“I prefer to look at my glass as half-full, rather than half-empty, even a container as leaky as my marriage. There were good times,” I continue. “We went to movies, bowling. I thought we were happy. My God, he should have been.” I sit straight up abruptly. “His word was my command. I catered to him like royalty. Clean, ironed shirts organized in the closet by colors. Dinner on the table when he came home. Visits with his family every week. I thought that’s what men want, to be the boss, to have the full support of their wives.”
I get hot under the collar again just thinking about my marriage, the one-sided sacrifices, James’s cowardly exit, and Dolores can tell, probably from the steam coming out my ears and the sputters issuing from my mouth as my voice rises. “That’s right,” she urges. “Get good and mad. But then, get even. What is it they say is the best revenge?”
“Living well. Living well is the best revenge.”
“So go live well. Hot damn, you’re named after most ballsy woman who ever lived. Joan of Arc. Didn’t fear crap. Copy her. Get out there and raise hell for a while.”
I throw my paper napkin down on the table. “Okay. You’re making sense. That’s just what I’ll do.” I leap to my feet like an eager grasshopper, rocking back and forth from the vigor of my response.
Dolores looks up at me with a trace of alarm on her face. “I didn’t mean right this second. What are you up to now?”
“You’ll see.” I head straight for Scott’s booth and he looks up at the sound of my approach, his absolutely blank expression changing second-by-second to one of bemused unease as I near his table. I stop, my insides shaking, but my exterior as erect and high-chinned as I can manage.
“Mr. Clark?”
“Yeeeess?” His response ends as a question. In his beautiful, sea-green eyes, shot through with shards of black, fringed by the darkest lashes, is not a glimmer of recognition or interest. I cast desperately around for some topic of conversation, some reason for approaching him.
“I’m Joan Nelson, the receptionist in your office,” I babble. “I just wanted to welcome you and tell you that I’ll route callers to your voice mail when you’re not in.”
“Thank you. Joan?” He says my name as a question, as if wondering if I exist. Those same sea-green eyes rake up and down my body, the one that’s somehow, without my knowledge or consent, assumed the burden of twenty extra pounds over the last few years. Unable to think of anything else to say, I nod, whirl around, and return to my booth. I slide back in, shaking.
“Wow!” Dolores says, wide-eyed. “I’m impressed. When you make up your mind to something, you move right out there. What did you say? What did he say?”
Want to find out what happens? A Saint Comes Stumbling In can be purchased through all major eBook retailers, or directly from the publisher at http://www.prismbookgroup.com. Thank you for sampling this novel. Please read on for more information about the author and her works. Do you enjoy Bonnie’s witty writing and penchant for telling humorous tales casting everyday women?
Stay tuned for Playing with Fire by Bonnie McCune, a contemporary novel about a woman who fears she’s destined to be homeless and loveless, a brusque small town mayor, and how a raging forest fire brings them together.
Coming soon from Prism Book Group! http://www.prismbookgroup.com
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Bonnie McCune credits her tenacity for the successes in her life. Since fifth grade, she has been determined to be a writer. A Saint Comes Stumbling In was her first published novel, but her interest in writing led to her career in nonprofits doing public and community relations and marketing. She’s worked for libraries, directed a small arts organization and managed Denver's beautification program. Simultaneously, she’s been a freelance writer with publications in local, regional, and specialty publications for news and features. Her main interest now is fiction writing, and her pieces have won several awards. Her civic involvement includes grass-roots organizations, political campaigns, writers’ and arts’ groups, and children’s literacy.
For years, she entered recipe contests and was a finalist once to the Pillsbury Cook Off. A special love is live theater. Had she been nine inches taller and thirty pounds lighter, she might have been an actress. For reasons unknown (an unacknowledged optimism?), she believes that one person can make a difference in this world. McCune lives in Denver, Colorado, where she’s been married to the same man forever, has two children and three grandchildren, and is working on a humorous novel about aging.
Read more about Bonnie at www.BonnieMcCune.com.
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Table of Contents
TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
Please enjoy this sample from
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Heart-strong Page 8
