Just Her Type (20 page)

“You’d already made up your mind that he was
suspect,” Alyssa said.

“I can’t put it past him to pull something like
that,” Selena said. “I have this feeling in my gut. I’ve seen him in action at
conferences, yukking it up and glad-handing everyone in sight. We’re talking
real shifty eyes on that one. It’s just a matter of time before he gives you a
reason why you shouldn’t trust him, either, Kendra.”

Was Kendra a traitor for not wholeheartedly buying
Selena’s version of what had transpired?
 
But it sounded as if Selena had left something out. Based on what Kendra
knew about both of them, parts of the story didn’t add up.

 
“I’m
sorry about
Desperate
Passages
.” Kendra understood why Selena
would leap to such a negative conclusion about Dominic. She’d had her own
suspicions, as recent as that night he’d moved about her hotel room while she’d
slept. She, too, had been guilty of grasping at similar rationalizations to
salve the sting of defeat. It was one thing to secretly question Dominic’s
ethics, but to do so with her friends now made her feel two-faced.
 
She’d decided he deserved the benefit of
the doubt.

Gossip, one questionable blog post, and Selena’s
perception of “shifty eyes” had fueled Selena’s paranoia.

“I have a better read on Dominic these days,”
Kendra said as tactfully as possible. “I think you two got your wires crossed
somehow.
 
No editor or agent likes
losing a manuscript that excites him or her.
 
You know I’ve lost the beauty contest
more times than I care to mention.”

“So you think I’m lying or imagining things,
then?” Selena asked.

Selena’s glare could burn retinas so Kendra
focused on her friend’s left earlobe. “No. Again, I think there was some
miscommunication.”

“And you’ve become nauseatingly philosophical
about it all of a sudden,” Selena said. “You sure you didn’t get laid in Maui?
We all know how you get when
that
happens. Coo-coo for cocoa puffs.”

Kendra flinched at the hostility in Selena’s
words, but decided not to retaliate. Friends sometimes blurted hurtful things
when under pressure. “Again, Selena, I’m truly sorry.
 
You’re not going to let my friendship
with Dominic come between you and me, are you?”

Selena met Kendra’s question with seething silence
as she took painstaking care to unknit a single twisted stitch.

Chapter 25

Minutes later, after
unknitting several funky stitches and knitting replacements, Selena ended their
stand-off with a weary sigh.
 
“I’m
sorry, Kendra. That last comment was hitting below the belt. You see, I wanted
Desperate
Passages
. I was counting on it. Things haven’t been going well for
me lately. I’m scared. If Winn-Aster does another round of cuts…”

“You could lose your job,” Kendra said. She knew
all about the constant fear of getting downsized. It was one of the reasons
she’d opened her own agency. More control.

“I don’t even want to think about it,” Selena
said, looking at the black gadget wrapped around her left wrist. She closed her
eyes and slowly drew in deep breaths. Alyssa and Kendra stared at her in
bewilderment and then Kendra recalled Selena had mentioned enrolling in a
Transcendental Meditation class.

 
“Focus
on the positive, the grand scheme,” Selena chanted as her rigid posture relaxed
and her tone softened. Just like that.
 
“It’s not as if I’m ready to drag a razor across my wrists or anything
crazy like that because I didn’t get one book. And I wouldn’t give that jerk
the satisfaction of coming between us.” Again she glanced at one of two gadgets
on her wrist.

For the first time, Kendra was grateful for that
ghoulish tracker Selena had started wearing four months ago, along with her
calorie-heart-rate-and-distance monitor.
 
While the FitStrip helped its wearer with exercise goals, the new one
consistently calculated the moments, minutes, hours, and days its wearer
supposedly had left to live. Selena believed it helped her focus on obtaining
mental-fitness goals, reduced her tendency toward trivial squabbles, and aided
in her quest to “live in the moment.” Selena intoned a few more positive
affirmations that sounded like cruise ship slogans and then turned her
attention back to Kendra.

“Thank goodness,” Kendra said. “Do you mind if I
mention this discussion to him? Maybe he can provide more insight.”

“Go on, if you want, but he already knows how I
feel.”

“The three of us can do lunch,” Kendra added.

“Pass,” Selena said. “I don’t need to see that
disingenuous emoticon smile of his for a while, make that a long while.”

“But what if he has another great project he
thinks you might like?” Alyssa asked.

“He can go kick rocks,” Selena said. “Then find
another sap. Fool me once…”

Until Selena had moved beyond the urge to knee
Dominic in the groin, lunch probably wasn’t a good idea, Kendra conceded. “But
after you get to know him, outside business, you might feel differently. He’s a
lot of fun. As you’ve said, there was a time when I spat some fire at the
mention of his name.”

“And now you’re all dewy-eyed and purring like a
kitten,” Alyssa said.

“Not quite. It’s an interesting friendship. I
think he’s a good guy,” Kendra said.

