Page 5 of At the Heart of It (The Can’t Have Hearts Club #4)

She took a deep breath and eased into the circular driveway.

“Nice place,” Amy said as she eyed the massive house. “The self-help gig must pay pretty well.”

“She’s done other things,” Kate said. “Speaking engagements and workshops.”

Amy looked at the house again. “We’re not all going to hold hands and talk about our feelings, are we?”

“I highly doubt it,” Kate assured her as she parked the car, then checked her lipstick in the rearview mirror. “She’s really down-to-earth. I’m sure you’ll love her.”

Kate stepped out of the car and smoothed down the front of her gray pencil skirt. She wore a conservative navy blouse and low heels, her all-business look. She grabbed her leather briefcase from the back seat and started toward the front door with Amy right behind her. “How’s my hair?” Amy asked.

Kate pivoted on the doorstep and paused to adjust the bobby pin holding Amy’s wild blond curls back from her face. “Perfect.”

“Here, you’ve got a smudge of eyeliner right here.” Amy dabbed the corner of Kate’s cheekbone with a damp thumb.

“Did you just spit on me?”

“Yes, but I did it with the utmost respect.” Amy grinned. “You’re all good.”

Kate reached up and rang the doorbell, braced to be greeted by a stiffly attired butler or maybe Dr. Viv’s personal assistant.

But when the door flew open, it was the woman herself who greeted them.

Vivienne Brandt wore her trademark long, dark hair swept back in a low ponytail, and her flawless, porcelain skin held only the faintest hint of makeup.

The thin gold bangles on her right wrist chimed when she lifted her hand.

She looked elegant in loose linen slacks and a simple black T-shirt, and as she shifted to acknowledge Amy with a smile, Kate couldn’t help envying the delicate arches of her bare feet.

“Kate! It’s so good to see you again!”

Vivienne clasped Kate’s hand in hers, replacing Kate’s intended handshake with a friendlier grasp that left Kate wondering how long she should stand here holding hands with a relative stranger.

“Hello, Vivienne,” Kate said, turning just enough to free her hand. “I’d like you to meet our assistant producer, Amy Bartholomew.”

“Ma’am,” Amy said. “I absolutely love your books.”

“Such a pleasure to meet you,” Dr. Vivienne said as she gave Amy the same hand-holding treatment. “Please, call me Viv. And come on in! I’ve got water and herbal tea and some light refreshments in the parlor.”

“Light refreshments in the parlor,” Kate recited in her mind as she followed Dr. Viv down a well-lit corridor lined with cool Italian marble and Asian artifacts.

There was something lovely and lilting about the phrase, and it gave Kate a fresh boost of confidence about how well Dr. Viv would do on camera.

“This is a beautiful space,” Kate remarked, taking in the tall, floor-to-ceiling windows, the clean lines, the modern sparseness of the décor.

“Thanks.” Viv halted in the center of the room—the parlor, Kate presumed—and swept her arms in a wide arc. “You can see now why I wanted the team to consider filming here in my home. It’s sleek, but intimate. Cozy, but professional. I think it sets the perfect tone.”

“Very modern,” Amy murmured, nodding as she paused to scribble something on her ever-present notepad.

Kate glanced at her watch. “We have two hours until the network guys show. You said you wanted to go over their proposal?”

“Right.” For the first time since they’d arrived, Viv’s perfect smile seemed to falter a little.

Still rooted in the center of the parlor, she shifted from one bare foot to the other, then gestured to a buttery-looking leather sofa in a soft gray.

“Please, have a seat. Help yourselves to the cucumber water, fresh fruit, nuts—whatever you like.”

Viv’s new uneasiness made the hair prickle on the back of Kate’s neck, but she seated herself on the edge of the sofa and grabbed a small handful of raw almonds.

She slipped one in her mouth as Amy filled three glasses from a pitcher brimming with slices of cucumber and lemon and slid a coaster under each one.

They waited for Viv to sit, but she remained standing.

“So,” Viv said, clasping her hands together. “I was a little surprised by the title change, but I’m fine with it. Relationship Reboot with Dr. Viv is casual and catchy, and I’m sure it will resonate better with viewers.”

“Excellent.” Amy plucked a handful of grapes off the platter. “I’ll get the paperwork rolling on that end.”

Viv nodded, and Kate watched her fiddle with the gold bangles, then take a deep breath.

“All right, I’ll just come out and say this.” Viv cleared her throat. “I wanted to tell you this in person, rather than on the phone or in an email. And I wanted you to see the space first, so you can see how perfect this would be.”

Kate felt Amy stiffen beside her. “The space is lovely,” Amy said. “I’m sure the network will consider it.”

Kate kept her attention on Viv. “What do you need to tell us?”

Vivienne took another deep breath, then gave a nervous little laugh. “Goodness, look at me. I’ve written all these books encouraging forthright communication and blunt honesty, and I can’t seem to spit out the words.”

“It’s okay,” Kate said, struck by how human Viv seemed. How down-to-earth. She’d idolized Vivienne Brandt for years, and there was something sweet about seeing her so uncertain. “Take your time.”

Kate glanced at Amy, who looked jumpy on the sofa beside her. She turned back to Viv, who was still working to compose herself.

“All right.” Viv took a few more breaths, then arranged her expression into one of lovely serenity.

That’ll look great on camera , Kate thought, even as the back of her neck continued to prickle.

“The network’s request—the one about having my husband be part of the show?” Viv began.

Kate felt herself nodding as Amy bumped her knee with the side of her notebook.

“They liked the idea of breakout sessions,” Amy said. “You do most of the counseling, but then bring your husband in for a round of ‘Straight Talk with Average Joe.’ They think it’ll resonate with male viewers in particular.”

