Half Empty (First Wives #2)

“Maybe. I wouldn’t mind a divine sign from above letting me know I’m not on a detour that’s just going to lead me back to walking in circles.”

“Like Wade Thomas?” Shannon asked.

Avery scoffed.

Lori leaned forward. “Have you received any letters from Alice yet?”

Trina shook her head. “The mystery letters from the grave have yet to show up.”

“I wouldn’t be surprised if they are triggered by the anniversary of her death,” Lori said.

Alice had told Trina, in her will, that letters would be sent explaining Alice’s reasons for her final wishes regarding the estate. An estate that should have been left to Fedor. Alice was already in a coma when Fedor killed himself, so it wasn’t as if she knew that Fedor wouldn’t be around to collect. The entire thing baffled Trina’s mind. For the better part of the year, she’d managed to not think about Alice’s motives. Only now, that was all Trina seemed to contemplate when she was left alone with her thoughts.

And she was alone with her thoughts a lot.

“When did she die?” Avery asked.

“Sixteen days after Fedor.” Trina looked between each of the women in silence. “His death was a year ago tomorrow.”

Silence met her words.

Then Avery added, “Sounds like a good reason to get drunk.”

“Or date a cowboy.” Shannon winked.

For a moment, Trina felt herself smile. Maybe learning the two-step was a good idea, so long as the dance was in the forward motion of moving along in her life.





Chapter Nine



Wade stood to the side of the arena and had yet to be noticed. His mother, the only woman in his life he’d ever really loved with all his heart, rode a six-year-old mare she’d named Nelly. When he was a kid and had run through their one-bedroom apartment instead of walking, his mama would shout out, “Whoa, Nelly . . . where you going to so fast?” Wade wasn’t sure where the name Nelly had come from, but he’d promised his mother that one day he’d buy her a horse named Nelly. Sure enough, Nelly was sniffing out what looked like carrots from his mama’s hand.

It was good to be home.

Wade pulled out a sugar cube he’d snagged from the kitchen before he’d headed out to the barns in hopes of reminding the few horses he had that he was the one to suck up to. He extended his hand over the fence and made a clicking noise in the back of his throat.

The noise didn’t capture his mother’s attention, but Nelly tossed her head back once before she sauntered his way. That’s when his mother looked up.

Her sandy blonde hair was pulled back in a ponytail and her smile warmed his heart. His mother was a beautiful woman who didn’t have to do anything other than grin to achieve attention.

“Well, look who found his way home,” she said as she followed her horse to his side.

Wade ducked under the split-rail fence and lifted his palm to Nelly to give her the treat.

When his mother reached his side, he wrapped both arms around her, lifting her off her feet, and kissed her cheek.

“Put me down,” she teased.

“Not till I’m done.”

A couple of good squeezes later, he kept her upright as he set her back on the hot Texas dirt.

She placed both hands on the side of his face, her smile reaching her eyes. “You look . . .” She paused. “Not tired. You’re always tired when you come home.”

“I took a couple days to rest.”

“So that’s why you’re home late. I was expecting you earlier.”

“I told Ike to let you know I wasn’t returning right away.”

“Yeah, yeah, but I didn’t know that was days and not hours.”

“I’m sure you figured it out.” He draped his arm over her shoulders. “What did I miss around here?”

“Nothin’. Horses are healthy, Betty Ann is still trying to teach me how to make a proper pie crust, and Sal has started threatening to construct an electric fence around the property to keep your adoring fans from wandering in.”

Wade peered past the barns and horses. “That would be a very big fence.”

She laughed. “I missed you, Little Pup.”

He kissed the top of her head. “I’ll be home for a while. Long enough for you to get sick of me and tell me to go on tour again.”

“If I get sick of you, I’ll find a nice beach in Florida to stretch out on.”

Wade couldn’t help but think of the sandy stretch of beach he and Trina had watched during the storm. What was she doing right now? Still nursing a hangover, or tipping a few back with her girlfriends? What a protective lot they were. Usually he was a hit with the girl squad when he put his focus on one of them. Not Trina’s friends. Good thing his ego was firmly in check or he would have been offended. But as one of his songs told the world, being humble in the face of fame is the only way to live. Keep it real, his mother always preached.

“Someone got quiet.”

He squeezed her shoulder and let her go. “I’m hungry,” he told her. Suggesting he had a woman on his mind would only prompt questions, and he had a few of his own tickling his head before he dealt with his mother’s. Would Trina use the number he typed into her phone? When would he use the one he jacked from hers? Maybe if he gave her a day or two . . . enough time for him to look up a bit about his competition. A dead ex was hard to navigate, not that he’d done that before.

“Hungry?” his mother asked, her sharp eyes drilling into him.

“Yup. In need of some Texas-size Angus beef grilled by my own hands.” He turned to make his way back to the house.

“There is something you’re not telling me,” she called out.

He smiled over his shoulder. “Yeah, there is. I’d like some apple pie with that steak. Any chance that can happen?”

She skipped a step to keep up with him. “How about cobbler?”

He draped his arm over her shoulders again and walked the rest of the way back.



After the First Wives intervention, Trina skipped the flight to Texas and detoured to New York. Lori and Shannon both returned to Los Angeles, and Avery tagged along with Trina.

The Hamptons home she’d shared in her brief marriage to Fedor had been vacant for nearly one year. She stood at the steps, looking up into the dark windows and pulled shades. The gray, cloudy sky matched her mood.

“You know what this place is missing?” Avery asked.

“What?”

“Eerie Halloween music and fake fog.”

Avery’s reference to All Hallows Eve wasn’t because there were overgrown weeds and dead trees, but the air that surrounded the house itself.

The outside was perfectly maintained, and inside, Trina knew she’d find the same. The company she’d hired to manage the home after she’d moved was in charge of weekly cleaning and maintenance, and Cindy, her old housekeeper, supervised. Something Trina had become very accustomed to dealing with after inheriting nearly half a dozen homes. This one she had no intentions of ever living in again, so she’d let the staff go with severance packages and letters of recommendation.

Trina looked over her shoulder and past the gates and wondered if any of the neighbors paid attention to who came and went. Probably not. The homes were spaced out enough to not see those who lived next door for weeks, if at all. One would think a home that would fetch over fifteen million dollars would have someone living inside, but many of the homes in this area were weekend and summer getaways. This one going unoccupied for a year probably wasn’t even noticed.

“It’s going to take me a few days to go through everything,” Trina told Avery for the third time.

“Yeah, you’ve already said that. Like you, I don’t have a job, so here I am. Ready to go through the Ghost of Christmas Past’s shit.”

Trina was glad for it. She didn’t want to do this alone. Her mother had volunteered to help, but Trina wasn’t about to encourage that. Her parents still had no idea her marriage to Fedor was a complete fallacy. The lie she’d told the world was only known by the First Wives, Fedor, and the employees of Alliance. That was the way it would forever stay.