“Are you in love?” Selena inquired with only a
slight edge.

“Again? I know that’s what you want to add.
 
I’m actually more circumspect these
days, far less amenable to getting swept off my feet.”
 
Kendra went on to tell them more about
her Cupid4You.com activity and her date-out-of-the-box plan.

“That’s an intriguing strategy, if you can stick
to it,” said Selena.

Alyssa shook her head. “I can’t believe you want
to check out other men when you have Dominic interested in you.”

“I told you. I’m moving forward using my head for
a change,” Kendra tapped her temple, “taking things slowly, methodically. No
more feeling like Wile E. Coyote. No more realizing I’ve dashed off a cliff
until splat!”

“I guess you have to do what you have to do,”
Alyssa said. “But now that you have a link to his client, that fine-ass Brody
Goodwin, maybe you can persuade Dominic to hook us up.”

 
Kendra
wasn’t ready to reveal just how direct her link to Brody was.

“Not only is he talented, but dreamy.” Alyssa
swooned.

“Yes, he is a hunk. Extremely good looking,”
Kendra said.

“We should dine at that new place,
Chez Magnifique
,” Alyssa said. “A double
date with you and Dominic.”

“Dominic and
Chez
Magnifique
, yes. Brody and
Chez
Magnifique
, no,”
  
Kendra
said. “He’d rather shoot and field dress his own meal. I imagine his place has
animal pelts and rattlesnake skins tacked to the walls, feathers and shotgun
shells scattered on the floor.”

 
“Really?” Alyssa winced and then quickly
shrugged off the information. “So he’s ruggedly divine—”

“Is that what they’re calling it?” Selena added.
“I think he looks greasy and in need of a good bath.”

“Does not,” Alyssa said.

“Does too. And I’ll bet he has crusty feet.”

“The things you choose to focus on.” Alyssa shook
her head. “That’s why you’re still single. You’re too picky.”

“You’re not picky enough.” Selena flicked her
braid to the opposite shoulder. “And still single, too, I might add. Call me
persnickety all you want, but felony convictions and fart lighting are
deal-breakers for me.”

“So Giancarlo did a little time for insider
trading,” Alyssa said airily. “Everyone deserves a second chance. And he’d had
too much to drink when he performed that silly party trick with the grill
lighter. He was only trying to make everyone laugh and liven up that dull
barbecue.”

“Ladies! Ladies!” Kendra cut in.

“Giancarlo is history anyway, but as I was
saying,” Alyssa continued, “Brody is the adventuresome type, just oozing
testosterone like my Steele. I can definitely work with that.”

“Sometimes I wonder if a mere man, especially one
as, um, earthy as Brody, can live up to Steele in your mind,” Kendra said.

“I know,” Alyssa gushed unabashedly. “Steele is
such a stud, isn’t he? But Brody is so attractive I’d sure like to find out.”

When Alyssa wasn’t affecting her Aurora Chastain
persona, she was the least intrepid female Kendra knew. Her sudden interest in
Brody Goodwin was surprising, but maybe she, too, recognized the benefits of
going against type.
 
Alyssa’s
weakness was the smooth-operator-Italian-designer-suit-and-tie sort.

“So shoot Brody an email, best-selling author to
best-selling author. Invite him to go pheasant hunting or something,” Kendra
said. “You don’t need a matchmaker.”

“I can’t put it all out there like that,” Alyssa
said with a little shudder. “I want him to want
me
first.”

 
“Alyssa Rae Barnett or Aurora Chastain?
Now
that’s
the question,” Selena
said. “Does it ever feel strange going on dates with men who might have read
your books?
 
Like, maybe they have
certain expectations because of all those scorching love scenes?”

Love scenes.
Again
!
Kendra kept her mouth closed.

“Weren’t you the one just telling me about readers
not expecting the guy who writes those serial killer thrillers to off people
with garden tools?” Alyssa pointed out.

 
“True,
but I think male readers are different from female readers when it comes to
sex,” Selena said.

“Nope, I don’t worry about it. I role play a bit
with my female readers for branding purposes, but most men wouldn’t be caught
dead reading my books. Besides, Brody, of all people, knows how this gig
works.”

To steer the conversation away from Brody, Kendra
served up a teaser about Corinne and
Four
Simple
Wishes
. “Se-len-a,” she sang. “I might have something that will
make you forget all about
Desperate
Passages
. I guarantee it.”

“Oh? I’m intrigued.” Selena moved to the edge of
her seat.

“Yes, but I’m not at liberty to say much more at
the moment. But soon, very soon. I’m giving you a heads-up, but you know, as
always, I must go with the best deal for my client.
 
No promises. And if Winn-Aster doesn’t
step up—”

“Of course!” Selena smiled.

 
Kendra
came to her feet and went to the table with the cookies and pitchers of
lemonade and tea for the sit-and-knit groups.
 
