Page 11 of At the Heart of It (The Can’t Have Hearts Club #4)

“Not much to report,” he said, leaning back against the counter. “I got a new shipment of cookbooks at the store, spent some time doing inventory, told my ex-wife to go fuck herself?—”

“Wait, what?” Jossy laughed and shook her head. “That’s right, I totally forgot she wanted you to go over there today. What did Snobby McBitcherson want?”

Jonah felt a stab of guilt for starting this round of bad-mouthing his ex.

Jossy had never liked Viv, not even when she and Jonah had been married.

They’d always been cordial to each other, but there was an undercurrent of unpleasantness between them.

Jossy found Viv’s attempts at empathy to be patronizing, and Viv found Jossy repressed and out of touch with her own grief.

Still, Jonah felt bad feeding the animosity. “I didn’t literally tell her to go fuck herself,” he admitted. “But I did impolitely decline to be part of some stupid reality TV show she’s doing.”

“Reality TV?” Jossy rolled her eyes. “Please tell me it’s Survivor and she’ll have to eat cow brains and pee in the woods.

Or no!” Jossy smacked her hand on the counter.

“It’s The Bachelor and she’s going to have to dress slutty and degrade herself to get the attention of some schmuck who uses grammar like, ‘Viv and mine’s relationship is very much good. ’”

“A nice thought, but no.”

“So what is it then? Cake Wars ? Deadliest Catch ? What?”

“Actually, it’s a brand-new show. She’d be the star. Couples would come on and she’d try to fix their relationship problems and wrap everything up in a neat little bow at the end of the thirty-minute segment.”

Jossy frowned. “So what does she want you to do?”

Jonah shrugged. “Show up and throw out one-liners and straight talk, I assume. Stuff like, “Dude, you’ve gotta go down on her first if you want regular BJs. And keep the hedge trimmed. No woman wants to feel like she’s licking a dog.”

Jossy made a gagging sound. “So you’re going to do the Average Joe shtick again?”

“No. Did you miss the part where I said I told her I wasn’t interested?”

“I heard it. I just know Viv has a way of talking you into things.”

Jonah felt a stab of annoyance. At Jossy, at Viv, at himself—he wasn’t quite sure. He stuck a finger through the bars of the eyebrow cat’s cage to scratch under her chin, and was rewarded by a gravelly purr that brought his blood pressure back to normal.

“Trust me,” Jonah said. “If I were going to change my mind, it wouldn’t be because of anything Viv said.”

His brain flashed on a memory of Kate huffing along beside him, asking real questions instead of firing crap at him about how great the show was going to be or baiting him with reasons he owed it to people to do it. Had Viv told her to try the money angle?

Unlikely. True, Viv knew about Jossy’s special needs and about the animal shelter.

But she had no way of knowing how badly the money might be needed.

Not small amounts either. Not the few thousand dollars here and there that Jonah persuaded Jossy to take as donations to the shelter.

The amounts Kate had shown him on those forms, those were different.

Not keep-things-afloat amounts. Those were life-changing amounts.

While Jonah might like his life just fine, he’d give almost anything to improve his sister’s.

“What are you looking at, dork?” Jossy asked.

He’d been staring at her, but there was no way he’d admit that. “What’s the story with this cat, anyway?” he asked.

“Owner surrender.”

“What the hell for?”

Jossy shrugged and slipped a finger through the bars to scratch at the base of cat’s fluffy black tail.

The cat boosted her butt in the air and purred harder.

“They tried to give some bullshit reason about her being, ‘not the right fit’ for the family, but that’s code for ‘I liked the idea of having a cat more than I like actually having a cat and now I don’t want to scoop the litter box. ’”

“Poor girl.” Empathy tugged Jonah’s gut, and he thought back to his conversation with Kate.

“We liked the idea of each other, but not the day-to-day drudgery of it.”

Beside him, Jossy sighed. “It’s okay. We’ll find her the right home.”

The cat opened her eyes and looked at Jonah. Her eyebrows lifted, shifting her expression from mild disdain to “What the fuck is wrong with you?”

A damn fine question.

“That reminds me, Beth called,” Jossy said.

“Why is my store manager calling you now instead of me?”

“Because I’m nicer,” she said. “And I’m the one who keeps your cat café full of adoptable felines, moron.”

“Can you repeat the part about you being nicer?”

“She said they adopted out two more cats yesterday,” Jossy continued, ignoring him. “So I need to send you with a couple more. You want this one?”

“This one?” Jonah looked at the eyebrow cat. The cat twitched her nose, lifting the beauty mark on her upper lip.

