Free Life After Perfect by Nancy Naigle

away.”
    “Then do it.” Peggy leaned her head on Katherine’s shoulder. “You have a career and you can take care of yourself. Trust me: I’ll be in an ugly, nasty fight with Tucker for months, maybe years, over all of this. He’s going to nickel-and-dime me to death. You don’t have to go through it. If I were in your shoes, my ass would be in that cute little sports car and I’d be halfway to somewhere else by now.” She wiggled her toes again. “Well, right after I got a nice new pedi to match the car. I wouldn’t want to clash.” She laughed and nudged Katherine. “Come on, honey. Giggle a little. We have to stay positive. Somehow.”
    “Really? You’d up and run away?”
    “Yeah. Really. I mean, call Shaleigh and let her do all the legal stuff, but you don’t need to put yourself through all of this. Can’t you work from anywhere? With all the travel you do for work, I’d suspect so.”
    “I can, but I actually called my boss right after everything went down and asked for a leave of absence.”
    “Oh, girl. You are crazy if you don’t get out of here right now. What’s stopping you?”
    “I don’t know.”
    Peggy stood up. “Come on. If you’re one-hundred-percent sure you don’t want to consider forgiving him . . . then leave.”
    Could she really do that? Did she want him to come home and grovel and swear his allegiance on their relationship? Well, yeah. But would she ever believe him again? No. “I’m leaving.”
    “Good. Let’s go pack your stuff. You can be out of here, and licking your wounds in a super-nice suite with room service, before Ron ever gets home tonight.”
    Katherine sniffed back the tears, and stood . . . ready to forge ahead. “You’re right. I don’t want an apology. I don’t want to hear an excuse, or have him turn this around to be my fault. What’s done is done.”

Chapter Five
    “Come on.” Peggy hopped up and opened the front door.
    Katherine paused in the foyer. Like she was a visitor in her own house. She turned to her friend. “Peggy? I’m so sorry I never told you about Tucker crossing lines with women. I mean I never knew he actually did anything, but all the wives complained about the way he was overly friendly, and not one of us did anything to stop him. I’m so sorry. Will you ever forgive me?”
    “I know,” she said quietly. “It’s funny how crisp and clear hindsight became once I knew the truth. I wouldn’t wish it on my best friend. I’m sorry you were put in that position with Tucker. I’m sorry you’re going through this too. I wouldn’t wish this kind of betrayal on anyone.”
    But Katherine had to wonder if it was some kind of karma retaliation. If she’d been a better friend. If she’d kneed that son of a gun Tucker Allen right in the family jewels and told Peggy, maybe her own situation would be different. Something she’d never know now.
    Katherine looked around her home in a new light. It was funny how one teensy thing could change everything. Well, it wasn’t really all that little. When it came to lies, this wasn’t an itty-bitty one.
    The pictures of their happy moments sat on the mantel and tables, and now they looked like the ones that came in the frames when you buy them. Like a good-looking couple you don’t know who needs to be replaced with real people.
    “You and I don’t deserve this,” Katherine said.
    “You’re right.” Peggy took both of Katherine’s hands in her own. “Don’t forget that. We deserve better. Trust me, there will be days when you’ll find yourself searching for what you did wrong. This is their problem. Their shortcoming. Not ours.”
    “Easy to say.” Katherine sucked in a deep breath. After all, if she’d been enough, been perfect, would he have ever needed to stray? She could have stroked his ego more. It was probably hard on a he-man’s ego to have his wife make more money. Not that they ever talked about it. “You’re right. It’s going to be hard to not blame