preferred herbal tea on her front porch while she watched the feral cats she fed every morning chase lizards and laze about in her garden.
Daphne had always been the type of person to have only a few close friends. Though she’d cultivated friendships with many of the other teachers at Saint Peter’s Day School, where she’d worked as a teacher’s aide for fifteen years before staying home to write, she’d never been good at being social. She had church friends, a book club, and knew a few local writers who wrote professionally, but her best friend, Karyn Little, had moved to Idaho with her new husband over a year ago.
In a few short years, she’d lost her husband to self-centeredness and her BFF to the land of potatoes.
“Not maybe. Definitely,” Ellery said, looking over at her.
“Maybe I’ll try it.” Going to the class with Ellery might help their relationship, something that Daphne couldn’t seem to get back on track. She didn’t know what was wrong, how she should act, whether she should have given Ellery a job or not. Daphne had only wanted to make things better for Ellery. That’s what every mother did, right?
But Ellery had grown more and more distant over the past few months. Daphne suspected that it had something to do with something Rex had said, but Ellery wouldn’t open up. Any time Daphne asked her what was bothering her or if she wanted to talk, her daughter would tell her everything was “fine.” She’d begun to hate that word.
“I’m pretty much done for the day. I have to mail these packages. These are a few of the winners from your online party.” Ellery picked up a bag full of colorful pink envelopes.
“I had an online party? When did you do that?” Daphne asked.
Ellery rolled her eyes. “Mom, I know you’re happy to dump a lot of this stuff on me, but you have to keep tabs on your fans so you know what they want. That’s something many retailers get wrong—they lose touch of who their consumer is. Your goal is to sell books and broaden your reach. It’s important you don’t get too far away from your readers. Go on your interactive website. Check out the games the kids are playing. We just started a ‘Design Dixie Doodle’s New Collar’ contest. Some of the entries are seriously cute.”
“Dixie’s getting a new collar?” Daphne asked, miffed her daughter had designed a contest without her approval. Dixie Doodle was her damned poodle. She decided when the fictional purebred got a new collar.
“Her winter collar. Maybe you can even include the collar that wins in one of your upcoming books,” Ellery said, walking out the door and right into Clay.
“Whoa, hey, Elle,” he said, grabbing her elbow and steadying her. “I haven’t seen you in forever.”
“I saw you last week at Elmo’s,” Ellery said, shrugging off Clay’s hand. “But I guess you were too trashed to remember?”
“Hey, I was celebrating a new contract, but, yeah, I guess I had a few too many.”
“Honestly, Clay, it’s time you grew up,” Ellery said, pushing past him before spinning back. The Tom Ford scent she wore tickled Daphne’s nose.
“Guys never grow up, do we?” Clay joked.
“Some don’t.” Ellery gave him a flat look.
Her daughter had dated several guys in high school but had been tight-lipped when it came to information on what had happened between her and Clay. Daphne vaguely remembered a dustup with the head cheerleader for a rival school. Ellery had been only a sophomore, and Daphne remembered Clay being her daughter’s first heartbreak. Ellery had rebounded quickly with the quarterback for the Riverton Falcons. She had an uncanny ability to hook a new, even cuter guy after each successive breakup through high school and college.
Point in case—Josh was so pretty angels sang when he walked by.
Daphne still didn’t know her soon-to-be son-in-law very well because he was always studying, but he seemed to truly care about her daughter. And that was what mattered most.
“I’m out, y’all.” Ellery disappeared.
Clay turned his pretty blue eyes on Daphne. “Sorry to interrupt. I wanted to get your opinion on the marble. They sent two different samples in your color range. One has a lot of movement, the other is pretty simple.”
“Sure, I’ll take a look,” Daphne said, following him outside her office and into the heat of late morning.
Ellery tossed the bag of packages into the narrow back seat of her sleek new Lexus and gave them an absentminded wave.
“She’s a