~Joan~

I'd taken a few days off from work to help Rhoda plan her birthday party. When I wasn't planning, I was writing. Shayne had reached out to me a couple of times to ask how the manuscript was coming along. She was the best editor—when she wasn’t micromanaging me. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen often.

Rhoda had gone all out with the decorations, as if she'd forgotten it was Aaron's house she was using. Speaking of Aaron, he’d given her a second chance to host the party and, surprisingly, hadn’t made an issue about me attending. But then again, Aaron wasn’t a man who repeated himself. If he said something...