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  It was getting to the point where she never knew.

  Deep breath in. Slow breath out.

  Katie headed inside.

  “Mom?”

  Liz Cooper appeared from the kitchen, a dish towel in one hand, the other holding her forefinger to her lips in the universal request for silence. Then she pointed to the recliner in the living room where Katie saw her father, eyes closed, apparently napping.

  Liz waved her into the kitchen.

  “How’s he been today?” Katie asked, barely above a whisper. She knew how much these breaks—when her father crashed into a nap—were a necessity for her mother. And her mother’s sanity.

  “Eh. Not great. Not awful.” Liz shrugged as she folded the dish towel in thirds and hung it over the handle of the oven. “Want some tea?” she asked Katie, as she put the kettle on the front burner and turned it on.

  “Absolutely.”

  She pulled out a chair at the small kitchen table and watched as her mother busied herself with mugs and tea bags. Katie didn’t get a lot of time alone with her mother anymore. There was some, but most of the time, Liz was so utterly exhausted that she took whatever breaks she got to grab a nap or go for a quiet walk. They didn’t really talk like they used to, either. Katie missed that. Her mother had always made the best sounding board. Even in school, her friends were amazed by the relationship she had with her mom. Disagreements between them were rare; Katie liked to think that was because she was a good girl and her mother was a reasonable parent. As a teenager, she actually wanted to spend time with her mom. When most of her friends heard that, their eyes bugged out in disbelief and they wondered why in the world she’d want to do such a ridiculously lame thing.

  Life was different now. Changed. Altered. Not that she didn’t want to hang out with her mom any longer, just that it was harder and harder to find time for just the two of them. Her father, who used to be the guy to bring light and energy into any room, now seemed to suck out all the air more and more often. God, it was hard to watch.

  Liz set two mugs of steaming tea down on the table, then doctored her own with cream and sugar. Katie grinned, as she always did when she did the same thing to her own tea.

  “Like mother, like daughter,” Liz said quietly, her standard comment when they had tea together. “How were the boys today?”

  This felt almost normal, this type of conversation, and Katie was thankful for that. Every snippet of normal she could grab, she snatched at, held it as tightly in her grip as she could. “Noah is still a little ball of nerves. I feel so bad for him. He’s trying so hard to be brave, but he’s just scared. Simon is pretty good about helping him along, but he’s got zero fear, so I’m not sure he gets what the big deal is.”

  “You were like Noah.”

  “Was I?”

  “For kindergarten, yes. You were terrified. And so was your mother.” Liz covered her sheepish grin by taking a sip of her tea.

  “You were? Why?”

  “You had no siblings and not much in the way of extended family. It had been just you and me for four years. Part of me was worried about how you’d do, surrounded by other kids, because that would be so new for you. The other part of me wondered what I was going to do without you.”

  “Aww, Mom.” Katie reached across the table and squeezed her mother’s forearm. “You never told me that. What happened?”

  Liz chuckled. “You met Samantha, that’s what happened.”

  “And the rest is history.”

  “It sure is.”

  “Speaking of Sam, I’m supposed to meet her tonight when she gets out of work. I think she might have a line on a job for me.” Katie squinted at her mom. “Are you okay if I scoot for an hour or two later?”

  Liz nodded.

  “I won’t stay out long. I can give you a break now for a couple hours and I know you’ll need another one by tonight.”

  “Sweetie, it’s fine. Go have a drink with your BFF and don’t worry about me. I can handle things here.”

  Katie forced a smile onto her face for her mother’s benefit. Liz needed Katie to know she was handling things, even when she was barely holding on. Katie understood that and played along, but she was always watching out of the corner of her eye. She worried almost as much about her mother as she did about her father, as she was reasonably sure that either one of them could topple at any given moment. Katie had to be ready to catch them. She had to.

  Yeah, this new normal? Katie was not enjoying it.

  * * *

  “She’s so tired, Sam.” Katie shook her head, then took a swig of her beer. “She’s got dark circles under her eyes. She’s stopped wearing makeup because she doesn’t have time to put it on. She’s constantly in sweats because she’s too exhausted to put an outfit together.”

  “God, that sucks.” Samantha sipped her Cosmo. “How’s your dad?”

  Katie tipped her head one way, then the other. “Depends on the day. Today wasn’t bad. He was napping when I got home, and he stayed that way for over an hour. I sent my mom out to the store. I don’t think we needed anything, but she barely leaves the house unless I insist.”

  “This has to be so hard for her.” A sheepish look crossed Sam’s face as she averted her eyes so she was staring at the pink liquid in her glass. “I want to call her, to check in, to say hi, but…” She frowned as she looked up at Katie.

  “You don’t know what to say.”

  A small nod. “I do text her.”

  “It’s okay, Sammi. I get it. Keep texting. She likes hearing from you.”

  “Yeah?”

  Katie nodded. “She doesn’t talk to people very often. Dad takes up so much of her time and energy.” She didn’t like to think about it, about how lonely her mother had become. She and Katie’s father were the epitome of soulmates. He was her air, and she his. Katie couldn’t begin to fathom the depths of the cracks that must be forming in her mother’s heart over this.

