or had he not believed in the “forever” part of their marriage? Was she a fool for staying so long, or was he a jerk for leaving? Did the truth lie somewhere in the middle?
    She wasn’t sure it mattered. After all, they were divorcing now and both starting over. Neil had his dreams and she had…Carly sighed. She had no clue what she had. A teenage daughter who would rather live with her father, a mother who had kept the news of the failing business from her only child, and a future that looked far too uncertain.
    Which meant Carly didn’t have a lot of options. Either she stayed and fought for the B and B or she left and started over somewhere else. While she’d been working steadily for the past twenty years, she wasn’t sure her recent job qualified her for much. Sure she’d run an office, but it had been small and the paycheck had matched.
    Eighteen years ago things had been different. She’d been a successful events planner and she’d loved the work. In three years she’d risen to the top, with a list of clients that made her competition weep. But then she’d had Tiffany, and the sixty- to seventy-hour workweeks and constant late nights had been impossible with a baby.
    In an effort to balance her love of event planning with having a husband and a baby, she’d turned to wedding planning. While the hours had been better, Neil had hated her being gone nearly every weekend. In truth, she’d never seen him. So she’d quit that, too, and had found the office manager job.
    Could she go back to events planning? Unfortunately she hadn’t kept in touch with many of her old friends from the business. Plus she wouldn’t like the hours anymore now than she had when Tiffany had been a baby. One of the reasons she’d come to the B and B was so that she could be around for her daughter. These last three years before she went off to college were important and Carly didn’t want to miss them.
    But she also had a responsibility to put food on the table and a roof over their heads. If events planning wasn’t an option