Page 51 of At the Heart of It
“Yeah. Her name’s Marilyn. Marilyn of the Judgmental Eyebrows.”
“That sounds—interesting.”
“She came from Jossy’s rescue center.”
Viv’s expression softened into one Jossy once dubbed “serene healer,” which was always said with a snide tone. She’d never said it to Viv’s face, and Jonah had always felt a little bad using the phrase himself.
“How is Josslyn doing?” Viv asked as she touched a hand to her chest.
“She’s fine. Sends her regards.”
Not entirely true, unless “regards” could be expressed with a middle finger. But sharing that would be unhelpful, so Jonah picked up his glass of water and took a sip.
His brain flashed back to a conversation with his sister not long after he and Viv had gotten married.
“I don’t like how she treats people,” Jossy had complained when he’d demanded to know why his sister had turned down every dinner invitation for the last six months.
“She’s a therapist,” Jonah had tried to point out, feeling defensive of his new wife. “She treats people with kindness and compassion, and yeah—sometimes a little tough love.”
“You forgot the condescension,” Jossy had muttered. “An odd thing to forget, since she reserves an extra dose of it for you.”
Jonah set his water glass down harder than he meant to, annoyed by the memory. Maybe his sister had had a point. Was that any reason to feel irritated now? He was clear of Viv now, divorced and free as a bird, removed from the scene of his own discontent.
Okay, so not entirely. How would Jossy feel if she knew the reason he’d agreed to do this stupid TV show? That his whole plan was to help her, his baby sister, the one he should have helped a long time ago.
She’d be mad as hell.
“I have to say, I’m a little surprised you agreed so quickly,” Viv said, jarring Jonah back to the conversation. “Though I suppose Kate’s a pretty talented persuader.”
She watched his face and waited, and Jonah recognized the question in her eyes. He sure as fuck wasn’t going to answer it.
“She said you told her I’d be at Alki Park the other day,” he said, not bothering to mention the other two times he’d seen Kate alone. “That you sent her there to talk to me.”
“I wouldn’t say I sent her there, exactly.” Viv sipped her own water. “I did suggest to her that you might be more open to persuasion from someone besides me.” She smiled and leaned forward just a little. “I also might have suggested she undo a button or two on her blouse.”
Jonah gripped his water glass tighter. “She wasn’t wearing a blouse with buttons.”
“Oh, so you noticed?”
Jonah wanted to hurl his glass at the wall, but he settled for draining the contents and refilling it. Viv’s, too, since he was a goddamn gentleman. He sat back on the sofa and wondered how much longer he had to make conversation.
“Did I tell you how Kate persuaded me to do the show?” Viv asked.
“Did it involve undoing buttons? Because I’ve gotta say, I think girl-on-girl stuff would resonate well with cable TV viewers.”
Viv ignored him and slid her silky ponytail from one shoulder to the other, then tucked her bare feet up onto the chair.
“She wrote me the most amazing fan letter,” Viv said. “Truly, I’ve never seen anything like it.”
Jonah thought of the passion in Kate’s eyes when she’d told him about the concept for the show. About the heartfelt explanations she’d given over pizza at the Cat Café. “I can see that,” he said, then took another sip of water.
“She didn’t come right out with her request at first,” Viv said. “But she explained her job and asked if she could fly me out to LA for an all-expense-paid trip. Said she had something she wanted to talk to me about. And get this—the hotel where she set me up was the same one I talked about in But Not Broken. The scene where I flew out and met with the shaman who?—”
“Right, I remember.”
“Of course you do. Anyway, the whole trip was like that. Kate picking up on little details—my favorite wine, a significant quotation, having hydrangeas on the table at dinner because she knows I love them—all the little things that showed she was a serious student of my work and not just a casual fan.”
Viv had the good grace to blush at that, and Jonah wondered if she’d been working on sounding less pretentious. She might have her faults, but Viv was pretty good at identifying her own weaknesses and looking for ways to improve.