  A beat went by before Sam said, “Okay, let’s talk about something happier.” Her smile was gentle and tender, making it clear she wasn’t brushing aside what Katie and her family were going through. She’d never do that; Katie knew it. They’d been best friends for twenty-four years and nobody knew her better than Sam. She set down her martini glass, put her forearms on the table, and leaned forward. “I have a proposition for you.”

  “Why, Samantha Morgan. And all this time you’ve been telling me you don’t play on my team.”

  “Ha ha. You’re hilarious.” Sam’s green eyes twinkled as she brushed a hunk of red hair off her forehead. “I like my own team just fine, thank you, and I have a job proposition for you.”

  Katie cocked her head, definitely curious. “I’m listening.”

  “I know your hours have been cut with the twins heading off to school. I also know you need as much money as you can get to help out at home.”

  A grimace crossed Katie’s face. “My dad’s medical bills are getting crazy. I think my mom’s close to panicking but won’t tell me that. I have to sneak peeks at the mail.”

  “I figured. So, here’s the deal.” Sam gave a brief rundown of the conversation she’d overheard earlier. “I talked to Jack afterward and he told me they’re getting Addison a part-time personal assistant until she’s back to a hundred percent. Which means it’s temporary, but the pay is beyond generous. I told him about you, that I’ve known you since we were kids, that you have a business degree, that you’re crazy organized. I told him you’d be great for the job, and he trusts me. He wants to meet with you first, but if you want the job, it’s yours. He’s already told Mrs. Fairchild, and she trusts him, so…” She let the sentence dangle.

  “Wow,” Katie said, because it was all she could manage in the moment. She took a beat with the information, let it absorb into her gray cells. “So…how temporary are we talking?”

  Sam shrugged. “I don’t know for sure, but Jack and I thought at least three months. Possibly four.” She named a figure that had Katie’s eye
s opening wide.

  “Wow. For three months?”

  “Maybe four.”

  Katie nodded slowly. “What happened to her? To Addison?”

  “I’ve never met her, though I’ve seen her several times. She works herself to the bone, according to Jack. She’s constantly overstressed, and apparently, it caught up with her last week. She was out with a friend and fainted. She tried to brush it off, but the friend insisted on taking her to the emergency room where they ran a bunch of tests. She’s got an ulcer, high blood pressure, an endless headache, she’s too thin. Lots of issues.” Sam paused to sip her drink and Katie saw a shadow cross her face.

  “What? What aren’t you telling me?”

  Sam shook her head. “Nothing. Just that…she has a reputation for being kind of a…” She pursed her lips, pushed them to the side of her face as she searched for the right word.

  “Whirlwind? Amazing boss? Bitch?”

  “Yes.” Sam pointed at her. “That last one.”

  “Awesome.”

  “Come on. You’ve handled four-year-old twin boys for over a year. I think a type-A personality businesswoman would be a piece of cake for you.”

  Katie narrowed her eyes. “You make a fine point, my friend.”

  “And as I said, I’ve never actually met her, I’m just telling you what I’ve heard. So this could all just be rumor and innuendo. She could be lovely.”

  “That is something to take into consideration.”

  “As is the money.”

  “As is the money. Yeah. So there’s that.”

  “Just talk to Jack. How about that? Come by tomorrow after you put the boys on the bus and see him. I’ll sit in if you want.”

  Katie realized in that moment how silly she was being. “No need. I’m a big girl. I can talk to him myself. Okay.” She slapped a hand down on the table. “Let’s do that.”

  They set up a time and then shifted focus to talk about other things. In the back of her mind, though, Katie was keeping track of the time, knowing her mother was going to need to be tagged out.

  Half an hour later, on her drive home, Katie felt herself getting excited about the possibility of a new job, about being able to contribute more to help with the bills that seemed to be piling up despite her parents’ insurance coverage. About being able to use her degree. She loved being a nanny, loved Simon and Noah like they were her own. But nannying wasn’t what she wanted to do with her life. She hated that her parents had spent all the money on college and she wasn’t using her degree at all. That fact sat under her skin and niggled at her uncomfortably. Maybe this personal assistant job was just what she needed until she could find something more permanent.

  Maybe it would change her life.

  A small snort of a laugh pushed out of her as she grinned at her own melodramatic thoughts. It was a job, though. One that would use her degree and pay her generously, two things that made her very happy in that moment.

  And just like that, she was looking forward to tomorrow.

  She had a good feeling about working for Addison Fairchild.

  Chapter Three

  “No.” Addison was adamant. She made sure of it in the tone of her voice, in the steeliness of her eyes. She held her mother’s gaze—not an easy feat—and was pretty sure she’d made her point clear. This was a definite nope. A not happening. An absolutely not. No.

  “Yes.”

  Damn it. Meredith’s eyes were just as steely. No, they were more so. After all, Addison did get hers from her mother. Apparently, she needed another twenty years to perfect the steel before she was in the same league as Meredith Fairchild.

  “Mom, come on. I don’t need a babysitter.”

