The Weekday Brides 04 - Single by Saturday by Catherine Bybee Read Free Book Online

daily.”
    She glanced over at the car. “I don’t even know
how
to drive it.”
    Mike tossed an arm over Karen’s shoulders. “That’s my girl.”
    “I didn’t say I’d keep it.”
    “You didn’t say you wouldn’t.”
    She opened the gull-wing door on the driver’s side and peeked inside. “How long do you have before you
can’t
take it back?”
    “Five days or two hundred miles.”
    Karen placed two fingers in the air. “Only on two conditions will I keep this car.”
    Mike crossed his arms over his chest. “OK.”
    “One, if I can’t figure out how to drive it without looking like an idiot in two days, it goes back.”
    “You’re a good driver.”
    She rolled her eyes. “And two, you agree to leave your agent, your manager, and your producers at home when we’re visiting your family.”
    “They’re not coming with us.”
    “I’m talking cell phones, Internet…everything. Tony can call me every forty-eight hours, and I’ll relay the time-sensitive information. I’m talking a real vacation.”
    Mike glanced over at Zach. “See what I live with?”
    “Those are the conditions, Michael.”
    Mike tossed the keys at her again.
    “Zach, do me a favor, will ya? Teach her how to drive it. I have a meeting to attend.”
    Mike and Tony turned around and left the two of them standing in the driveway.
    “Son of a bitch,” Zach said. “He was always going at Mach speed when he lived in Utah, but I don’t remember him being
this
intense.”
    “You’re seeing the city boy. What I want to know is where the country boy went.” Karen glanced at him briefly and ducked into the house. “I’ll meet you out here in an hour. I don’t want to attempt to drive this thing in the dark.”

    Karen didn’t even try talking to Michael before he left. She knew from experience that he wouldn’t be home anytime soon and not to count on him for dinner. She showered and slipped into a California-casual outfit for early summer, a.k.a. sandals, Capri cotton pants, and a short-sleeved shirt, and then walked through the kitchen, checking the time. In the driveway sat a zillion-dollar car for which she barely knew how to open the door, let alone drive.
    She stared at the car and found it to be a symbol of her husband’s life, over the top and flashy in every way. If there was any possibility of Michael getting his life in perspective, it hinged on Utah. Hinged on family.
    Thinking of family, she realized she hadn’t spoken with her aunt in at least a month. She didn’t hear Zach in the house and decided she’d take the last ten minutes before her driving lesson to call her only relative.
    The phone rang twice. “Sedgwick residence.”
    “Hi, Nita. It’s Karen. Is my aunt home?”
    “Hi, Miss Karen. Yes, let me get her for you.”
    Karen waited for her aunt’s housekeeper to fetch her. Man, they’d both elevated in life a peg or two. Her aunt had married a wonderful man named Stanley only a few years before. Stanley had contacted Alliance in an effort to find him a young and temporary wife to tick off his money-hungry children and grandchildren. Although Karen never considered the proposition, she’d met with him at Eliza’s request and decided that what he really needed was a strong woman willing to put his family in their place. The rest, as they say, was history. Stanley and Aunt Edie married, and after a little drama, the kids figured out that Aunt Edie didn’t do well with slackers and freeloaders, all of which Stanley’s kids were.
    “Karen?”
    “Hey, Aunt Edie.”
    “How are you, honey? Are you eating?”
    Karen laughed. Seemed all Aunt Edie worried about was if she was eating enough. “Yes, ma’am. I haven’t called in a couple of weeks.”
    “Well you’re a busy girl. How’s your Hollywood husband?”
    “He’s fine. Off doing the Hollywood thing. How’s Stanley?”
    “He’s good. The doctor gave him a clean bill last month. All the blood work looked good.” Her aunt went on for a