Simon didn’t move a muscle; only his eyes shifted up to her face. He held her gaze for several long, uncomfortable seconds before turning to the glass wall himself. It was a low blow, dragging his mother in, but the impact was effective.

When he had first started dating Clare, his mother, an editor who had married a writer, Simon’s father, had tried to warn him about falling for the client. “It’s hard, Simon. They’re temperamental, fragile…and, I’m sorry to say, downright infantile at times. You know the old adage about shitting where you eat—it isn’t pleasant.” Fifteen years ago, he’d made the mistake of joking about his mother’s warning with Clare—and she never let him forget it.

“I’m going to get going, then. William’s signing is at eight; if I leave now, I’ll still have time to get some dinner in the city.”

“You’ll be staying at the condo then?”

He nodded and turned back to her and Charlie. “And I’m going to catch a flight to New York tomorrow.”

Clare raised her eyebrows at this unexpected news. She tried to not look pleased. “New York? Okay.”

“I have some meetings I’ve been putting off,” he explained as he closed the distance between them. “I’ve been out west too long.” He tried to smile, but Clare could see he was hoping she would ask him to stay, or take her with him. She would do neither.

“It can’t be helped,” she said, knowing it wasn’t true but not caring. There wasn’t any reason Simon needed to be in New York for work. He handled everything over phone and email.

“That face-to-face…editors,” he added lamely, not even believing it himself.

“Well…” She kissed his cheek. “We’ll miss you. Be safe.”

Simon stood there a moment longer, staring at her and her dog.

“Do you want help packing some things?” she asked, hoping to hurry him along but also praying he’d say no.

He shook his head, his mouth flattening into a line. He looked into her eyes. “I’ll miss you. I love you.”

She smiled, but felt flat and emotionless. Her eyes rested on the top button of his white oxford shirt. “I love you, too,” she replied before letting him kiss her goodbye.

Chapter 10

Eileen

In the San Francisco airport, Eileen stood with her bags and her sister’s book in her hand staring up at one of the overhead signs, unable to bring the words into focus.

Dammit, she was really drunk.