The Second Husband by Kate White

Author:Kate White
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2022-04-27T00:00:00+00:00

22

TWO SECONDS LATER, EMMA REALIZES SHE’S OVERREACTING again. Tom probably told Taylor she would love the designer, not that she already did, and Taylor misheard. The fact that he bought her the same kind of designer bracelet Derrick used to give her is simply a coincidence. Surely plenty of women in the tristate area owned jewelry by the popular brand at any given time.

And it’s not as if Tom ever had the opportunity to play much of a long game with her. Yes, they crossed paths in Miami, but it was nothing more than chance that put them in the same room together six months later. Right?

Emma struggles up from her desk chair, grabs a bottle of water from the minifridge, and gulps down half the contents, hoping the hydration might help defuzz her brain. Bottle in hand, she circles the large, quiet room. When she worked in advertising research, a wonderful female mentor used to say that if the information you’ve gathered to help solve a problem doesn’t immediately make the next steps clear, the solution isn’t necessarily to keep studying the data. What you need is even more information.

That’s what she needs to do: gather additional data. One thing that would really reassure her would be confirmation of the reason she was recruited at Halliday: because Scott Munroe read about her work in an article and thought it would be great to bring her aboard. Meaning, Tom wasn’t in the picture at all.

After locking up, Emma hurries back to the house, giving Scott a call on the way.

“Oh, hey,” he says, clearly surprised to hear from her on the weekend.

“Sorry for interrupting your Saturday, but I have a small favor to ask. Since I have a block of free time this weekend, I’d love to sketch out preliminary thoughts about our next project, and I wondered if I could pick your brain? It shouldn’t take more than ten minutes on the phone.”

“Yes, of course. You mean today?”

“If that works. Or tomorrow if it’s better.”

“I’m shopping for potted herbs at Terrain right now, but I should be done in ten minutes and—hey, do you just want to drive over and meet me at the café here?”

Emma glances at her watch. She has just enough time to squeeze in the trip before Tom gets back.

“Perfect,” she says, and less than fifteen minutes later Emma rushes into the café at the garden center to find Scott sliding into one of the apple green-cushioned chairs. Though he’s dressed casually—cream-colored pants and a dark purple T-shirt—he looks as spiffy as usual.

“My pleasure,” he says after she thanks him for giving up time on a Saturday. “You’ve spared me a trip to buy car mats, so I should be thanking you.”

The waiter stops by almost immediately, and after ordering cappuccinos, they spend a couple of minutes discussing the herbs Scott purchased and the recipes he’ll use them in. The café abuts the garden center, and the air is redolent with the smell of clean dirt and mulch.

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