Amy slammed the portable phone so hard into the phone tray it bounced back out and fell to the floor. She eyed it before she kicked it across the room.

Amy sat down at the table and folded her hands. Andy had never spoken to her like that in his life. Where, all of a sudden, was he getting his nerve? Did he really think he could handle the fallout if he confessed? If she couldn’t handle it, how could he? Was Jill his backbone?

She closed her eyes and tried to think what her life would be like without Andy in it. If he patched things up with Jill, that meant she was out in the cold, with just Arnie and the girls. She would have to avoid her parents because she wouldn’t be able to stand their harping and whining.

God, it was such a mess.

And all because Cady Jordan was back in town.

“I have to go to Squirrel Hill this morning, Amy. No breakfast for me. I’ll just take a coffee to go. If you want, I can drop the girls off at school and save you a trip. What’s wrong, honey, you look tired? Didn’t you sleep well?”

“Hardly at all. It’s that time of the month,” Amy lied to her husband. “The girls love it when you drop them off at school. They’re on the front porch waiting. Thanks, Arnie. I think I might go back to bed and see if I can get rid of this headache. Have a nice day,” she said, pecking him on the cheek.

Amy walked her husband to the door, kissed him again and her daughters before she picked up the morning paper. She waited until the car was out of sight before she went back into the house. This was her favorite time of day, after everyone was gone and she could sit in the breakfast nook with the sun streaming through the window.

She poured her coffee, added four sugars and cream before she shook out the Indigo Sentinel. Her eyes almost popped out of her head when she saw the picture of Cady Jordan in what looked like either a very daring outfit or her underwear. She gasped in horror as she tried to imagine herself caught in the same circumstances. The three rolls of extra flesh under her bosom and her cellulite probably wouldn’t photograph well.

Even in her underwear, if that’s what she was wearing, Cady Jordan looked like a million bucks.

Amy read every single line in the paper not once but twice before she ran upstairs to shower and dress. She was out of the house in less than fifteen minutes and on her way to the bakery, where she knew Julie Ambrose would have the latest scoop. Probably half the town would be in the bakery discussing the contents of the morning paper. Just about every businessman in town stopped at the bakery for their morning coffee and Danish. All she would have to do was sit and listen.