Page 1 of Finding Home

ONE

“Ah! There is nothing like staying at home,

for real comfort.”

~Jane Austen, Emma

“Explain this to me like I’m four,” Viet said, one dark brow arched. “You’ll go to your hometown for a week for your cousin’s wedding, fly back here, and then fly back again for another week for your uncle’s fiftieth? All within the same month? Do I have that right?”

Willa ran a manicured finger around the rim of her glass. “Why don’t you just stay in New York the entire time?”

“I can’t take a month off!” Elle scoffed.

Eleanor “Elle” Davidson regretted her rare decision to leave her downtown L.A. office before seven to make happy hour with her friends, Viet Vo and Willa Andrews. Their badgering was akin to the Spanish Inquisition. Only with more rosé and less physical torture.

“Aren’t you the boss?” Willa signaled the server to bring another round.

“Yes.” Elle looked around as if Sloan-Whitney, the healthcare system she worked at, had secret HR spies at the bar. She bent closer and whispered, “I’m the boss bitch.” And there it was… She was officially tipsy.

“Yes, queen!” Willa snapped her fingers.

“I may lose my feminist card for that one.”

“More importantly, aren’t you the National Director ofVirtualMedicine? If anyone should be able to work remotely, it should be you.” Viet tipped his glass toward Elle.

Willa shimmied and raised her hands in the air. “Brilliant! Would you Airbnb your place? My cousin is a visiting nurse and needs a short-term rental in August. I can guarantee he’s very clean.”

“What?” Elle tried to blink away the rosé fuzziness.

“Your cousin Ned? Yes, please! He’s hot, despite his old man name.” A pale blush swept across Viet’s face.

“You’re a married man.” Shetskedand then turned to Elle with a wink. “But Ned is single and hetero-leaning.”

Like a modern-day version of Jane Austen’s Emma Woodhouse, Willa was ever the matchmaker. Just like Emma, she was bad at it.Really Bad.Over the years, Elle had been subjected to a string of Willa curated meet-cutes. None of which were cute.

“I do love that Ned is a boy nurse.” Elle batted her hazel eyes, the rosé warmth spreading across her limbs.

“He prefers man nurse.”

“And what a man!” Viet raised his Old Fashion.

“Thank goodness he’s my cousin by marriage or this would feel a little Lannister Family Rules to me,” Willa joked.

“Back to my opening thesis. Elle, it makes sense. You’ve been trying to get your headquarters to be more open to remote work. You could pilot it.” Like the highly paid corporate lawyer that he was, Viet laid out his argument.

“You just want to use your spare key to catch Ned in his underpants.” Elle aimed her now empty glass at Viet.

“I think Willa may be more apt to do that as she mentions how they aren’t related by blood each time his name comes up.” Viet waggled his finger at Willa, who flipped him off in response.

“Besides, youhateflying. When we went to London last summer, you needed three glasses of wine to get on the plane. You especially hate non-direct flights. Don’t you have to take two flights and a wagon train to get to Perry, New York?” Willa mocked.

It was unoriginal, but Elle gave her the finger.

“Also, Uncle Pete,” Viet murmured, playing his trump card.

Damn it.Elle closed her eyes. Guilt churned in her belly.

Her best friend of eighteen years knew Elle better than anyone. Even if he didn’t know all of her. Who did, after all?

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