By the time the story went to publication, Grace had thought herself an expert on picking up on infidelity.
She’d been wrong.
The worst part was, she hadn’t even thought to look at her own life. Hadn’t imagined it would ever happen to her.
But it had. And worst of all? Greg and Maureen’s fling had been going on the entire time she’d been writing the article.
The woman whom other women looked to as a relationship beacon was a complete sham.
Grace might have been able to accept that Greg wasn’t the man she’d thought he was. But accepting that she was ignorant about men in general?
Career suicide.
Hence the creation of Grace 2.0.
Her alter ego was everything Grace 1.0 hadn’t been: wary, gritty, and smart. Grace 2.0 knew that men were lying snakes. And she was out to prove it personally and professionally.
“No, Grace doesn’t have a new man, and you’ll forget the thought even crossed your mind,” Riley was saying to Oliver in her scary don’t-make-me-lose-my-Irish-temper voice.
Oliver wisely pretended fascination with his phone as though he’d never been eavesdropping in the first place.
The three of them had just settled around the conference table when Grace spotted the unfamiliar woman who’d entered the meeting room.
“Who’s that?” Grace asked quietly. The woman was pretty in a natural, low-maintenance kind of way. Her shoulder-length hair was light brown and could have been mousy had it not been paired with gorgeous olive skin and wide, brown Bambi eyes.
Riley and Julie exchanged a nervous glance.
“That’s Emma Sinclair,” Julie said, her voice too bright.
It took a second for the name to register.
Oh. Oh.
Emma Sinclair had been Grace’s replacement on the Love and Relationships beat when she’d taken the month off.
The month that Grace had sorely needed, but which had hurt to ask for all the same.
When Grace had reluctantly told her boss that she needed some time away from the office, Camille hadn’t hesitated. The Stiletto editor in chief might be a total hard-ass, but she was also a bit of a man-hater thanks to a disastrous marriage of her own.
All it had taken was the word cheat, and Camille had practically booted Grace out the door with an order to “have some me time” and a suggestion for a local voodoo doll vendor.
And Grace was appreciative, she really was. And of course she’d expected that Camille would have to find someone to fill in while Grace was out.
She just hadn’t quite been prepared for Camille to assign a backup who was quite so … qualified.
Grace had been envisioning one of the newish interns trailing around after Julie and Riley, maybe taking a few nervous story notes. Instead, Camille had hired Emma Sinclair from Sassy. Sassy was Stiletto’s chief competitor in the women’s magazine marketplace. And Emma Sinclair had been one of their top columnists.
During their weekly phone chats, Julie and Riley had sworn up and down that Emma wasn’t a replacement. But from her friends’ guilty expressions, it was obvious that Emma wasn’t just someone they’d tolerated until Grace came back.
Emma had become a friend.
That’s nice, Grace told herself firmly. It would be nice to expand their little family. Maybe even get some fresh blood into the trio of the Love and Relationships section. Change things up a bit.
Then Riley laughed at something Emma said, and it didn’t feel nice at all.
“Order, order,” Camille bellowed, storming into the conference room, wearing a bright green wrap dress.
Grace hid a small, relieved smile. At least some things hadn’t changed. Camille still started her meetings like a power-tripping Supreme Court justice.
“Welcome back, Grace,” Camille said, not bothering to look up as she pulled a half dozen electronic devices out of her oversized bag, tossing them onto the table.
“Thanks,” Grace murmured, not missing the way that everyone smiled at her in that too-careful way, as though she was likely to break at any second.
But as the meeting settled into its old, familiar rhythm, she started to relax a little.
She could do this. It was just like old times, except she was a little older, a little smarter.
In fact, it was better than old times, because Grace wasn’t ever going to let a guy get the drop on her again.
She half listened as Camille went around the table, asking for department updates. When Camille turned to the Love and Relationships section, Grace sat up a little straighter. She didn’t have any updates on her first day back, but she smiled and nodded at everything Riley and Julie said so that there could be no doubt that she was still a part of this crew. She even kept an approving smile pasted on her face as Emma spoke.