Mad River Road by Joy Fielding Read Free Book Online Page A

twenty-dollar bills.
    A beautiful, towheaded little boy smiled shyly up at Jamie.
    “This was taken almost a year ago, on his fourth birthday. He’s grown a lot since then.”
    “He looks like you.”
    “You think so?”
    “Well, his hair is lighter, but he’s got your smile.”
    “Yeah?” Brad returned the picture to his wallet, the wallet to the pocket of his jeans. “Unfortunately, his mother remarried recently, and they moved up north.”
    “She took Corey with her?”
    “ ’Fraid so.”
    “How long has it been since you’ve seen your son?”
    “Almost three months.”
    “That’s got to be so hard.”
    “Well, Beth asked me to give him a little time to adjust to his new life, which I thought was only fair.”
    Jamie shook her head. “I think you’re amazing.”
    “Not really,” he demurred.
    “I don’t know many ex-husbands who would be so understanding.”
    “Yours wasn’t?”
    “How do you know I’ve been married?”
    “The way you said ‘ex-husband.’ ”
    Jamie smiled.
    “How long were you married?” he asked.
    “Not long. Less than two years.”
    “No kids.” It was a statement, not a question.
    Jamie wasn’t sure whether to shake her head or nod. “No kids,” she agreed.
    “Your mother didn’t approve?”
    “That’s putting it mildly.”
    “Why didn’t she like him?”
    “She thought he was the reason I left law school.”
    “He wasn’t?”
    Jamie shook her head. “He was just the excuse I’d been looking for.”
    “You didn’t love him?”
    “I didn’t
know
him.”
    Brad laughed again, a wonderful explosion of sound that assured her everything was going to be all right as long as he was beside her.
    “Do you know that when we got divorced, my mother-in-law made me give back all the jewelry her son had given me, including my wedding ring? She said they were family heirlooms, and that she’d sue me if I didn’t give them back.”
    “Charming.”
    “I thought so.”
    “And did you give them back?”
    “Absolutely. I didn’t want the damn things anyway. Except for a pair of gold-and-pearl earrings I used to wear all the time. I really hated giving those back.” Jamie made a face of displeasure. Why was she talking abouther former husband and his mother? The bed might be king-size, but it wasn’t big enough for all of them. “Anyway, it doesn’t matter anymore. They’re out of my life. I’ll never have to see either of them again.”
    “You’re free to do whatever you want,” Brad said.
    “You make it sound so easy.”
    “It
is
easy.”
    Jamie closed her eyes, lay her head against his chest, and allowed herself to be lulled by the steadiness of his breathing.
    “You ever think about just getting in your car and seeing where the road takes you?” he asked.
    “All the time,” Jamie said.

THREE
    S he dreamed of her mother’s funeral.
    Except that in her dream the pallbearers consisted not of her mother’s assorted friends and colleagues, but rather of her father’s subsequent wives, each wearing a bridesmaid’s dress of the palest mauve chiffon and clutching a bouquet of odoriferous white lilies. Her sister stood next to the coffin, tall and regal in a deep purple, matron-of-honor gown, occasionally glancing at her watch. She’s waiting for me, Jamie understood, trying to locate herself among the mourners.
    “I’m coming,” she tried shouting from the periphery of her consciousness. “Wait for me.” Jamie saw herself racing toward the crowd just as the coffin began its measured descent into the ground. Omigod, I’m naked, she realized, trying to shield her naked flesh from her sister’s horrified eyes and tripping on a nearby stone that sent her hurtling through the air. The casket’s lid opened wide to accept her.
    Inside the white, satin-lined coffin, her mother opened gold-flecked, brown eyes and stared accusingly at Jamie. “Are you ready?” she asked.
    Jamie let out a cry and jolted up in bed, a trickle of perspiration