Page 60 of Slow Burn Summer

“Prue and the team think it’s best if you lie low going forward,” he said.

She wasn’t surprised, after Fiona’s sharply delivered message earlier. “And you? Do you agree with them?”

He turned her question over before speaking. “Having sat through the meeting this afternoon, I can honestly say everyone genuinely feels bad for you over there,” he said. “But they have to make the book their number-one priority.” He looked her straight in the eyes, leaning toward her. “Kate, I’m thinking only about you when I say this. The best thing you can do right now is absolutely nothing—trust me, I learned that the hard way. Don’t engage, don’t try to defend yourself while you’re emotional, you’ll leave yourself open to attack. In fact, don’t go online at all if you can help it.”

“Everyone is telling me the same thing,” she said, rubbing her hand over her forehead. “You, Fiona, Prue, even Liv. Say nothing, do nothing. But I hate it, Charlie, all those things being said and thought about me that aren’t true. Surely I could put my own statement out tomorrow too, just to apologize at least?”

He reached across the table and covered her balled-up hands with his own.

“Let the publishing team do their job and see how that changes things. You don’t need to make all the decisions at once, okay?”

Kate’s phone pinged a message from Liv she couldn’t make any sense of.

Shit! I’m so sorry, sis, it all happened in the heat of the moment! You know how much Nish loves their trifles, it was in my hand and she was being such a cow. Call me if you’re awake Xx

She pulled her hand reluctantly from Charlie’s, shaking her head.

“I don’t know what she’s talking about, but whatever it is doesn’t sound good.” Wondering how many times you can get that sinking feeling without touching the bottom, she clicked her phone open.

It didn’t take long to unravel the meaning behind Liv’s cryptic text. Charlie scraped his chair around the table to look at Kate’s phone screen as the latest installment in the seemingly never-ending saga played out in front of their eyes.

Claire, the supermarket worker who they’d met in-store on publication day, looked down the camera. “Can’t keep this one on the shelf today,” she said, piling copies ofThe Power of Loveinto the empty space before rolling her eyes at the camera. “Bet the ‘author’ doesn’t show her face in here again, though!” She made sarcastic air quotes as she spoke, sparking a flurry of hearts and thumbs-ups near the little livestream symbol winking in the corner. Kate had checked out Claire’s book-blogging page after they’d met; it was full of shelving videos as the latest books arrived in the shop, accompanied by book recommendations and reviews. She’d grown quite a following.

“Say that again and you’ll be wearing this trifle,” someone off-camera yelled.

“Holy shit,” Kate whispered. “Liv, what have you done?”

Charlie leaned in as Kate turned the volume up.

“You again,” Claire said, filming Liv now. “Fake author’s sidekick,” she said into the phone, for the benefit of anyone watching.

“Sidekick?” Liv said. “Sister, actually, and I’m going to give you one chance to stop being rude about someone you know nothing about and do the job this place pays you to do rather than creating content when you clearly should be working.”

“I’m on my break, actually,” Claire spat. “So I’m going to giveyouone chance to get out of my aisle and go and pay for that trifle instead of waving it around.”

Liv glowered into the lens, then turned on her heel and stalked away slowly.

“At least she didn’t throw the trifle,” Charlie said.

“Let’s hope the phony author has more dignity than her sister, eh?” Claire said to her followers. She’d probably imagined Liv was out of earshot, but she’d underestimated the power of a woman scorned. Liv, still on camera, swung back around and marched straight up to Claire, tearing the plastic lid off the family-size trifle.

“Dignity?” she said, furious. “Dignity? I warned you.”

The last thing visible on the video was the trifle flying through the air toward the screen. Cream obscured the lens with a splat, but Claire could be heard screeching with shock as Liv yelled she’d happily pay for the fucking trifle now.

Kate clicked her mobile off. First Alice and now Liv. She loved her family to their bones, but it felt as if today was the day they’d decided to ruin her life.

“Well, that’s not going to help, is it?” she said, flat, not even looking at Charlie.

“Fiona mentioned she’d met your sister.”

Kate heard the subtext; Fiona had no doubt done a complete hatchet job on Liv, having been stuck in a storeroom with her for a chunk of the afternoon.

“We lost our mother when we were really young,” Kate said, feeling the need to defend her sister. “It’s been us against the world ever since.” She shook her head, remembering all the times Liv had waded in, both feet first. “She has this”—she splayed her hand flat on her chest—“this fire in here, a protective instinct that kicks in hard at the first sign of trouble.” She sighed and turned to look at Charlie. “You must wish you’d never opened my letter. What do we do now?”

—

Both of their phones blewup over dinner, Chinese grabbed from the place a few doors down. Kate’s social media was on fire, and Charlie’s missives from Fiona and the publishing team were incessant. In the end, he turned both phones onto silent and placed them face down.

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