‘You think that will work?’ Ewan asked slowly, eyeing his sister warily.
‘This is what I used to do,’ she told them with a reassuring smile. ‘We can use the story of how you met, then lost touch before you both found your way back to each other through some strange twist of fate. It’s got all the hallmarks of a romcom. If we handle this quickly and carefully, people will eat this up.’
‘She has a point,’ Tara added. ‘If we get your story out, it takes the majority of the sting from the half-truth version Sasha wants to tell.’
‘This puts faces to the story, real people,’ Floss pressed on.
Kenzie still wasn’t sure it was the answer. Going public about a very private matter went against every fibre of her being, yet they were both right: if Sasha told people she was cheated on and lied to, and tried to make out that Kenzie made a habit of sleeping with the grooms she planned weddings for, it looked like a whole different, sordid story.
‘Okay,’ she finally said. ‘If you think it will help, then let’s do it.’
Floss took Kenzie by the shoulders and held her at arms-length. ‘We arenotgoing to let her destroy your business. Okay?’ Kenzie managed to nod, despite the nausea that had settled inside her. They had to do something, it may as well be whatever Floss had in mind. She just hoped it worked.
Floss and Kenzie worked with Tara on the article until they were happy with the end result.
‘So this is going to be a what? A press release we just send out to who?’ Kenzie asked uncertainly. ‘We don’t even know where or to whom she was intending to go tell her story.’
‘True, but my guess would be she’d target a site where your more affluent clientele would likely see it. Some kind of society page maybe? I’d like to email it to a friend of mine. He works for a big newspaper. I think he’ll be able to get this out to a wider audience a lot faster.’
‘You think he’ll be interested?’
‘We can try.’ Floss shrugged, but sounded optimistic.
So far there hadn’t been any sign of Sasha releasing anything publicly, which was a relief. Kenzie felt it was only a matter of time, though. It was possible she’d been bluffing, of course, but with her business at stake, she couldn’t afford to wait for the first shot to be fired. They had to shoot first.
Later, Kenzie went out to find Ewan and Poppy. She smiled when she found them lying on a blanket in the garden, both pointing up to the sky.
‘That one looks like a puppy,’ Poppy said, pointing a small finger towards a fluffy cloud.
‘And that one looks like a dinosaur,’ Ewan said.
‘No,’ Poppy told him. ‘It’s a puppy too.’
‘They can’talllook like puppies,’ Ewan said, reaching across to poke her in the ribs, setting off a chorus of high-pitched giggles.This is kind of nice, she thought. Having backup to keep Poppy entertained during an unexpected work crisis.This must be what it’s like to have a two-adult household.
‘She has puppies on the brain,’ Kenzie said.
‘Mummy! Come and play clouds with us!’ Poppy said excitedly, moving over closer to Ewan to make room on the blanket.
‘How do I play?’
‘You pick a cloud and you say what kind of animal it looks like.’
‘Well that sounds like fun,’ she said, lying back and searching the sky above. ‘That one looks like a …’
‘Puppy!’ Poppy cut in, already giggling.
‘A cat,’ Kenzie corrected, nudging her daughter playfully.
‘How did you go?’ Ewan asked over the top of their daughter’s head.
Her smile slipped a little, but she nodded. ‘Floss sent it to a contact she has so I guess we have to wait and see.’
‘Anything happening at the office?’
‘No cancellations so far, which is good. But it’s early days.’
‘Sounds like you’ve done everything you can for now,’ he said.
