Daniel felt his soul puddle into his shoes. His strength at work was a blind spot at home. His advice to Joe and Joanne Average sitting on his couch was simple, but he never followed it. His advice echoed back to him, annoying him with not just its simplicity but the fact that he knew he’d offered it a thousand times without listening to it himself. You need to bring some things out into the open. You each hold a part of the solution.

Kelly was on a roll—a cork had popped on emotions long bottled up. “I didn’t believe you when you said there was no one else.”

“I’d run out of ways to convince you, but that’s not—”

“I spoke to Anna, and she has reassured me that there isn’t.”

The advice pecked away at him again. You need to bring some things out into the open.

“I didn’t do anything, but it’s a little more layered than that, Kel. The group photo on our deck showed me and Anna holding hands.”

Pure fear burned in Kelly’s stare. Daniel had seen that look in a woman’s eyes countless times when her partner had just announced he had something to say. “But Anna told me—”

“Nothing happened, but the camera showed my heart. I’ve been relying on her in the way I should have been relying on you.”

Silence. A gentle breeze wafted in from the deck. The fear in Kelly’s eyes subsided.

“So I’m sorry. I was angry you didn’t believe I’d done nothing wrong, but Simon was clear that I wasn’t being honest with you in how I viewed Anna.” Again, advice he’d doled out for everyone else to follow.

“But if you aren’t seeing someone else, why have you been coming home so late?”

“I need to come clean with you about the next book.”

Kelly frowned in confusion. “What’s wrong with the book?”

“I’m nearly a year behind. It’s not happening.”

Kelly sat back, stunned. “Not happening? You said you were working on it.”

“I’ve been trying to make it happen, to come up with something, but it just wasn’t coming.”

Kelly’s frown graduated into a scowl. “So when you told me to just wait a few more months—”

“I was genuine in that.”

“Why couldn’t you tell me? I stayed at my job because I thought the book wasn’t far away. Was it just that you were too proud to tell me that the bestselling author couldn’t write another book?”

Daniel stared at his feet. He’d kept this secret close for years, convincing himself it would never come out. But now it was about to be brought into the light, halving its power but doubling its risk. “That’s what I need to be honest with you about.”