Free Friends Forever by Danielle Steel

be to his younger son. “You’ll be okay. I promise. It’s actually better now for me too. It took me a while to get used to not having my mom here, but she was never really here anyway. And your dad isn’t either. He’s always out with clients or friends, drinking. You said so yourself.” She could hear Billy calm down as they talked.
    “It’s going to be really strange to not have him here,” Billy said sadly. He didn’t like the idea of his parents getting divorced, but he didn’t like how his dad treated his mom either, and she was unhappy all the time, and had been for years. There was no pretending anymore.
    “Yeah, it’ll be weird for a while,” Izzie agreed with him, there was no point lying, and she never did, “but then it will be good.” He didn’t answer for a long time, and then they talked some more for a few minutes. Izzie was supportive and comforting as she always was. They all considered her the wise woman in their midst and the person they could count on for reassurance and emotional support. It was just like when she’d made them all lunch on the first day of kindergarten, to make them feel comfortable and at home. Izzie was there for each of them when things got tough for them. Billy looked and felt better by the time they hung up. There was so much to say, and to worry about. All Billy knew for surenow was how grateful he was to have his friends. He couldn’t have gotten through any of it without them. They were the greatest gift he had.
    And when he saw his mother a little while later, she already looked better, and Brian was smiling when he came downstairs. And Billy wondered if Izzie was right. She usually was. Billy went to see Gabby then, to tell her the news. She wasn’t surprised. They talked for a long time that morning.

Chapter 5
    A year later, during junior year of high school for the Big Five, Brian and Billy had become latchkey kids, but they were old enough to handle it. Billy was sixteen and kept an eye on Brian, who was eleven. Billy usually had football practice after school, but when he did Brian hung around to watch. He loved watching Billy play. His big brother was the star quarterback. Gabby came to watch him too. They were still the only real couple in school, but they handled it responsibly, and even the teachers were touched by how devoted they were to each other. Gabby had helped get Billy through the divorce, and so had his other friends. Izzie was his adviser in all matters relating to the divorce, since she’d been through it herself. And the only thing Izzie hadn’t prepared him for, because she hadn’t experienced it herself, was that his mother started dating right away, which upset him. And his father was going out with hordes of young girls, most of them only a few years older than Billy. Larry made no secret of the fact that he was sleeping with every hot young body he could lay his hands on. Infact, he bragged about it to anyone who would listen, even his son, and his drinking hadn’t improved. It had gotten worse. He was out of control, and Billy worried about him.
    Marilyn had gotten a job almost immediately selling residential and commercial real estate. She had passed the exam and was doing well at a large firm, learning the ropes, and she seemed to have a knack for it, and enjoyed it. She had gotten their house in the divorce, and after seventeen years of marriage, Larry had to pay her spousal support, and although he complained about it to Billy, he could afford it. Marilyn’s whole life had turned around. The divorce had been final for six months, and as soon as it was, she had met Jack Ellison, a good-looking man in his late forties, divorced, with two boys of his own in Chicago. He owned a successful restaurant downtown that was a popular meeting place for businesspeople for lunch or dinner. It wasn’t chic or trendy, but it was a solid business. He had opened a second equally popular restaurant in the Napa Valley the year before.
    Jack