Page 12 of At the Heart of It
“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?”
Chapter 3
Jonah had several questions buzzing around in his brain and wasn’t sure which one to ask first.
He decided not to choose. “Why the hell am I here?” He leveled the first question at his ex-wife before turning to face the whip-smart woman with the sleek mahogany hair and the lips he hadn’t stopped thinking about for a month. “And why are you here?”
