Well, that was an overreaction. She would have to calm him down before raising the issue of the receptionist. “I’m sorry if I upset you. I just thought it would be easy because No Secrets was.”

Daniel flushed a deep red. “Well, it wasn’t, okay?” He stomped around the kitchen, slamming cupboards until he found a glass. “One day it came to me.”

Kelly shrank back on the sofa. Daniel’s anger had made occasional appearances, but this time it was as if she’d not just touched a nerve but sliced it open.

“Don’t yell at me if you’re upset. I said I was sorry—”

Daniel bustled over to the sofa and slid in next to her, looming over her with a menace she’d never seen in him. Ever. “Do you not trust me to write a book? Is that what you’re saying?”

That straw broke the back of Kelly’s tolerance. A flood of hurt poured out in a gush. “Trust? You spend the evening on the deck with your receptionist in her painted-on cocktail dress all the while claiming nothing is going on despite her challenging me to my face. You work late at the office, only coming home when I call wondering where you are. You are in no position to talk about trust!”

Daniel closed his eyes and growled through his teeth. “I have done nothing wrong! What will it take for you to accept that?” His cell phone pinged, and he grimaced as he checked it before turning it facedown on the sofa.

“I know what I saw on the deck, Daniel. And to be honest, doing the right thing is not as simple as avoiding the wrong thing.”

Daniel shook exasperated tears from his eyes. “What more can I do?”

That was better. “I need to know you’ve drawn a line through anyone else.”

“I have.”

“So I’ve got nothing to worry about at Crossroads?”

“No, you haven’t. And frankly, I’m tiring of saying it.”

“And what I saw at the work dinner was nothing to worry about?”

“No.”

Now was the time. “We need to see someone.”

Daniel shrugged. “Can’t we just talk?”

“That’s the problem. I want to talk to my husband, not a counselor.”

Daniel thought about it for a moment. “Fair enough. We can talk about seeing someone else. There are some things I’d like to know too.”

A truce settled between them. More a cease-fire than peace.

Daniel calmed as he breathed hard through his nose. “Something happened at the work dinner you need to know about.”

A numbness washed over Kelly. Hadn’t he just said nothing happened?

“It’s Milly.”

Kelly traded her suspicion and self-defense for a sinking sense of failure. “What happened?”

“Milly was trying to get people’s attention by threatening to jump from the railing of our deck.”

Kelly’s hand shot to her mouth. “Who saw her?”