“Maybe London’s affecting Cormac,” said Nina thoughtfully. “Making him cranky. Is he happy there?”

Lissa looked pensive. “I don’t know,” she said. “It never occurred to me to ask. I’ve no idea how he’s getting on.”

“Right,” said Nina. “Well . . . maybe you should?”

“Hmm,” said Lissa. “And what about Cameron Blaine?”

Nina looked around. “Well,” she said, “I don’t know. I mean, I believe books can fix most things, but . . .”

She had a sudden thought.

“You could try?” And she went to the shelf of classics and pulled out The Catcher in the Rye.

“Buying him a book?” said Lissa.

“No need to sound so sarcastic.”

“I don’t want to buy him a present! I want to clip him round the ear.”

“Tell me you didn’t say that to Cormac.”

“No,” said Lissa, looking chastened. “He’s not talking to me now anyway.”

She picked up the familiar book, the edition she knew with the red horse on the cover.

Lissa looked at Nina. “Do you think? It’s ancient now.”

Nina shrugged. “Does as good a job at reaching adolescent alienation as anything I’ve ever known.”

“I suppose,” said Lissa. “Okay, I’ll take it. Cormac can pay me back for going above and beyond.”

“Bring it back if he doesn’t want it,” said Nina.

“What if he can’t read?”

“That too.”

“What if the dog eats it?”

“I think you’re procrastinating.”

Lissa thought guiltily of everything she should have been doing and felt the anxiety surge again. “Maybe,” she admitted.

“That’s okay,” said Nina. “Most people, when they come across the Blaines, just turn and run. Procrastination is a step in the right direction.”

BUT EVEN WHEN she wanted to email Cormac to tell him what she’d done—she’d left a note inside the book, put it on top of the letter box, and, she was ashamed to say, run away—she found she didn’t, because she still hadn’t heard from him. And then she was puzzled why she even cared that she hadn’t heard from him and wanted to stop checking her phone, which was annoying because . . . well, it was annoying. He was being stubborn and irritating and accusing her of not doing her job, and she was furious.