Page 62 of The Broken Hearts Club

“I did no such thing!”

“Sure you did. The whole town, if not the whole county, is talking about it. You knew what was going on, and not only did you keep his secret, you covered for him while he lied to his wife.” I obviously had no idea if he’d done any of that, but it seemed pretty likely. I added, “That makes you almost as guilty as he is, so don’t be surprised when we all start taking our business to your competitor, Jeff Greenspan over in Oakdale.”

The easiest way to rile Hank up was to mention Jeff, who he’d hated with a passion since their football days. He exclaimed, “I told Brad it was a bad idea to take Vicki out of town this close to his wife’s due date, but he didn’t listen!”

“Holy shit, so he really is cheating on her!” The cat leapt to her feet and stared at me when I yelled that.

“What?” Hank sounded thoroughly confused.

“Which Vicki is it, Ritter or Mulvaney? I assume it’s Vicki Ritter. She was always jealous of Jeannie when we were in high school. And I don’t want to slut shame, but that girl was busier than the Chicken Bucket drive-through on two-for-one Tuesdays.”

He raised his voice and demanded, “Who is this?”

“I told you, I’m a friend of Jeannie’s. She suspected her husband was having an affair, and you just confirmed it.”

“I—”

“Thanks, Hank. Have a good day.”

I ended the call and told the cat, “I can’t believe that worked!” But then, I slumped in my seat and muttered, “Shit, he’s actually having an affair. Jeannie’s definitely going to dump his cheating ass, and then she’ll have to raise four kids as a single mom, including a newborn.”

She was going to need me. It was way too much to deal with on her own.

Tears stung my eyes as I whispered, “I have to move back to Idaho.”

14

Miller

I left my meeting feeling like I was on top of the world. I was dying to tell Collie all about it, so I called him the moment I was out of the studio. When he answered, I exclaimed, “They loved it!”

“I knew they would! Tell me everything.”

“They thought my interpretation of retro-futurism was cool and interesting. I didn’t even have to sell them on it.”

“That’s because your ideas and drawings were brilliant. What else did they say?”

“They loved the character, too. They thought he felt fresh and unique for this genre.”

“Nice! So, there’s nothing they wanted to change?”

“Nope. My art director’s only suggestion was that the character needs some kind of cute, mechanical sidekick, so I’ll have to come up with some designs for a little robot friend. After that, I’ll be working on concept art for the rest of the stuff in this world—different settings, supporting characters, vehicles, all the odds and ends.”

“That sounds fun.”

“It definitely will be.”

After a slight pause, he said, “There’s something I need to tell you, but I’ll wait until you get home. Where are you right now?”

“I’m in the stairwell, on my way to the parking garage. I’ll see you in about twenty minutes.”

I almost suggested going out to dinner to celebrate, but I wasn’t sure if he was well enough. Collie would say he was, and it had been a full month since his surgery, but he still seemed fragile. He got tired really easily, and he barely had an appetite. His sternum was still healing, too. Given all of that, a night on the town was probably a bit much at this point.

I drove home with the top down. It was the beginning of October, and the weather was glorious. I was glad my Friday meeting had been scheduled a little earlier than usual, because I was more than ready to get my weekend started.

When I rounded the corner onto my street, I saw that Collie’s big, purple van was parked at the curb. My first thought was that he probably wanted us to take it to the beach this weekend, so he didn’t want me to park behind it and box it in.

I pulled the car into the empty garage and climbed the stairs. He was waiting for me in the kitchen, and his expression was so serious that I blurted, “What’s wrong? Are Jeannie and the baby okay?”