Free Totlandia: Winter by Josie Brown Page A

It’s a disaster! Everyone is showing up by noon, and all they’ll have to eat is a frozen turkey!”
    “At least by then it will be defrosted. But yes, it will be raw.”
    “That’s what I mean! This is a disaster! And to think, if you hadn’t been here early to bake those pies, I’d have never known the difference, and Brady would have been embarrassed. He’s already worried that I might have blown it with Bettina, now that Kelly is her new favorite. If Oliver and I get bumped, he’ll send me back to Los Angeles…”
    The torrent of fear flowing out of her ended in a trickle of tears. She had said much too much. Thank goodness Brady was out on a jog.
    And yet, it felt good to finally say something, to someone.
    “ What? Jade, what did you mean when you said ‘he’ll send you back?’”
    Jade hung her head in shame. “The truth is…our marriage was annulled. When Ollie was five months old. I—I did something bad. Something Brady couldn’t forgive.”
    “Nothing could be that bad.”
    “It was. Horrible. Just…the worst.”
    And that’s how it came out, how she’d left Oliver with her talent manager while she auditioned for a film.
    All because she knew she was already losing Brady.
    “I love him too much to lose him again,” she whispered. Her sniffling was making the children cry. She peeled an apple and cut it up for them. The sweetness was the perfect distraction.
    If only all of life were that way , she thought.
    When she finally looked over at Jillian, she noticed that she was also crying.
    She couldn’t help but laugh. “Now don’t you start, too!”
    The tears flew off Jillian’s face as she shook her head. “I can’t help it. I mean, no one is at all what they seem. Not you, not me, not Ally—”
    “What do you mean, ‘not you?’”
    “Why do you think Scott isn’t with us now? I lied! He isn’t out of the country on business. It’s because he ditched us, that’s why! He got his assistant pregnant, and he’s chosen her over us.” Jillian laid her head against the frozen turkey so that the children couldn’t see her cry, too. It felt so cool against the red-hot shame she felt on her face.
    “Oh, Jillian, I—I didn’t know.” Jade shook her head in awe. “Wow. Well, I guess it’s good to know I’m not the only one with a big bad lie that can get me kicked out of the club.”
    “Ha! Trust me, you’re not. In fact, we should start our own ‘liars’ club,’ you, me and—” She stopped mid-sentence, remembering she had no right to let Ally’s secret out of the bag, too.
    “Hey, wait now! There’s someone else with a secret? Who…” Jade’s eyes opened wide. “Ally! Oh my God! Now you’ve got to tell me what it is!”
    Jillian’s sigh seemed to go on forever. She closed her eyes, as if maybe doing so was one way in which to escape Jade’s inquisition.
    Wrong. When she opened them, Jade was still quivering with curiosity. “Okay, okay, okay! But you cannot—I repeat, you cannot —tell her I told you. And you certainly cannot tell Brady. Not about her, or about me either, Jade.”
    “No worries there!” Jade motioned with a crisscross over her heart. She loved her new friends. Whatever happened with the club, she believed that they could all stay close, regardless. At least that was her hope. Especially if it were the Pierces who got dumped.
    “Yes, it’s Ally. She’s a single mom. Zoe had a sperm donor—her gay best friend. He’s also her attorney, and he got her a super buy-out for her company, Foot Fetish.”
    Jade squealed. “Foot Fetish? I love that company! I buy all my shoes there!”
    “Okay, now you know. Everyone’s secret is safe with everyone else, right?”
    “I guess.” Jade stared down at the turkey. “And Lorna knows about you, too? So, what do you think Lorna’s secret is? Did she tell you?”
    “Nope. If she has one, I have no idea what it is.” Jillian could imagine, though, that it had something to do with Dante’s