Page 24 of Private Pleasures

“Omigod! If my mother ever said anything like that to me, I think I would die,” Carla said, but she was still giggling.

“I know. I would have never expected it from Mom,” Nora admitted. Then she continued. “She’s wiring me some money so I can keep going, I feel terrible having to have asked her, but I had nowhere else to turn.”

“Jeff’s name is off the account,” Rick said quietly. “At least your money will be safe. Nora, I have to tell you that I don’t think much of a guy who would try and cut his wife off without a penny.”

“My mother says my dad gave him ten percent of the house’s down payment so we could put twenty percent down, but on the proviso the house was in my name,” Nora told Rick.

“Any paperwork on that?” Rick asked anxiously.

“You would have to ask my mother, but I suspect no. Dad was trusting. I guess that’s where I get it from.” She drained her wine and stood up. “I’ve got to go home. J. J. and I are having supper together before he goes to the movies.”

When she had gone, Rick Johnson looked at his wife. “This isn’t just going to be messy. It’s going to be nasty. Jeff wants to put the house on the market so it can be sold before school starts next autumn. Seems there’s a co-op in town he and his next wife want to buy outright, without a mortgage. I suspect that’s where the kids’ college money has gone to as well. And don’t you tell Nora that. I’m trying to keep her calm and strong for what’s going to come. When Raoul Kramer gets a wife like Nora on the stand, she suddenly becomes a gold digger who has been leeching off her husband’s hard work for years. Judges don’t like women like that.”

“But Nora isn’t like that at all!” Carla said.

“Raoul Kramer will make her seem that way. I’ve got to make her the victim of a husband who’s discarding the wife who has been loyal and faithful, for a trophy wife,” Rick said. “Funny thing is, Nora is really reasonable about this. She wants her house, Jill and J. J.’s education taken care of, and enough support to get her through until she can get some training and enter the job market. I’ll bet she runs that house on a dime.”

“Rick, honey, you have to get her what she wants,” Carla said.

“Baby, I don’t know if I can. Jeff has planned this very carefully, and Raoul Kramer is the best. I’m just a small-town lawyer. This is really out of my league,” Rick told his wife.

“You’ll do it,” Carla said. “You may be small-town, but you’re a fighter, honey. Nora is in good hands with you behind her.”

“I’m going to try,” he said. God! Carla’s blind faith in him made it even harder. He dreaded going into the office tomorrow and calling Raoul Kramer. The guy’s client list read like a who’s who of the rich and famous. They loved him, but he had the reputation of being a snake who devoured his opponents whole. Poor Nora! Other than her fidelity and good reputation as a wife, Nora didn’t have a leg to stand on. How could Jeff Buckley be so rotten? He couldn’t be certain until he spoke to Kramer what he’d do, but he was going to fight like hell to get Nora Buckley an even break.

The following day he called her. “Hey, kiddo, it’s Rick. Make me a sandwich. I’m coming by ‘cause we gotta talk.”

“Turkey or ham?” she asked.

“Turkey,” he replied.

“What time?”

“About twelve thirty.”

Nora was irritable. She hadn’t been able to get back to The Channel since Friday night because J. J. was home in the evenings studying for his finals. She missed Kyle. She missed the raw animal sex she had enjoyed those two nights she had been with him. For the first time in her adult life she felt there was someone who cared about her. Really cared. And she wanted to be with him again. If only there were a television in her bedroom, but Jeff would never hear of it. She wondered how much it would cost to have the cable company put in another connection. But then, Jeff had exited her life but for the formalities.

Rick arrived exactly at twelve thirty. “Carla’s out,” he said to Nora as he came into the kitchen, and sat down. “I knew she would be. I didn’t want her over here sticking in her two cents, and she would be.”

“Tell me,” Nora said quietly as she set the sandwich before him, and sat down with her fat-free yogurt.

“He wants to sell the house right away. He’s got a bid in on a co-op in the city,” Rick began.

“Let him get a mortgage,” Nora said. Her heart was racing. If he took the house, where was she going to go? Where were the kids going to go when they came home?

“The lease on your car is up, and he’s not renewing it. You can buy the car from the dealer for eighty-seven hundred dollars,” Rick said. He bit into his sandwich, unable to meet her eye.

“With what?” Nora said.

“He’s canceled the car insurance on your car, J. J.’s, and Jill’s,” Rick continued. The sandwich tasted like sawdust in his mouth. He gulped some iced tea.

“What else?” Her voice seemed to her to be coming from a very long way away.

“He’s paid Jill’s first year at Duke Law, but says that’s it. She’ll have to manage to get student loans for her other two years. He won’t pay for J. J.’s college. He says his son is eighteen now, and he’s not legally responsible.”

“And?” Nora’s face was emotionless.

“No alimony,” Rick finished.