“Remember I showed it to y’all after the Christmas party at the ranch last year? Lyle married her yesterday,” Jody screamed. “He’s on his honeymoon with our money right now. Married her. Because she’s pregnant, she gets a honeymoon and a damn marriage license.” Her voice came back down to a whisper. “What am I going to do? And look at this.” Jody tapped the phone a few times and handed it to Mitzi.

Paula eased down on the other side and slung an arm around Jody’s shoulders. “What am I lookin’ at?”

“Our bank account. It’s almost all gone.” She covered her eyes with her hands.

“Okay, start at the beginning.” Mitzi turned the phone off.

Between bouts of hiccups, sobs, and anger, Jody started with when she’d gotten home the night before and told them what all had happened right up until that moment and then asked again, “What am I going to do?”

“You’re going to move in with us.” Mitzi handed her a box of tissues from the end table.

“And if you want us to, we’ll buy three shovels and bury his body in a place where he’ll never be found.” Paula hugged her even tighter.

“Y’all only have two bedrooms. I can’t move in with you.”

“We have a living room with a sofa that makes out into a bed. The mattress is thin, so we’ll take the one from your guest room to go on top of it,” Mitzi said.

“And we’ll take whatever else that you want. We’ll load up your truck and be out of here in an hour,” Paula said.

“I can’t do that,” Jody argued.

“Yes, you can, and you will,” Paula said.

“I could just take a room upstairs in the business.” Jody wiped her cheeks and tossed the tissues toward the trash can, glad to have the support of her friends.

“No, you don’t need to be alone.” Mitzi got to her feet. “First thing is the mattress. You don’t want the one you’ve slept on with that cheating sumbitch, do you?”

Jody shook her head. “I can’t believe this is happening.”

“You’ll get past the denial and the numb feeling, and then you’ll get mad,” Paula said. “We’ll get your personal stuff, and then we’ll trash this place if you want us to.”