Chapter 9
CHAPTER
Tara
One Year Ago
“LET’S FACE IT, ladies. We all know when the man in our lives has got to go.” Sophie read the script for the promotional spot with pitch-perfect intonation. “Isn’t it better to just make a clean break?”
Tara listened to her partner work her audio magic for a few more minutes before removing her headset, ready to excuse herself from the sound booth.
She wasn’t technically needed today for the promotional recordings since Sophie was the voice of the program, but Tara was working harder lately to make her presence felt around the business.
Especially since Sophie thought nothing of going off script to say whatever she pleased once she got into the sound studio.
But Tara didn’t think that would be the case today for the promo spots. Sophie respected that Tara had a strong marketing background, so she tended to follow through on projects like this that could help extend their reach on a variety of audio platforms.
“I’ve got a few calls to make,” Tara said softly to Wynn, the sound technician. She pantomimed the act since Wynn had his headphones on.
He simply nodded, barely lifting his eyes from the laptop where he monitored the sound quality and tracked any ambient noise as Sophie continued to speak on the opposite side of soundproof glass.
Freed from work without Sophie even noticing she was gone, Tara slipped down the stairs and out the side door of the two-story garage that doubled as their studio.
This was about the same time of day that Luke usually left the house to play tennis, and she hoped to run into him so she could clear the air.
Her life felt like it was running off the rails the last couple of weeks.
First, there’d been Sophie’s maneuvering to have the larger say in their business, dismissing Tara’s concerns about taking The Clean Break in directions that made her uncomfortable.
Then, there’d been the unwelcome kiss from Luke, and the fear that someone had impersonated her to make Mei think Tara was involved with Nikolai.
That last one had gone from being frustrating to being downright creepy.
She’d checked her closet when she got home after that tense confrontation with Mei. And that green dress had still been in a wrapper from the dry cleaner’s, exactly where she’d remembered hanging it the last time she’d been in her dressing room. No one had stolen the garment.
So for right now, the only problem she could figure out how to fix was the matter of Luke.
His car remained in the driveway, so she hadn’t missed him, but she didn’t see him outside yet.
Following the path of pavers from the studio toward the pool house, her phone vibrated in her pocket.
She withdrew it to read a text from Luke.
Looking for me?
Pausing, she glanced around the property, wondering if he could be nearby. The phone buzzed again.
Go through the back gate toward the garden.
Tara returned the device to the pocket of her sweater and headed toward the wrought iron fence behind the massive pool.
The heavy decorative bars of the fence were woven through with rambling roses, the vines empty of flowers but still green enough to hide the garden beyond.
She glanced behind her as she approached the gate, already feeling guilty for entering a space that she normally never visited.
Still, she slid through the archway and into the half-acre space that Sophie had turned into a small cottage garden surrounded by decorative perennials.
Even now, past the midpoint of October, there were still squash plants with ripening fruit on the vines.
Tara saw a raised bed of Swiss chard and mustard greens that looked barely harvested.
Two bee pollinator towers hung on a decorative fence in the back of the garden, although there wasn’t any activity near them now.
“Do you have time to sit for a minute?” Luke called to her from a bench seat tucked under a weeping willow.
She hadn’t even noticed him there at first. But then, Sophie had designed the outdoor space with three little nooks off of it so that visitors could enjoy views of the garden from different vantage points.
Tara had watched the whole project come together from one of Sophie’s many vision boards.
Her friend really was a creative talent, even if she occasionally irritated Tara to no end.
“For a minute,” she agreed, pivoting toward the willow and then entering the nook where pavers gave way to white crushed stone. Two benches sat across from one another, a small fountain between them.
Tara sat on the bench that faced Luke’s.
Through the vine-covered wrought iron fence nearby, she could see the woods that provided a thin barrier between Sophie’s French Country megamansion and a much smaller home.
She could hear two kids in that backyard, their raised voices and cheers making it sound like they were playing a competitive game of some sort.
“I’ve been wondering when you would make time to see me again.” Luke’s gaze wandered over her while birds chirped in the trees overhead, a happy counterpoint to the uncomfortable conversation.
“Only because I need to clear the air between us. You caught me by surprise earlier this week, and I was too stunned to set things right.” Even now, her heart beat too fast at the awkwardness of the conversation.
She hated confrontation.
He raised dark eyebrows. On an objective level, she recognized that Luke was a very handsome man.
He ran a successful business and seemed like a good stepdad to Sophie’s girls.
But Tara had never been attracted to him for a minute, mostly because his wedding ring was a giant “do not touch” sign in her point of view.
“You were surprised? By what? The fact that I took you up on what you were so clearly offering during our conversation at The Clean Break party?” He leaned back in lazy sprawl, one arm draped along the bench seat next to him.
“Luke, at no time did I make an … offering.” She found the choice of words distasteful but wasn’t sure how to paraphrase. “I may have made the mistake of oversharing something personal with you, but at no point did I suggest an interest in anything between us.”