  They were in Addison’s loft apartment, and she was under a thick afghan on her couch. The freezing rain teemed outside, hammering the balcony and drumming against the floor-to-ceiling windows in the living room. The sky was gray and dull, much like Addison’s mood.

  She was tired. So tired. She couldn’t remember ever having been this tired in her entire life. She felt like she had no bones left, like her limbs were made of rubber and just flopped around uselessly, spaghetti. Lifting an arm to reach for her water glass felt like an ordeal. Her head was foggy—from the medication still in her system, she was sure—and she didn’t like dealing with her mother when she wasn’t 100 percent.

  “She’s not a babysitter,” Sophie said, from where she stood in the corner of the room.

  “You shut up.” Addison pointed a finger at her, the traitor. “I’m not speaking to you.”

  Sophie responded by rolling her eyes, completely unfazed, as usual.

  “Sophie’s right. She’s not a babysitter. She’ll be here to lighten your load, take some of the extras off your plate.”

  “If you could keep an admin instead of chasing them all away by insisting on doing everything yourself, you wouldn’t be in this boat.” Sophie tilted her head as if daring Addison to argue with her.

  Addison responded by holding up her hand, palm toward Sophie, and turning her head away. “Talk to the hand.”

  “Yeah, 1998 called,” Sophie said, with a snort. “It wants its catchphrase back.”

  “You are stressed beyond belief, Addison.” Meredith sat on the couch next to her and laid a warm hand on her foot, squeezed it through the blanket, obviously wanting to steer the conversation back on track. “You have a bleeding ulcer. Your blood pressure is through the roof. You don’t eat well. You don’t sleep well. All you do is work. Sophie says she hardly sees you.”

  Addison shot Sophie another glare.

  “That’s right. I ratted you out.” Sophie shrugged.

  “I’m worried about you.” That last line from Meredith was delivered softly and punctuated by an audible swallow. Addison looked into her eyes and saw it. Underneath the put-together exterior, the expensively tailored slacks and silk top, the perfectly colored and styled blond hair, the don’t-mess-with-me demeanor, there was worry. Even some fear.

  With a clearing of her throat, Addison explained, “Yes, but I just need a little bit of recovery time and I’ll be able to get back to—” She didn’t get to finish her sentence because suddenly, that soft, concerned tone of Meredith’s vanished.

  “Addison Elizabeth, that is enough.”

  Addison’s eyes widened in surprise, and one thing was crystal clear: Meredith Fairchild was not messing around. Her blue eyes flashed with anger and she pointed an accusatory finger at her daughter. “You are the most pigheaded, stubborn woman I have ever met. And I’ve been in the real estate world for more than two decades, so that says a lot. You, young lady, take the cake and I’ve had just about enough of your inability to listen to reason. You’d do well to remember that despite what you may think, you still work for me. I call the shots around here, and if I say you’re getting a personal assistant, then you’re getting a personal assistant, goddamnit.”

  Addison stared. Blinked. Stared some more.

  Her mother rarely, rarely swore. She liked to use tone and a large vocabulary rather than foul language to get the attention of her peers. So this was big. This meant Addison had very possibly pushed too hard on this subject. A glance toward the corner showed her Sophie, biting down on her lips and trying to smother a grin—which she failed at.

  Addison opened her mouth to say something, thought better of it, and closed it again. She was in sweats, on the couch, under a blanket, in the middle of a workday. It went against everything she’d worked so hard to achieve, and it all suddenly hit her like a punch to the stomach.

  “I hate this,” she finally whispered, defeat settling over her, pressing her shoulders down. She was mortified to feel her eyes well up, and she scratched at the side of her neck in frustration.

  “I know, honey.” Meredith softened again, and not for the first time, Addison marveled at how good she was at shifting moods. “I know you do.” She squeezed Addison’s ankle again. “It won’t be forever. The assistant is temporary because your condition is tem
porary. Okay? Think about that. A few months, tops. You heard the doctor. You just need to take it easy for a while, let your body rest when it needs to. I don’t want you working such ridiculous hours. There’s no need. You have a staff, and now you’ll have an assistant. Let her do the work while you relax. Watch a movie. Read a book. Eat a decent meal. You know, do things that normal people do.” She winked, taking any sting out of the words. “And let this person help you. Jack said he was impressed with her. She came recommended by his admin, and you know how much he adores her.”

  Addison nodded, the lump in her throat making it hard to form words.

  “He interviewed her. Said she was smart and quick and organized. She’s got a job in the mornings, so she’ll be here at one o’clock tomorrow.”

  “Here?” Addison echoed, sitting up to launch a protest.

  “Yes, here.” Meredith silenced her with a look. “I don’t want you going into the office for the rest of the week. And when you do go, you’re to take her with you, let her help.” When Addison didn’t respond, Meredith narrowed her eyes, repeated herself. “Let. Her. Help. And be nice.”

  “Okay. Okay. Fine.” Addison sat back with a loud sigh and folded her arms across her chest, totally aware of how childish she must look. And not caring. “What’s her name?”

  “Katie Cooper.”

  Addison snorted. “Of course it is.”

  It was another half hour before they finally left her to wallow in peace. She spent the next hour annoyed and feeling sorry for herself before deciding she’d had enough of that.