Page 81 of At the Heart of It
“I feel like we should tell him.”
Amy shook her head. “Kate.” There was so much emotion crammed into that single syllable. “You know we can’t,” Amy continued. “You heard what I said when we sat down. That was a private conversation. We’re contractually bound to keep her confidence.”
Kate knew that, of course. That didn’t make it any easier to wrap her head around. “But there has to be a clause in there somewhere?—”
“Unless one cast member is planning to kill another, we have to let it play out,” she said. “You know as well as I do that blindsides and secret plots are the name of the game in reality TV.”
“I know that,” Kate said. “Maybe he wants this.”
“Wants to get back with his ex-wife?” Amy snorted. “You don’t really believe that.”
“I don’t know what to believe.” Kate glanced back at the house and wondered if Viv had noticed their car hadn’t left the drive. “What if I did know for sure that Jonah’s not interested. Do I owe it to Viv to tell her?”
“Tell her what? ‘Hey, I shagged your ex-husband six ways to Sunday and ruined him for other women, so I don’t think he’ll take you back.’”
Okay, it sounded silly when Amy put it that way. “No,” Kate said slowly. “I don’t think that’s true. I think—hell, I don’t know what to think.”
“She does have a point,” Amy said. “Stupid though it may be, it would make for great television no matter how it turns out.”
“Fucking Chase Whitfield,” Kate snarled, even though she knew it wasn’t his fault.
“Come on,” Amy said. “Let’s skip the coffee and go straight for martinis. My treat.”
“I thought you were taking Allie to get hammered.”
“You need as much as she does.” Amy shot her a sweet look of sympathy. “Probably more.”
“You’re sure she won’t mind?”
Amy started the engine. “Positive. Allie adores you.”
“Okay.” She liked Allie, too. They’d gotten acquainted while pursuing a documentary that never got off the ground. Maybe a girls’ night would be just the thing to take her mind off Jonah and Viv.
Amy eased out of the driveway. “You okay?”
“Yes.”
“Will you be able to keep the secret?”
Kate nodded, pretty sure she was on the brink of setting a record for the most secrets kept in a single week. “Yeah,” she said. “Mum’s the word.”
Chapter 12
The next few days of filming passed in a blur for Jonah. Kate behaved like the consummate professional, orchestrating detailed filming schedules and pulling cast members aside for on-the-fly interviews (which Jonah had learned to call “OTFs” so the crew members didn’t look at him like a dumbass).
He tried not to take it personally that Kate never handled his OTFs, always deferring them to Amy or one of the other folks on set. This is what they’d agreed, after all. They both had to pretend nothing had happened between them.
He couldn’t help wishing Kate weren’t so good at it.
A couple of times he’d tried texting her after hours. Once about a beer he thought she’d like, and another time with some silly message about bubble bath. He also messaged her about the filming schedule at Jossy’s shelter.
That was the only text she answered right away.
He knew that was for the best. She was just sticking with what they’d agreed, and he was the idiot who thought maybe they could still make something happen. That there was some way sleeping together wouldn’t affect the show or their friendship or anything else.
He knew better, dammit.
Even so, he couldn’t stop his stupid heart from lurching at the sight of her coming up the walkway toward Jossy’s shelter. She was still wearing the skirt and heels she’d worn all day on set, and he wondered if her feet hurt like hell. He thought about asking, but decided against it.
