Page 56 of Slow Burn Summer

“Fiona,” she said, wishing the tremor in her voice away. Shewasn’t certain she could take many of Fiona’s shots today; the reader reactions online had already kicked her around emotionally.

“Kate.” Fi looked as if she was sucking a lemon.

“I’m honestly so sorry about all this, I don’t know what to say—” Kate went straight into panicky garble mode, but stopped mid-sentence when the older woman held a hand up.

“No words, please. I have a situation.”

“Youdo?” Liv said, one hand on her hip. “Not half as much of a situation as Kate does.”

Kate put a hand on her sister’s arm, a silent plea to keep her cool.

“I’m not here to advise you in an agent capacity, Kate—Charlie will be in touch with you in due course—but right now I have the actual author, as in the person who wrote the damn book, sitting in his car outside insisting on talking to you, and we both know that’s a terrible idea. If I’d arrived five minutes later he’d have barreled in here already and blown the whole thing, but as it is I’ve managed to hold him off, for now. Trust me when I say I’ve tried my best to talk him out of this, but he’s as stubborn as an ox when he makes his mind up about something. He’s given me three minutes to come in here and sort something out before he does it himself.” Fiona looked at her watch. “Make that two minutes.”

“H is here, right now?” Kate stared at the doorway. Charlie was on a train from Edinburgh…if it wasn’t him, then who? “Outside?”

“Don’t ask for details, it’ll take too long to explain.” Fiona turned to Liv. “I need a head from one of these”—she batted a hand around the shop—“ridiculous outfits.”

“Custom-made costumes,” Liv corrected, waspish.

Fiona rolled her eyes. “If I can’t stop him coming in, we can at least preserve his anonymity for both your sakes.”

“Is it really necessary anymore?” Kate said. “Everyone knows who I am now.”

“But they don’t know who he is, and neither do you, and that’s the way it’s going to stay,” Fiona said. Kate realized in the moment that Fiona wasn’t especially bothered if she was hung out to dry, as long as H wasn’t hung out alongside her. And, despite everything, Kate didn’t want that to happen either.

“Find him a head, Liv,” she said, quietly.

Liv scanned the inventory, drumming her fingernails against her front teeth. “The storm troopers are all out for a stag do and Spider-Man isn’t due back in until tomorrow. Even the lobster is at the dry cleaner’s…” She paused, clicking her tongue. “How tall is he?”

“How should I know?” Fiona snapped, gesticulating wide and high with her arms. “Man-size.”

Kate watched Liv fight to keep her temper, and vowed to pour her a large gin when this was over.

“There’s the T-Rex,” Liv said finally.

Fiona turned to survey the huge costume, stepping away from it as if offended.

“It’s a one-piece, though. No detachable head.”

“You want my world-renowned author to dress up as a dinosaur?”

“No,youwant your world-renowned author to dress up as a dinosaur,” Liv corrected. “This is your shit show, not mine.”

Fiona stared at Liv, who glared straight back. Kate looked between them, unsure which she’d place a bet on, but she thought she saw a flicker of admiration cross Fiona’s face.

“So be it,” Fiona sighed. “If it’s all there is, it’s all there is. You two leave the shop while I get him inside that thing. He’s not going to like this one bit.”

“Leave my own shop?” Liv’s arms paused in mid-air as sheremoved the costume from the dummy, her face suggesting she wasn’t going anywhere.

“We can just go in the storeroom for a few minutes, it’s fine.” Kate jumped in and gestured at the door behind the counter, desperate not to lose the chance to speak to H, to try to work out what to do for the best. “You can tap the door when you’re ready.”

Liv draped the costume over the counter then flipped the sign on the door over to closed. “Be careful with my T-Rex,” she said. “And my sister.”

“Are you always like this?” Fiona lowered her glasses on their golden chain and looked down her nose.

Kate grabbed Liv’s arm and steered her bodily toward the storeroom. “Knock when we can come out.”

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