Good Christian Bitches
Kim Gatlin
Language: English
Pages: 304
ISBN: 1401310702
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
The GCBs of Hillside Park Presbyterian are praying for Amanda Vaughn--or so they claim. Will their evil gossip destroy her reputation, or will she show them exactly how to turn the other cheek
Amanda Vaughn needs some heaven-sent help. She’s divorced her cheating husband and fled, along with her two teenagers, back to her hometown, Hillside Park, a Dallas suburb so upper-class that the question isn’t where to bank, but whose family owns the bank. Amanda is thrilled to be back in Texas—after twelve years in Southern California, she’s ready to leave behind her shallow, Godless life and return to the welcoming Christian world where she grow up. Or at least that’s the plan . . .
But when she arrives, she’s met with some Texas-sized trouble. Her old friends, neighbors, and fellow church members treat Amanda like a long-lost friend . . . until her back is turned. Then the claws come out. Amanda finds herself trapped in a world of salacious rumors, secret affairs, and Bible-study sessions gone terribly wrong. And what’s even more puzzling is that a secret admirer is sending Amanda lavish gifts. Why, she wonders, would anyone send a Mercedes when a simple dinner invitation would do?
Packed with schemes, drama, and a Southern setting more fun than a barbecue at Southfork, Good Christian Bitches has humor, sass, and an unforgettable cast of characters.
abandoned by the husband who had been deported. He had been an art collector of note before most of his collection was seized by U.S. Treasury agents in partial satisfaction of a tax debt—and it didn’t help that he was in the country illegally, of course. Darlene considered the documentary material in the wall safe a retirement plan that more than offset the prenuptial agreement husband number five had made her sign, although she had need of one worse than he did. The home was a 1930s stone
money. It’s kind of reverse prostitution—he’s providing money so that he can go off and have sex with whoever he wants, whenever he wants. I never thought about it that way, but that’s what it comes down to. It’s what my mother always told me. Never leave a provider.” “I guess that’s kind of how it is,” Amanda agreed. She didn’t know what was more surprising to her—the fact that her mother was being so open with her, or the fact that her mother was making so much sense. Both were new experiences
phone. “The woman whose card it was?” Martland said, sounding uncertain, as if the story were too hard for him to believe as well. “Actually, the woman whose name was on the card. A Ms. Amanda Vaughn.” “I know whose name it is. Get to the point.” “I’m trying, ma’am. It’s a little confusing on my end. But the point is this—the security department at Neiman Marcus asked her to come to the store this morning so that she could corroborate the story. Ms. Vaughn explained that the card was not hers,
lost in his own world of skating and music, oblivious to his mother’s plight. “Don’t worry about it,” Amanda told her daughter, trying to sound brave. “It’s nothing.” Sarah studied her mother. “Whatever it is, Mom, it’s something and it’s not nothing.” “Mom, I’m with the kids,” Amanda said into her cell phone. “I’ll meet you at the office at eight thirty. We’ll figure it out then. Where did that appear?” “Ellen Salter’s column. The good news is that nobody believes a word she says.” “As I
went on with Susie. So not counting your check, we have about a hundred and ten thousand in the bank and—Mom, how much do we owe on unpaid bills?” “Just call it an even two hundred thousand,” Elizabeth said. “If it weren’t for you, Tom, we’d be ninety thousand dollars short.” “Okay,” Tom said. “We don’t have money. Volunteers?” Amanda shook her head. “I told you,” she said. “Everyone I talked to who is active said no. Not a single woman on active status is willing to chair a committee this