Deadbeat Dads by Roseanne Dowell Read Free Book Online

gotten through to Bob.
    Or had I?
    Did I get through to him, or was it something else, something more sinister. Something about that meeting didn’t sit well with me. I had the feeling Bob gave me the money more to get rid of me, than for his daughter. I’d have to do some checking into Bob Brown’s past, see what was going on. Something fishy about that conversation, now that I thought about it, not to mention, Bob’s eagerness to get rid of me. He all but jumped through hoops as long as I agreed not to divulge his whereabouts. Who was he really hiding from?
    “Is Alice gonna have to move?” Katie buckled her seatbelt and stuck her tongue out at Josh.
    “I honestly don’t know, honey. I hope not.” Boy, I hadn’t even given that a thought. How could Becky afford to keep that big house? She could and probably would get a job, in fact she’d probably have to, but she’d never make enough to make those huge payments. And I wasn’t stupid enough to think the house was paid off, they hadn’t lived in it long enough. It was a good bet Fred wasn’t going to make the payments.
    Of course , if Becky sold it, she’d get a pretty penny for it, and she’d be able to afford something smaller, something more like mine. Not that there was anything wrong with my house, it served its purpose and was plenty comfortable for us, even when Johnny lived there. At least I got that as part of the divorce agreement. I kept the house and continued making the payments. Fortunately, my job paid substantially enough and the payments weren’t all that high. In fact in five more years the house would be mine free and clear.
    Becky was going to have a rough row to hoe. Looking for a job after being out of the field for so long would be the hardest. And dentistry had changed so much the last fifteen years. Hopefully, someone would give her a break. The smart thing for Becky would be go back to school get her degree and become a hygienist. Dentists were always looking for good hygienists. Maybe I’d suggest that to her. Fred could foot the bill. After all, he owed her something for all those years.
    I pulled into my drive and followed the kids into the house.
    “How come Mr. Johnson left?” Katie took off her jacket and threw it on a chair.
    “I don’t know, Kate, sometimes people do things, and we never know the reason. Hang your coat in the closet, please.” I didn’t know the answer myself. What made people fall out of love? Johnny and I had started out ready to change the world. Then he began working long hours. He changed. And I was stuck in the house with the kids. Not that I minded. I loved being a housewife and mother. But somewhere along the line I had lost my appeal to Johnny, and he looked elsewhere.
    Not that he had to look far. Babette fell into his lap , so to speak. Ready, willing, and able. And if I knew Johnny, he handed her a line. I could hear him now - I didn’t understand him. We were married in name only. I was a bitch. Oh yeah, I knew the drill. Had almost fallen into it myself with someone else before I met Johnny. But I wasn’t that dumb. Besides, I knew the wife. After their divorce, I found out the truth and what a rat he really was. Last I heard he was on wife number three. His newest, and youngest, assistant. Left wife number two as penniless as number one, while he lived high off the hog.
    My world consisted of kids, cooking, shopping and carpooling. Johnny wasn’t interested in the kids once they reached school age. In fact, he didn’t seem too interested in Katie at all. At least in the beginning he seemed to enjoy Josh, but as the work demand increased, his interest decreased. Success - that was his main goal. Make more money. Money was the name of the game.
    Once he started his own practice, we hardly ever saw him. Even after it was established, his hours grew longer and longer and business trips more and more frequent. Of course, now I knew it wasn’t the law firm that kept him so occupied. I