Home to Chicory Lane (9781426796074)

  A flash of heat went through her. How dare she screen Jesse’s calls! Corinne bit the inside of her cheek, knowing she’d be sorry if she said what she was thinking.

  She heard Michaela’s voice in the background, and then Jesse’s familiar deep timbre. But it was Michaela who came back on the line. “Mrs. Pennington, Jesse’s on the phone with a client right now.”

  “Oh . . .” So he was “Jesse” but she was “Mrs. Pennington”? She felt her arteries hardening by the minute. “Well, I guess—“

  “Oh . . . hang on. They just announced our flight.” A pregnant pause. “It looks like it gets in around ten. Into St. Louis, not Cape. Jesse says we’ll rent a car from there, but it’ll probably be after midnight by the time we get home.”

  Corinne wracked her brain to remember who else had made the trip with Jesse this time. Usually Reggie from the Cape office went, but she didn’t remember Jesse mentioning him. Probably too busy flirting with Miss Perky—”

  “Mama?”

  “Shh . . . I’m on the phone, Sadie.”

  “Why are we just sittin’ here? I thought we were in a hurry.”

  She shushed her daughter again, then saw that Simone had fallen asleep in the carseat. Great. There went the afternoon nap . . . her only time to get a break.

  “Oh—I’ve gotta run, Mrs. Pennington, but just wanted to get that message to you.”

  “Yes. Thank you, Michaela—” But the girl had already hung up.