Page 80 of Slow Burn Summer

“Maybe she needs to be involved, it sounds as if someone has a grudge. A pissed-off customer?”

Kate looked at the floor. “It’s trifle, so I think we can safely assume it’s book-related.” She felt ridiculous.

“Jesus.” Charlie closed his eyes and scrubbed his hands over his face.

They stood in fraught silence. “Just go,” she said, weary. “It’s my problem to solve.”

He reached out and took her face between his hands. “Is it fuck. I’m not going anywhere.”

She stared into his cola-dark eyes, so close she could see the sunburst whiskey shards, and she leaned into him, because she was exhausted and she’d wanted to tell him every day, and she was sick of keeping up the pretense.

The heat of his body warmed hers, and his hands softened from a grip to cradling her jaw.

“You’re not on your own anymore. Let me help you.”

Kate let her face rest against his palm and finally allowed herself to feel relief. She’d been turning things over in her head all morning, an idea forming that would be much easier with Charlie’s help.

“There is one thing you could do,” she said. “Get me back on the sofa with Ruby and Niall.”

48

Having already been on theGood Morning Showsofa once before, you might imagine Kate would feel less overwhelmed at the prospect of doing it again. You’d be wrong. She was a bag of nerves by the time the car eased to a stop beside the river embankment outside the studios, shivering inside her cap-sleeved, full-skirted black dress. It was an old favorite, one of those pieces you reach for when you need something that makes you feel ready for anything.

Charlie was waiting for her and opened the car door, scanning her face. “Okay?”

She half nodded, half shrugged, not feeling okay at all. She’d stayed over at a hotel nearby last night and left the shop closed up, aware she’d probably return to a sour mess congealing in the summer heat.

“I think so,” she said. “I mean, I’m terrified, I just want to get it over with.”

She touched the small pendant around her neck, a delicate silver oyster shell and pearl she’d found in one of the harbor shops near Pink Cottage. It was her only jewelry beside her bangle. Just one bangle today, although she felt badly in need of two for good luck.

“Let’s go inside,” she said, anxious to get the ball rolling.

She appreciated the light you’ve-got-this touch of Charlie’s palm against the base of her back as she walked a step or two ahead of him. He hadn’t faltered when she’d asked him to book her onto the show, pulling all the necessary strings to make it happen. It hadn’t been all that difficult in actual fact: the promise of an exclusive reveal had had the bookers juggling guests like oranges.

—

Forty minutes later, Kate foundherself being quickly hugged by Ruby and Niall during the ad break, neither of them hiding their interest in what she was going to say. They knew she wanted to set the record straight; social-media-fueled drama was the show’s bread and butter, they were gagging for the scoop.

“Ready?” Niall said, as the floor manager began to count them down. Kate caught Charlie’s eye from his spot behind the camera, drawing strength from his steady presence. Ruby gave Kate’s hand a quick squeeze beside her on the sofa, and then they were live to the nation.

“As promised before the break, novelist Kate Darrowby is here with us again, this time to set the record straight about the ongoing saga surrounding her debut book,The Power of Love,” Niall said.

“Let’s take a look back at the story so far.” Ruby smiled, breezy, and the feed cut to a whistle-stop VT montage of the book’s release, a snippet of Kate’s previous sofa interview, the bestseller delisting scandal, snapshots of some of the avalanche of damning social media posts and speculation, all set to dramatic music. It played out like a soap opera, complete with stand-up rows and trifle-slinging. Kate kept her eyes focused on her laced fingers in her lap, not wanting to see the negativity right before she spoke up for herself.

“That all looks like quite the tumultuous ride,” Niall said, as Ruby nodded and gazed at Kate.

“That’s one way to put it,” Kate said.

“Do you feel you’ve been treated unfairly?” Ruby said.

Kate shook her head. “No, no, I don’t. People have reacted to what they’ve seen, and I haven’t responded or defended myself up to now on the advice of the team around me, which I totally understand and agree with. But circumstances have changed recently and I need to at least try to explain myself so people can understand, if not forgive me.”

“Go on,” Niall said, clearly being told by the producer in his ear to say as little as possible.

Kate forced her shoulders down and her chin up. “My name isn’t Kate Darrowby, and I’m not an author,” she said. “I’m Kate Elliott, a divorcée who needed a job, and the only job I’d ever done outside of my husband’s company was act on a soap when I was nineteen. I’d had a couple of glasses of wine one night and wrote to my old agent, and that was how I came to be in the right place at the right time—or my letter did, anyway. I was invited in to read an as-yet-unpublished novel, and if I loved it, they were looking for an unknown actor to stand in for the actual author who wasn’t able to publish it under their own name.”

“And do you know who that author is?” Ruby leaned toward her, straight in with the question the nation really wanted the answer to.

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