“Her vaccines are up-to-date and I’d just as soon get her into a social situation instead of having her stuck here in a cage.”

Jonah looked back at the cat and felt something shift in the center of his chest. A cat-shaped hole, maybe. He grunted.

“Sure. Go ahead and stuff her in a box.”

“What do you think about this giraffe sculpture?”

Kate turned to see Amy standing under an enormous bronze monstrosity. The assistant producer gestured like a game show hostess, sweeping her arms wide and tossing her blond curls with dramatic flair.

Kate laughed and checked the artist’s inscription. Kyle Midland. She’d heard of him somewhere, maybe that coffee table book at the hotel featuring Pacific Northwest artists. She glanced at the price tag.

“Not bad,” she said. “Bonus points for the giraffe reference.”

“Hey, that was one of my favorite chapters in On the Other Hand. ” Amy patted the giraffe’s rump. “I love the part about emulating the land mammal with the largest heart.”

“The quiz was my favorite,” Kate admitted. “Where you sit down with your partner and figure out which animal best represents your communication needs?”

“And then you spell out your ‘animal needs.’” Amy grinned and made claws with her fingers. “ Rawr .”

Kate smiled and pretended to study the pedestal at the base of the giraffe.

Very sturdy, which was more than she could say for the basis of her relationship with Anton.

It was stupid to still find herself thinking about him, but she blamed the giraffe.

She remembered reading that chapter aloud to Anton in bed one lazy Sunday morning while he sipped coffee and did the crossword puzzle in the morning paper.

“C’mon,” she’d urged, snuggling up next to him with the book in her lap. “Just answer the question.”

“Are you serious?” He’d leveled her with a look like she’d asked him to strip naked and run through the neighbor’s sprinkler. “You want me to pretend to be a jackal?”

“That’s not what I’m saying at all,” Kate had said. “I just want to understand which animal you think best represents you and figure out which one represents me and talk about how we relate to each other when?—”

“How about we just build the beast with two backs and call it good?” Anton had flashed her a salacious grin and set the paper down.

And Kate—who’d been looking for some form of connection with him anyway—had tugged her sleep shirt over her head and did her best to convince herself it was romantic.

“Kate?”

She turned to see Amy snapping a photo of the giraffe. “Would you mind standing next to it to give it a sense of scale? That way we can give the props team an idea of how big it is.”

“And Viv,” Kate pointed out. “If this thing’s going in her house, she’ll probably want to have some say in it.”

“True. Though the contract does specify the team will have first say over décor choices and props.”

Kate sidled up to the giraffe and refrained from commenting. The likelihood of the show happening at all still seemed precarious, so there was no point reminding Amy that they needed to choose their battles when it came to details like giraffe sculptures and mood lighting.

“There.” Amy clicked off another photo. “Should we go look at area rugs next, or did you want to scope out things for the boudoir scene we talked about for the pilot?”

“I think—” She stopped midsentence as her phone began to buzz.

She slipped it out of her purse and felt her arms start to tingle as Jonah’s name popped up on the screen.

She’d programmed it in after Viv had given her the number, wanting to be prepared in case he did call.

“Sorry, I need to take this,” she said, stepping away from the giraffe as she tapped the phone screen to answer.

“Hello, this is Kate Geary,” she said in her best professional voice.

“Kate Geary,” he repeated, his voice smooth and warm the way it had sounded over dinner in Ashland that night. It was so different from how he’d sounded at Viv’s house earlier that day or when she’d chased him down the boardwalk during his shirtless dog-walking exercise. “This is Jonah Porter.”

“Hello, Jonah.”

“Tell me something, Kate Geary,” he said.

“What would you like to know, Jonah Porter?”

Kate wasn’t sure if the name or the flirtatious note in her voice made Amy look up. The assistant producer lifted one eyebrow and turned to look at a copper shelf on the wall.

Jonah laughed on the other end of the line and Kate had another flash of memory to their night in Ashland. The way he’d laughed with his whole body, nearly knocking himself off the front porch of the B&B when she’d declared herself unavailable for a one-night stand.

“Do you have my number programmed into your phone already or do you always answer the phone that stiffly?” he asked.

She tried to think of a reason to be coy or pretend she didn’t know what he was talking about, but she couldn’t see a point to it.

“Did your military super-spy-catching skills tell you that, or are you hiding behind a giant giraffe watching me?”

He laughed again. “I’m afraid to ask where you are that you’re lurking near a giant giraffe.”

