“Work is always a good distraction.” My tone destroys the bit of lightness. “I’m good at burying myself in it.” The girls are quiet as my words sit stale in the air. It’s part of the reason my marriage is tainted. I don’t have to say it out loud and they don’t have to tell me. Everyone already knows it.

She worked herself to death will be written on my tombstone. It’s all I think while I stand at the counter and order another coffee. Regular this time, with a splash of cream and plenty of sugar.

“I read his book you gave me,” Maddie says when I retake my seat a moment later, changing the subject back to Jacob Scott. “I looked him up online too,” she adds as a smile spreads across her lips and her cheeks brighten with a blush. She scoots to the back of her seat and holds her cup in both hands, gladly taking the attention off of me. “He’s cute,” she says and smiles in a way I don’t see often from her. My left brow raises as I watch her pink cheeks turn brighter. Little miss innocent.

“Is he now?” Sue comments and the two share a look as Maddie nods.

“Want me to put in a good word for you?” I question—it’s meant for either of them really—and reach into my Kate Spade satchel for my laptop and notebook, setting them up on the table as Sue stands and puts on her jacket. There’s no way Maddie would actually make a move. She’s so sheltered and inexperienced. There’s also no way I’d let someone like Jacob near her.

“You can always stay and wait for him to get here?” I say jokingly. “Or maybe leave something behind and have to come back for it?”

She doesn’t answer, merely shakes her head and slides off her seat to join Sue in leaving me to my fresh coffee and waiting laptop.

“I wouldn’t want to impose,” Maddie finally says and then walks over to give me a hug. Even in her heels, I still sit a little higher at the bar-height table as she embraces me.

I half expect her to say something in my ear, to tell me it’ll be all right or that Evan’s made a mistake. But she doesn’t say a word until she lets me go. “I’m just a call away,” she says with a chipper tone that wouldn’t clue in anyone around us that I’d need to call her because my life is falling apart. Both of her hands grip my shoulders just a second too long.

My heart goes pitter-patter.