Free All In The Game (Dearly Beloved) by Virginia Crane Page A

What could she say at this late date? She and Rita had been friends since high school and there wasn’t much they didn’t know about each other—including mistakes they both made the first time around.
    Their sons always said that they were the keeper of the secrets. One evening after his father had left them, and Amanda was explaining to her son, Adam, about his father’s girlfriend, she and Rita started telling stories. That’s when Adam learned his Great Uncle John was really his Great Aunt Lena’s son and not her brother. Back in that time pregnancies outside of marriage were manipulated to appear on the up and up. She and Rita had explained to the boys that when you were born and raised in a small town like Calusa, Florida, you learned a lot of secrets. In the end, Jeff and Adam crowned their mothers the Keepers of All Secrets.
    “Back to you and Keith,” Rita said. “If you really have to get married—”
    “Who says we have to get married? I haven’t had to worry about getting pregnant for years.” Amanda kicked off her shoes and reached to the back of the dress for the zipper. “Do you want to give me a hand here? It feels like we’ve been cooped up in this cubbyhole of a dressing room all day.”
    Rita stood behind her and brushed Amanda’s hand away from the zipper tab. “Here, let me get that. There’s a hook and eye that has to be opened first. As for having to get married you know damn well that’s not what I’m talking about. Why don’t you just go to the courthouse to tie the knot? Better than that, just live together. Nobody thinks any less of you, plus you get to keep your own name. That way when it all goes sour, he can just pack his bags and boogie on out of your life.”
    “Make up your mind, woman! First you say go to the courthouse, then you say live together. I’m getting mixed messages which I don’t intend to heed. As for the name, he said it didn’t matter one way or the other so I’m not going to change my name. That way I don’t have to fill out all those annoying forms.”
    “Isn’t he just too perfect.”
    Amanda’s eyes glistened with tears of annoyance. Before Rita could undo the zipper she quickly turned to face her. “You’re starting to piss me off, so cut out the snide remarks. Do you want to be in my wedding or not? My daughter-in-law is your size. I’m sure Sarah would step in if I asked.”
    Rita took a step back and wet her lips with her tongue. “I’m sorry. Calm down. Of course, I want to be in your wedding. I just don’t understand why you’re going to the expense of having a big wedding?”
    “First, it’s a medium sized wedding. We’re only inviting fifty people, including family. I don’t think you could even classify that as medium. Neither one of us had a church ceremony the first time. Keith and his wife flew to Las Vegas; Ralph and I went to the courthouse over in Punta Gorda. Maybe that’s why things didn’t work out.”
    Rita swept that comment aside with a wave of one hand. “That’s a bunch of crap. Ralph was a womanizer from the get-go. Hells bells, he died in bed with a woman fifteen years his junior. No wonder he had a heart attack.”
    Amanda turned around again and pointed to the back of her dress. “Help get me out of this dress before they charge me room rent. I admit that Ralph was a total scoundrel, but at least he stayed until Adam graduated from high school. Although I don’t know why he even stayed that long as he was never around for his son. And by the time he bowed out of our lives I had a good secretarial job, which took take care of us both. Not that I had to worry as Adam always had a part-time job.”
    “Oh my God!” Rita snorted as she unzipped the dress. “Amanda, you’re beyond belief. Calling Ralph a scoundrel is being too kind. He was my relative and I would have used much stronger language, like he was a first class bastard. I remember when Adam was in grade school and you had to go to all the