She gobbled up three macaroons, returned
to her seat, and reached for the scarf she’d created in one day.

Selena and Alyssa usually fussed over a series of
incomplete scarves.

 
Though
the three of them had learned to knit about ten months ago, they hadn’t
progressed beyond flat pieces such as scarves, potholders, and pillow covers made
with straight needles. However, their varied skill levels had become painfully
apparent. If Selena’s and Alyssa’s stitches were beautiful rows of well-ordered
tulips, Kendra’s were scattered clumps of crabgrass.

Alyssa deftly handled changing two yarn colors to
create interesting stripes.
 
She had
incorporated whimsical images on another half-done scarf.
 
Envy got the better of Kendra when she
noticed Selena had already tackled the cable scarf in their beginner pattern
book. The embossed wave detail gave her garment a sophistication still out of
Kendra’s reach. Brittany had surpassed them all by tackling an “illusion”
knitted scarf with a black butterfly image that disappeared and reappeared in a
cool, peekaboo effect.

Kendra wound up with a tangled mess of yarn and
stitch markers when she tried to work with more than one color at a time or
those W-shaped, double-pointed needles Selena used for her cables. Her pride at
meeting the goal of completing yet another scarf in record time fled when she
focused on its uneven edges, bumpy surface, and holes from dropped stitches.

“Love that color you used.” Selena inspected
Kendra’s work.

“I wish I could knit that fast!” Alyssa said.

 
Kendra
appreciated their kind, carefully chosen comments about the disaster on her
lap. Aunt Jackie gave it to her straight when she joined them fifteen minutes
later.

“How many times do I have to tell you? It’s not a
race,” Aunt Jackie nagged Kendra with a playful thump on the head. “You’ve got
to be more patient, honey. And it’s not about the
quantity
of stitches, but the
quality
of the stitches. I know it’s tedious, but you’ve got to be willing to frog it
and start again.”

Frog
.
 
One of the worst words in knitting
lingo. As in rip it, rip it, rip it, rip it. Apart. Row after row after row
after row after all that effort. Not unlike what writers had to do during
revisions.

 
Kendra
didn’t have the stomach for the unraveling process, and it showed in her
less-than-perfect results.

When Aunt Jackie gave critiques of Selena’s and
Alyssa’s scarves, she heaped on the praise and said, “Oh, I almost forgot! I
have gifts for my favorite students.”
 
She went to the front counter and quickly returned with three needle
holders with animal print covers—cheetah, tiger, and zebra. “Brittany
will gets hers when she returns.”

“Thanks, Aunt Jackie!” the two star pupils said in
unison.
 

Pouting, Kendra felt like a six-year-old who’d
received a gold star for participation.
 
But there were no abandoned, unfinished projects at her apartment.
Unlike Alyssa, Selena, and Brittany, she had completed everything she’d started
so maybe she did deserve a prize for that.

“You can keep yours as is.” Jackie lifted Kendra’s
scarf for closer inspection again. “Or start over. If I were you, I’d start
over.”

Kendra’s stubborn pride, so easily wounded, kicked
in. “No, I like it just the way it is,” she lied, as she wrapped the scarf
around her neck with a flourish.

Though it was Brittany, Selena, and Alyssa who had
mastered the basics, Kendra decided she was the one who needed a more ambitious
challenge.

 
“The
problem is, I’m bored,” Kendra whined. “I get bored so easily. I need to try
something else.”

“How about a cup cozy,” Aunt Jackie said.

“A cup cozy?” Kendra balked. “That’s just a small
scarf with the ends bound together.”

“What about a tote bag?”
 
Aunt Jackie added.

“That’s just a square scarf with the ends bound
together and a handle.”

“Not if you mix garter and purl stitches in
interesting ways,” Aunt Jackie suggested.

 
“Got
any sweater patterns that might be good for me?” Kendra asked.

 
Aunt
Jackie delicately cited Kendra’s failure to master proper increasing and
decreasing techniques required for sweater shaping.

“Really? You’re going for a sweater?” Selena said.

“Circular needles? You’re working in the round?” Alyssa
asked. “Wow. I don’t think I’ll be ready for a few more weeks.”

Whoops!
The trickier circular needles were not what Kendra had in mind. Undaunted, she
replied, “Yes, circular needles and working in the round, what else?”

“If you insist,” Aunt Jackie said, again not
hiding her disapproval. “I have a few simple patterns that might work for you.”

“Uh-uh-uh. Don’t give me anything too novice
looking.”
 
Kendra recalled most
beginner sweater patterns had a greenhorn quality about them, often way too
boxy and lacking ribbing on the bottom edges, neck, and sleeves, much like a
crude costume from a low-budget dystopian movie. “I’d like to get started right
now.
 
What about that new yarn that
arrived yesterday.”

“Don’t you think you should actually
read
the pattern before selecting the
yarn?
 
You know, to find out which
yarn weight and needle size is suggested.”