Part-time Wife

"Let's hear it for the Debs!" Abby Baldwin Talbot said, lifting her champagne glass in a toast to the five women who were her best friends. "Way to go, us!" Felicity chimed in and the others lifted their glasses, as well. Abby looked from one to the other of them and smiled at each in turn. There were the original members of the Debs Club...girls who'd gone through Eastwick Academy together and survived their "coming-out" society debut arm in arm. Emma, Mary, Felicity and Abby had known each other forever and their bond was unbreakable. But if it couldn't break, it did bend, at least far enough to welcome two new members into their circle. Lily and Vanessa had slipped into the group seamlessly and now Abby couldn't imagine her life without all of these women in it. Especially now, she thought, but didn't say. With everything else in her world crumbling around her, she needed the familiarity, the love she found with her friends more than ever. "Okay, hate to break up the moment," Mary said with a quick grin. "But as much as I love you guys, I want to claim a dance with Kane." Then her grin faded a little as she asked, "You all right, Abby?" "I'm terrific," she lied, smile wide. She took another sip of champagne to ease the dryness in her throat. "Go. Boogie the night away." "Sounds like a plan," Felicity agreed. "Right behind you," Vanessa said, then glanced at the three remaining women standing at the back of the country club ballroom. "You guys coming?" "I am," Lily said, smoothing the front of her gown unnecessarily. "I'll be along in a few minutes," Abby told her friends. "I just want to stand back here and watch the party for a while." "Okay," Vanessa told her, pointing her index finger at her. "But if you're not out on the dance floor in fifteen minutes, I'm coming to find you." Abby nodded. "Consider me warned." Vanessa and Lily dissolved into the crowd and Abby took a long, deep breath. It was agonizing trying to keep up a cheerful front for the people she loved best. But damned if she would ruin this party they'd all worked so hard on. With that thought firmly in mind, she glanced up at her much taller friend. "You did an amazing job on this place, Emma." "You meanwedid an amazing job," Emma countered, as her gaze drifted around the crowded, noisy ballroom. It seemed as though everyone in Eastwick had turned out for this year's Autumn Ball. Diamonds winked at throats and ears, and hands glittered with enough jewelry to give a security company a collective heart attack. Women wore bright colored gowns as if trying to enliven the fall and stave off the coming winter. They greeted each other with hugs and air kisses, then whispered with their friends about everyone else in the room. Men in tuxedos gathered in tight knots to talk about whatever it was men found so fascinating. Football? The stock market? Didn't matter, Abby told herself. All that mattered was, that the Debs Club had managed to make the old country club shine for the night. Soft lights, a live band playing old standards with a few classic rock-and-roll songs tossed in for flavor. A champagne fountain--tacky, but fun--stood proudly in the middle of the room and sharply dressed waiters moved through the crowds, balancing trays of artfully arranged canapÉs. The Debs Club. Abby smiled and thought about that. She and her friends had nicknamed themselves the Debs in honor of the night they'd been society debutantes. It had all seemed so silly, so old-fashioned back then. But the friendships forged in high school and at that cotillion had stood the test of time. Now here they were, years later, still a force to be reckoned with. So much had changed, though, Abby thought, glancing around the room and picking out the faces of her friends. So many things had happened over the past several months, that she could sense a strained atmosphere in the room, as if evChild, Maureen is the author of 'Part-time Wife ', published 2006 under ISBN 9780373767557 and ISBN 0373767552.