Page 2 of Things Good Girls Don't Do

Turning away with a mumbled good-bye, she walked toward the patch of dirt used as a parking lot and shook her head at her own stupidity. It didn’t matter that Chase Trepasso was probably one hell of a good time or that those gray eyes held enough heat to light a barbecue. Thinking about him in that way was a mistake.

Katie got into her 4Runner and headed to her little two-bedroom house on Oak Avenue. It was affordable and had plenty of room for her and her big, fat black cat, Slinks. She’d bought it seven months ago, after Jimmy had told her he was leaving their little apartment at the edge of town.

Her hands clenched every time she thought of that morning, when he’d calmly told her over a stack of waffles and black coffee that as much as he cared about her, he had met someone else. Seven years together. Seven years of washing his clothes and making him birthday cakes. Seven damn years of talk about marriage, kids, and their life together, and he had dumped her as casually as if he’d asked for the syrup. And Katie had sat there, trying not to cry because her mother had always said, “Good girls never make a scene.”

But she’d wanted too. She still did. Every time someone mentioned his name, she pictured slapping his face or busting out the windows on his stupid truck, or what he always referred to as his “baby,” right in front of him. She must have listened to that Carrie Underwood song “Before He Cheats” a hundred times a day for a month after Jimmy had come by to get his stuff with a few of his buddies. She’d left the apartment while he was there, gone to Steph’s house and bawled like a baby. Steph had tried to cheer her up, threatening all kinds of castration and venting her own hatred, but nothing had helped. When she’d learned Jimmy had rented an apartment in Twin Falls with Selena—ugh, even hernamewas better than Katie’s—she hadn’t even been relieved that she wouldn’t be bumping into them. All she could feel was rage that he had said he wasn’t “emotionally mature enough” for marriage with her, while little Miss DD just needed to wiggle her butt andboom! Two months later they were picking out curtains.

That was when she’d decided to buy the house and salon, and even though both had needed quite a bit of work, she’d valued the distraction. She’d spent months updating the house— which had needed all new fixtures and paint—and organizing all of her things the way she liked them. She could put her decorating skills on Pinterest, they were so cookie-cutter-esque.

One good thing about Jimmy leaving: no big, muddy work boots mucking up her clean floors. And she definitely had more room for her clothes and her craft corner. Her mother always said, “Idle hands are the devil’s tools.”

Katie parked her car in the carport and went to the end of her drive to get her mail. She pulled open the little white box decorated with trees and flowers, an impulsive buy from T.J. Maxx, but she loved it. Thumbing through the stack of bills, she found a large white envelope. Flipping it over, she opened the seal and pulled out the off-white invitation curiously. When Katie read the names in the perfect, swirly script, she felt like she’d been hit by a bus.

Mr. and Mrs. Harold Lenier

request the honor of your presence

to celebrate the marriage of their daughter,

Selena Marie Lenier

to

James Thomas Lawrence

How could he?She couldn’t read anymore, her vision was so blurred by angry tears. Seven years and all she had was a couple of necklaces and a pair of emerald earrings. What had Selena done that had gotten her an engagement ring in just a few months? Andwhywould he send her a wedding invitation? To hurt her? There was no reason why he would want to, at least none that she could think of. He had cheated on her, not the other way around, and the worst thing she had done was keep his favorite Toby Keith T-shirt before shredding it with a pair of scissors. What man in his right mind would think it was okay to humiliate her all over again by flaunting his happiness?

Katie stuffed the invitation back into the envelope and pulled out her cell phone.

Steph picked up on the second ring. “That low-down, no-good son of a bitch!”

Katie smiled at her best friend’s outrage and said dryly, “I take it you got one too?”

“I don’t know why in the hell he thought either Jared or I would want to go to his wedding. We only tolerated his no-good cheating butt because you thought you loved him! I tried to tell you he was shifty! Didn’t I tell you he was shifty?”

Katie rolled her eyes as she unlocked the door. “Yes, I heard shifty several times.”

“Want me to come over? I can bring a bottle of wine and some brownies from The Local Bean. We can get stuffed and wasted. Maybe even look up how to make a voodoo doll.”

Katie dropped the mail down on her table and sighed, “Thanks, but I think I’m just going to have some dinner, take a bath, and pop in a DVD.”

Katie could hear exasperation in Steph’s voice. “Katie, you cannot sit at home all the time and mope. You need to go out, have fun. Get your mind off Jimmy the Jerk-off! Maybe even meet someone new.”

Katie choked. “I don’t think I’m ready for anyone new yet. Still getting over the old one, and pretty sure I’m not going to meet anyone new in Rock Canyon.”

“So maybe you’ll meet the right one. Maybe you’ve been so blinded by Jimmy and his deceitful charm that you haven’t noticed him,” Steph suggested.

Maybe the right one doesn’t exist.“Maybe, but I doubt it. It’s a good thing you met Jared in kindergarten, otherwise you’d be fishing in the same slim-pickins pool as the rest of us.”

Steph and Jared had known each other their whole lives, started dating freshman year of high school, and married right after graduation. They’d gone to college together and were the epitome of what Katie wanted: her better half. Her soul mate.

Instead she’d gotten Jimmy, and now she didn’t even have him anymore.

“Hey, if I was single, I would be making waves in that pool, let me tell you! Your problem is that you’re such a good girl, you just try to please everyone. Name one thing you’ve done wrong. One person you’ve pissed off besides me or your mother.”

“As much as I’d love to play let’s-make-Katie-feel-worse-on-the-third-crappiest-day-of-her-life, I’m going to go. Maybe drown myself in a bathtub,” Katie said, emotionally drained.

“Shut up, you will not. Seriously, if you’re feeling that bad, I’ll be there in five.”

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