He allowed the memory to flood his mind and realized almost at once he’d missed an extraordinary and important clue.

47

Nem began looking for a new job at once. She checked online and in the papers on Friday night, instead of going out with Diane. This was a better use of her time. As she scanned the available positions, she considered returning to temporary work. Even if it wasn’t data entry, she could do temp secretarial work in offices, insurance companies or any business really.

When she looked back on this moment later, she laughed at the irony of her concern. Her new career was coming for her as surely as sunshine followed rain. It took a series of events to deliver her to the path, each one appearing meaningless until viewed from the distance of time.

A rainy day.

A chance meeting with a stranger.

The discovery of a gift within herself.

A risk taken that altered her destiny.

They were just around the corner, waiting to direct her, a signposted walkway with each event leading to the next.

The first nudge arrived on the following Sunday morning. The weather was face-tingling cold and wet, and too nasty a day to go outside. The best plan Nem decided was to hibernate inside and read one of the multitude of books piled by her bedside. Her bookcase, filled to falling with advance reader copies, could hold no more. The publishers’ sales agents delivered these copies prior to release, so staff could sample upcoming books. They hoped the staff would consider making recommendations to their customers. There were so many scattered around her apartment, she’d never read every one of them.

A writer she’d discovered in recent months, Caroline Kepnes, had a new novel which sounded good. Her debut You was a best seller and a heck of a read. But as she lifted the novel to study the cover, she noticed Gone with the Wind near the bottom of the ten-high stack.

At heart, she was a romance reader. If she couldn’t enjoy love in her life, then she could live through the characters. She loved Scarlett and her dogged determination; when nobody believed in her, she kept going. That girl didn’t break into a million little pieces because Rhett left her. Tough stuff was her middle name. Just like Nem.

She stared through the window, watching as the drizzle trickled down the pane, reminding her of captured tears. That was what she needed, a book with drama and heartbreak but with an ultimate happy ending. Not Gone with the Wind. No, she knew what she was in the mood to read as she made her way to the bookshelf in her living room.

“There you are,” she said, pulling out her well-worn copy of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. Another strong female character, but Elizabeth Bennett gets her man, and on her terms.

After making herself a cup of coffee and loading a plate with chocolate chip cookies and a token piece of healthy fruit, she settled herself on the sofa. Curled beside her, as if this was her idea, was Emily.