“I’m browsing a fancy home furnishings gallery at the moment. To what do I owe the pleasure of your call?”

He didn’t answer right away, and Kate glanced at Amy to see if she was following along. She was studying a mirror in the shape of a vagina, but Kate had a hunch she was listening.

“I’m not saying yes,” he said. “To the TV thing, I mean.”

“Okay.”

“I need to put that out there up front. But I’m rescinding my ‘fuck no’ and replacing it with an ‘I’d like to hear a little more about it.’ Is that still an option?”

Kate nodded, which was ridiculous. He couldn’t see her. But she was almost afraid to speak, not wanting to scare him away.

“Yes,” she said. “I’d be happy to tell you anything. What would you like to know?”

“Not on the phone,” he said, sending another ripple of excitement through her.

Kate gripped the phone a little tighter. “What did you have in mind?”

“I’d prefer to meet in person.”

She glanced toward Amy again, this time catching sight of her own face in the vagina mirror. Holy hell, that wasn’t the look of someone having a business call. That was something else entirely. She forced her features into a neutral expression and hoped Amy hadn’t noticed.

Kate straightened up and looked away from the mirror. “I’m sure that could be arranged,” she said. “My assistant producer and I would be happy to meet with you to go over?—”

“No,” he said. “Just you. Sorry, I’m sure she’s a lovely woman. But I want to keep this casual. And I want fewer people involved.”

“Any reason?”

She expected him not to answer, or to make up some bullshit story.

His answer surprised her. “When I got railroaded into doing the Average Joe thing for the book, it was in a big committee meeting. Everyone started throwing out numbers and statistics and research and Viv was pleading and—I guess I just caved.”

“I appreciate your candor. I can’t promise I won’t throw out statistics and research, but I can promise I won’t beg and plead.”

Jonah laughed. “That’s unfortunate.”

A ripple rolled through her. Was he flirting? Kate licked her lips. “If you make a crack about wanting to see me on my knees, I’m hanging up right now.”

He burst out laughing, and she could picture his exact expression in her mind. The image made her smile again.

“No blow-job jokes, no one-night stands, no long-distance relationships,” he said. “I know what’s on your no-fly list now. What do you like to eat? Besides Thai food?”

“I’m not picky,” she said. “Let’s go someplace quiet so we can talk.”

“Oh, I already have the place picked out. Just wondering what sort of takeout food to order.”

“Where are we going?”

“You’re coming to my bookstore. How’s eight tomorrow evening?”

“I can do that,” she said. “I’m eager to see where you work.”

“I’ll text you the address. See you then.”

Kate clicked off and slid the phone into her purse, careful to wipe any trace of smile off her face. She looked up to see Amy studying her.

“Aren’t you at least going to pretend you weren’t eavesdropping?” Kate asked.

Amy shook her head and grinned. “Do you want me to?”

“Not really.”

“Do you want a tiny bit of advice?”

“Not really.” Kate smiled and shook her head. “I’m kidding, it’s fine. Lay it on me.”

Amy bit her lip. “Be careful with Jonah.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean I saw the way you looked at each other at Viv’s place. It was probably shock, I get it.”

“Shock is an understatement,” Kate said. “I swear I had no idea?—”

“I know,” Amy said. “That was pretty obvious. So was the fact that there’s some pretty intense chemistry between you.”

“No way,” Kate said. “I mean, yeah, the guy is hot. And yeah, I’ll admit the first time we met in Ashland, I was sort of attracted to him.”

Amy studied her face. “And now?”

Kate shook her head. “Please. He’s the ex-husband of my freakin’ idol.”

“Hero worship doesn’t preclude you from wanting to knock boots with her ex-husband.”

“It’s not like that. This program has the potential to skyrocket our careers to the next level. The show has the power to change a lot of lives. Any passion you’re picking up on is all about that.”

“That sounded really good.” Amy smiled. “Almost like you believed it.”

Kate rolled her eyes. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Hey, your secret’s safe with me. I don’t care if you really did sleep with him or?—”

“I didn’t,” Kate interrupted. “I swear.”

“Okay,” Amy said. “I believe you. But I also believe something else might’ve happened. Just be careful, okay? We don’t want anything to get in the way of the show.”

“Nothing’s more important to me than the show,” Kate said. “Cross my heart and hope to die, I’ll be careful.”

Amy grinned and grabbed her arm. “Good. Now let’s go look at dining room tables sturdy enough to fuck on,” she said. “I’m thinking ahead to episode five.”

Kate laughed and let Amy tow her across the store, ordering herself to push Jonah out of her brain.