Page 39 of Slow Burn Summer

He smiled, but his eyes were serious.

“Things didn’t go to plan, but you adapted. You were funny and people were invested, and it’s all worked out for the best as far as the book is concerned. Prue is over the moon…” He paused, and she micro-cringed because she could sense what was coming. “Especially about the train meet-cute with your first love.”

This was the moment. If she was going to confess to the casual lie, now was the time.

“Even Fiona is impressed,” he said, filling the awkward pause before she could. “Trust me, Kate, today was a good thing, not abad one. You made lemonade out of lemons, it’s all anyone can ask of you.”

Murky fear that Charlie’s opinion of her would diminish kept her from blurting the truth, and the part of Kate that would be forever seventeen basked in Fiona’s approval. It was such a small, insignificant untruth. How bad could it be to let it lie?

She pressed the phone against her heart after Charlie disappeared, and then closed her eyes and saw herself running down the train platform, waving her notes over her head at the crowd of soccer fans behind her. Hauling her backside off the sofa, she went in search of wine.

Hey Alice,

I can almost hear your eyes rolling at me for emailing, but I’ve called you again a few times just now and I feel like I’m in a one-sided relationship with your voicemail. Please don’t avoid me. I’m always on your side, even if I don’t always say what you want to hear. I love you and I want what’s best for you, in the long term as much as right now. Anyway, this isn’t supposed to be a lecture—I’ve got some news to tell you.

I’ve taken on an acting job over the last couple of months. Don’t panic, you’re not about to spot me in the nextAvengersmovie or anything! I should be so lucky.

I won’t bore you with all the background details, but a while ago I was asked to represent a book as its official author, because the book couldn’t be published otherwise. So it has my name on the front (Kate Darrowby, not my actual surname!) and my face on the inside cover, and I answer any public questions as if I actually wrote it, which of course I didn’t. I don’t know who the real author is, but we’ve chatted by email and they seem really lovely, so I’m glad to be able to do it for them, as well as it being quite exciting for me.

It was small scale in the beginning but it seems to be suddenly gathering popularity, so I’m letting you know just in case you hear or seeanything and wonder what the hell is going on. You won’t, I’m sure—I mean, it’s hardly like I’ve gone viral or anything!

No one knows about this apart from you, Liv, and Nish. Please don’t breathe a word to anyone else, especially not Dad or Belinda. I know you won’t, but mum’s the word. Literally, in this case! I’ve had to sign a non-disclosure contract, I might actually get sued or something, so eat this email after reading.

Call me soon, I miss you.

Love Mum xx

20

“So, welcome, welcome, welcome!” Rachelfrom PR got to her feet to kick the meeting off, clapping her hands with what could accurately be described as pure, unadulterated elation.

Kate had attended her first publishing meeting full of nerves about the unknown. This time around she was anxious about the chaos of Sunday, but she’d been greeted with a full body hug from Prue and a double high five from Rachel, plus an actual kiss on the cheek from Joel in sales. Not an air-kiss kind of day, then.

She glanced at Charlie beside her, aware of his familiar cologne, glad of his quiet confidence. They were a team within a team here. No Fiona today, which Kate was relieved about.

“So, Kate. Sunday!” Rachel said, directing her generalized clapping to focus in on Kate in particular, which everyone else at the table joined in with enthusiastically. Kate looked around, then shrugged her shoulders and pressed her hands over her face.

“Don’t,” she said. “I’ve made a mental note to never rely on Sunday trains again. Or trains at all, if it’s something important.”

“Hey, we’re not complaining,” Prue said, tucking her bob—now half-emerald-green, half-jet-black—behind her ears and gazing at Kate over thick-rimmed green glasses. She really had this hair and glasses combo down. “It was unconventional, forsure, but it created a golden opportunity, which is where Rachel and the marketing team have been concentrating their efforts ever since.” She smiled across the table at Rachel, who was pretty much bouncing in her chair.

“You’ve hopefully seen some of the reels and posts we’ve put together appearing across social media,” Rachel said. “We’ve gone for a huge push to amplify the message as quickly as possible.”

Kate smiled, unsure where this was headed. “The message?”

Rachel nodded. “So far we’ve directed all of our marketing toward the actual book, but over the last couple of days we’ve pivoted the focus toward you personally, Kate, because your relatability factor is off the scale.”

“It is?” Kate’s gaze flickered around the publishing team and found them all gazing at her intently.

“The iron is hot right now, like, scorching, and it’s our job to turn that heat up even more, especially as we’re still in the all-important launch week. We want that book finding its way into as many shopping baskets as possible over the next couple of days, and that’s where you come in.”

“What are you thinking?” Charlie said, sitting straighter in his chair.

“Well, what’s so great is the way people have reacted to Kate, and to the first love meet-cute angle specifically, so we’ve made sure the story has been picked up by newspaper entertainment pages, online showbiz columns, those type of outlets. The fact that it happened on Glynn’s show adds the necessary star power to guarantee the clicks, and”—Rachel paused to look around at them all, shiny-eyed with drama, to ramp up the tension—“I’ve managed to land you a spot on the sofa on theGood Morning Show!”

Kate gasped. “As in the show that’s been on TV every morning for the last twenty years?” She’d watched it intermittently, mostlywhen Alice was a baby and she was flopped, exhausted, on the sofa between feeds. “I honestly don’t think I can do it,” she rushed on, too freaked out to maintain a professional face. “What if I say the wrong thing and they see right through me? I haven’t properly acted in front of a camera in years, let alone been on live TV.”

Anxious eyes swiveled around the table, everyone unsure who should speak next.

---