The conversation felt so cringey she already wanted to go home and shower.
Luke shook his head, a wry smile lifting the corner of his mouth. “You just happened to overshare a personal story about the guy who dumped you to go out with Kaitlin. You weren’t looking for an ego boost from me or anything.”
Of all the narcissistic things to say. How could he believe that interaction was about him?
“Excuse me for mistaking you for a friend.” Tara wouldn’t have mentioned it to him but she’d been standing right next to Luke when Kaitlin chose that moment to arrive at The Clean Break anniversary celebration with the very same guy Tara had thought would be attending the party with her.
“Next time something shitty happens to me, I’ll know better than to vent to someone who thinks the world revolves around him. ”
She jolted to her feet, finished with their conversation and certain she’d gotten the point across that she wasn’t interested. She moved toward the arch to reenter the main garden.
“I am your friend. And you should think twice before you alienate me, Tara,” Luke’s voice, low and easy, tugged her to a stop again.
“What are you talking about?”
He shoved to his feet, lifting his tennis bag from the ground beside him and looping the strap over one shoulder.
“I just thought maybe you’d want to keep your connection to someone who has a relationship with Sophie now that things are coming to a head between the two of you.” He stopped a foot in front of her. Too close.
“Why would you say that?” She hadn’t told anyone beside Jordyn that she needed to create some space between herself and her business partner, and she knew for a certainty that Jordyn would never share that. “What makes you think there is any problem between Sophie and me?”
“Because my wife is ten steps ahead of you, Tara. Hasn’t it occurred to you that maybe there’s a reason she acts like The Clean Break is all hers? That maybe she’s setting you up to steal the business right out from under you?”
“She wouldn’t do that.” She protested automatically even while she ran over the possibility in her head. “She couldn’t.”
“No? What makes you think that? Do you have a contract that spells out your partnership?”
Her stomach sank. The sounds of the birds and the kids playing in the next yard over all faded away until the only thing she could hear was the anxious beat of her own heart.
“We had a handshake agreement.” They were friends, after all.
She’d known Sophie since they’d been cochairs at a summer charity gala right after Sophie had moved to Saratoga five years ago.
They’d made such a good team that they’d gone from working on that gala to brainstorming ideas for the next year’s event.
After that was an ever bigger success, they started talking about doing a podcast.
“Ah. I’m sure that will be a valuable asset in a court case when you need to sue her after she wrests away full control of the show. I’ll just leave you be since you seem to have things well in hand.” Luke walked away at his unhurried pace, not caring that he’d just turned her life upside down.
Could he be serious?
Was Sophie really making plans to oust her from the business they’d started together? She didn’t want to believe it. But Sophie had done the same thing to Kaitlin though, hadn’t she?
Panic clawed its way up her throat. She’d thought about ways to get out from under Sophie’s thumb, but she never in a million years imagined Sophie could be scheming to take over Tara’s half-ownership of the program.
“Wait.” She caught up to Luke, fearing she’d have to make a deal with the devil if she wanted to know more. “You honestly think she’s plotting against me?”
Part of her hoped that this was just another one of Luke’s manipulation tactics.
He crossed his arms and rocked back on his heels. “If you really knew my wife, you wouldn’t have to ask me that.”
Something about the way he said it convinced her he was telling the truth.
She had witnessed the way Sophie could turn on other people before. She cut Kaitlin out of the creative credits on the show without so much as batting an eye.
Yet Tara hadn’t ever considered that she could be next.
Because she was na?ve? Because it was just easier to bury her head in the sand?
Her father had warned her that if she went into the podcast business with her friend, she should formalize the relationship.
Maybe that was part of the reason she hadn’t.
She loved her adoptive dad, but Randall Hughes was the most cynical person she’d ever met, and she didn’t want to share his life view.
Now, she could only feel foolish that she hadn’t listened.
“I don’t want to be kept in the dark,” she admitted stiffly, the words sticking in her throat when she really wanted to have nothing more to do with this man. “If you learn anything concrete about Sophie’s plans, I would appreciate it if you’d tell me.”
Luke paused just before the gate that led back to the main yard and the swimming pool. He scanned the grounds for a second before taking a step backward, closer to her.
“Excellent.” He nodded, satisfied. “I’ll call you. Soon.”
Tara swallowed hard, hating the sound of that. Had he just played her? Either way, she would stay close to Luke for now. Because she wouldn’t allow Sophie to strongarm her out of the business she’d helped to grow. People might view Tara’s kindness as weakness, but she knew the truth.
Her therapist had helped her to recover her memories of foster care, and all the strength she’d mustered to get through the difficult teen years that had followed her adoption.
She’d shoved those thoughts away and locked them into a box to forget them for almost two decades.
By now, she’d recovered most of it. She certainly recalled a stronger facet of herself that had always lurked in the back of her psyche, protecting her.
And she wouldn’t hesitate to tap that inner strength again in order to hang onto the new life she’d built for herself.