“Yes. I told him he could go back to work but he said it was all under control and that he always took a break about that time, anyway. Which I guess wasn’t true, but it was nice of him.” She watched Joanna’s face. “He was kind, too.”

“I—good.”

“We talked.” Ashley took another strawberry from the bowl in front of Joanna. “A lot.”

“You did? What about?”

“You mostly.” She saw Joanna’s face change.

“Me?”

“Well, first I talked about me because I was upset about that article, and I needed someone to rant to. I used to live a normal life, but lately it’s been nonstop drama. I’m not sure I’m built for drama—”

“Are any of us?”

“I don’t know, but I’m definitely not. I have no idea why anyone wants to be a celebrity and have their life splashed around for public consumption. You’ve lived with this for two decades, which makes it all the more amazing that you’re not more of a mess, frankly. Anyway, Nate wanted to know everything about you, and to begin with I clammed up and said nothing because I thought he might be about to call the press or something. I don’t really trust people right now. But then he started talking about the past, about how you grew up together and knew each other well, and how he’d thought about you often. He said he’d been worried about you.” Ashley eyed Joanna, wondering how carefully she had to tread. “He seemed very interested in you. He asked me a lot of questions about how you were and what you’d been doing.”

“He did?”

“Yes. And he asked about Cliff, and said that whole thing must have been tough on you.”

“And what did you tell him?” She said the words as if she wasn’t too interested in the answer, but Ashley knew she was interested.

“I didn’t tell him anything. I said if there was stuff he wanted to know, then he was going to have to ask you himself and he laughed and said that he intended to do that.” She watched Joanna’s face. “He’s smoking hot. I mean, for someone older, obviously. It made me think—the way he talked about you...” She might as well say it, straight out. She and Joanna had already talked about so many personal things, why not this, too? “You were involved, right? When you lived here?”

Joanna tensed. “I don’t know why you would think—”

“That the two of you have a connection? I have eyes in my head. The moment you saw each other—well, I’m good at sensing atmospheres.”

“In this case you’re wrong. There was no atmosphere.”