Death of a Trophy Wife by Laura Levine Read Free Book Online

experiences.”
    “The only thing I want to open myself up to right now are these chimichangas.”
    And without any further ado, I dug right in.
     
    It was after one by the time we tore ourselves away from Paco’s.
    “Give this Dimitri guy a chance,” Kandi said as she hugged me good-bye. “He might be The One.”
    “His name is Vladimir, and the only thing he might be is certifiable.”
    “Oh, honey,” she sighed. “No wonder you’re still single.”
    I refrained from pointing out that I was not the only single person in our little duo.
    Instead, I bid her a fond adieu and, several hours behind schedule, hurried over to Casa Extravaganza to get my sunglasses.
    When I pulled up in the circular driveway, I groaned to see Bunny’s Maserati parked on the gravel.
    Phooey. She was home. Oh, well. With any luck she’d be lolling by the pool, and I could get my glasses from Lupe.
    I was heading for the front door when it suddenly opened and out came Owen Kendall, his Mattress King baseball cap askew on his head.
    What was he doing here at this time of day? And why was his shirt only half-tucked in his pants?
    Enquiring minds wanted to know.
    “Hi, Owen,” I said, blocking his path. “What’s up?”
    He took one look at me and practically jumped out of his skin.
    “Er…Jaine,” he said, blushing furiously. “I was just picking up some papers for the office.”
    Oh, yeah? Then where were they? I sure didn’t see any papers.
    “Gotta run,” he muttered, brushing past me.
    And as he hurried by I got a whiff of perfume. Not just any perfume. I’d recognize that scent anywhere. It was Bunny’s designer fragrance, the stuff she splashed between her cleavage with wild abandon. Owen positively reeked of it.
    Now everybody let’s take out our calculators and add two and two.
    I don’t know what you came up with, but I came up with dipsy doodle.
    If I wasn’t mistaken, The Trophy Wife was having an affair with The Nerdy Son-in-Law.
     
    I watched Owen drive off in his car, a late model BMW with vanity plates that read M KING II . Not exactly a nerd-mobile. Actually, now that I thought about it, Owen wasn’t a bad looking guy. He was tall and thin and, beneath that Mattress King visor, his eyes were a most appealing blue.
    Something told me he might look good without clothes on, and I suspected that’s just how Bunny liked him.
    I stood there, admiring the wisdom of that old you-can’t-judge-a-book-by-its-cover gag, when I heard:
    “Jaine, darling!”
    I whirled around to see Bunny standing in the doorway, eyes narrowed into suspicious slits.
    Now it was my turn to blush.
    She knew that I’d seen Owen, and that I’d probably figured out what was going on.
    “Hi, B-Bunny,” I stammered. “I just stopped by to pick up my sunglasses. I left them here yesterday.”
    “Of course,” she said, with an icy smile. “Lupe found them by the pool. Come on in and I’ll get them.”
    I headed inside, feeling very much like Little Red Riding Hood popping in to the big bad wolf’s place.
    “Here they are,” she said, plucking my sunglasses from a table in the foyer.
    I reached out to take them, but she was not about to hand them over.
    “I suppose you ran into Owen just now.”
    “Oh, right. Owen. Yes, I ran into him. Great guy, Owen. A real asset to the company. That’s what Lance says. Actually, I’m sure everybody says that. Owen has ‘asset’ written all over him.”
    I tend to babble when I’m nervous, and the laser beam glint in her eyes definitely had me on edge.
    “He was here dropping off some papers.”
    Owen said he was picking them up. Now he was dropping them off. Those two had better get their stories straight if they were going to keep an affair going.
    “Right,” I nodded. “Dropping off papers. Absolutely!”
    Once more I held out my hand for my glasses, but she was not about to fork them over.
    “I’m so happy you’re trying out for the Mattress King account,” she said, her smile