“Right, well—that’s going to be a problem.

” Vivienne unclasped her fingers and reached up to fiddle with the bangles again.

“I need to just lay this out there. Joe and I went through a very difficult time in our marriage between the completion of the manuscript for On the Other Hand and the release of the actual book.”

“A difficult time?” Kate frowned, picturing plates hurled at the wall in anger or heated arguments about which way the toilet paper should roll.

“Nothing violent or overly contentious,” Viv amended softly. “Just a—a slow dying of love.”

“Oh,” Amy murmured as Kate’s heart began to race.

“By the time the book was released, we weren’t even living together anymore,” Viv said.

“But—but—” Kate dropped the almond that had been en route to her mouth. She thought about grabbing for it, but that was the least of her concerns right now. “I don’t understand. You did that whole publicity tour together. Book signings and magazine interviews and?—”

“We scrapped all the television appearances, and stuck with things that minimized public appearances together.” Vivienne sighed.

“I know what you’re thinking. I know this goes against everything I’ve written about authenticity and being true to yourself, but our publicist thought it would be best if we pretended everything was fine just to get through the PR obligations together.

We were still technically married at that point, and we figured we could go our separate ways once the limelight was off us. ”

Kate blinked. “So you’re divorced?”

Viv nodded and looked down at her hands.

“It was final long before Making It Work came out. Almost eighteen months now. Things had died down after all the hoopla for On the Other Hand , and the paperwork went through quietly. We were still friendly enough to handle all that ourselves, so there was no need to involve lawyers or make a big deal about it. We just—cut ties and moved on.”

Amy shook her head, her expression nearly as dumbstruck as Kate felt. “So that’s why he’s not mentioned in your new book,” Amy said, earning a slow nod from Vivienne. “That’s why Making It Work is all about case studies and other people’s marriages with no personal anecdotes of your own.”

“But you thanked him,” Kate said. “In the acknowledgements for Making It Work —you wrote, ‘And thank you to Joe: For everything.’”

Okay, in light of what she’d just heard, it wasn’t the most romantic thing one spouse had ever written to another in the acknowledgements. Still?—

“The split was friendly,” Viv said. “And I am thankful for Joe’s part in my life, even if we’re no longer together as a married couple.”

Kate nodded. There was a humming in her ears, and she could see this whole plan going up in smoke. She licked her lips.

“This is going to be a problem for the network,” she said.

“I’m sorry, but I have to be honest with you here.

I know when we first approached you and talked about a standalone show that just featured you, everyone was on board.

But the network is only interested if Joe is part of the plan.

That’s the only way they’ll bite. If we’d known this sooner?—”

She stopped, not wanting to play the blame game. Not wanting to finish by saying then would have been the time to mention the divorce.

But Viv had spent enough time as a counselor to know damn well what Kate was thinking. “I hear you,” she said. “It would have been easier to scrap the show and go with something else if I’d let you know the situation sooner. But I wanted to give you the chance to consider an alternative.”

“An alternative?”

Viv nodded. “I feel confident I can still convince Joe to be part of the program.”

“With his ex-wife?” Amy’s tone was incredulous, but Kate couldn’t blame her. She was thinking the same thing.

“As I said, the split was amicable,” Viv said. “We’re still adults who are capable of working together in a professional capacity. We already proved that in during the publicity blitz for On the Other Hand , didn’t we?”

“True,” Kate acknowledged, still reeling a little from the shock. “So Joe—he’s on board with this plan?”

“And what would this even look like?” Amy asked. “Would you pretend you’re still married, or do the show as exes, or?—”

“These are all excellent questions, and I’d love it if we could all sit down and discuss them together.” Vivienne glanced at her watch. “He should be here any minute.”

Amy frowned. “He’s on his way here now? Average Joe?”

“The one and only.” Viv offered a smile that seemed a little forced, and Kate felt a knot in the pit of her belly.

“And he’s willing to go along with this?” she asked.

“I’m sure as soon as we explain the whole concept to him, he’ll see this is a positive move for us bo?—”

“Wait.” Kate blinked. “You mean you haven’t told him about this?”

“I thought it would be best if you were here to answer questions.” Viv glanced toward the front window and smiled. “Ah, here he is now. Excuse me one second.”

Vivienne scrambled up and strode from the parlor on enviably long legs. Kate gaped after her, too stunned to form words.

“This is nuts!” Amy stage-whispered. “Why would she wait until now to bring it up?”

“Well, we did just find out yesterday that the network wanted Average Joe in the program,” Kate whispered back. “It’s not like she had a lot of time to plan.”

“Still, she could have called him or told him in person before we flew all the way out here.”

“It’s a technique,” Kate said as a male voice murmured a polite-sounding greeting in the foyer.

“She talks about it in chapter six in Making It Work. This idea of getting everyone together in one place to have the difficult conversations so everyone’s hearing the same story and there are no games of telephone or miscommunications or?—”

“Everyone’s in here, darling.” Vivienne’s voice echoed from the hallway, and Kate snapped her attention to the parlor doorway. “I’ll explain in just a second why I’ve asked you to join me today.”

“Jesus, Viv,” muttered a male voice. “Always with the drama. Can’t we just have a conversation like normal fucking pe?—”

The words died in his throat as the man froze in the doorway. His eyes locked with Kate’s and she heard herself give a startled gasp. She started to stand up, but bumped her water glass with her knee and sent it toppling onto Amy’s lap and the tidy glass table in front of them.

Amy gasped, too, so at least Kate wasn’t the only one who sounded like a hyperventilating hyena. Tearing her eyes from the doorway, Kate yanked off her cardigan and threw it over the blossoming puddle of cucumber water before it reached the edge of the table.

Then she turned and met those amber-green eyes again.

“Jonah?”