Emma blinked. How did Nadine know if he was looking for a house closer to his office?
“I’m not sure,” she admitted. “Did he tell you he was looking?”
Nadine nodded and laughed. “He said he was thinking of selling it and finding an apartment or something closer to work. I told him he was crazy. If I had a house right near the beach, I’d never move out. But he said traffic was awful.”
“When did he say that?”
“At your birthday.”
“I didn’t realize you got the chance to catch up with him.” Emma tried to keep her voice casual, but it still came out tinged with bitterness.
Nadine didn’t seem to notice. “Yeah, just for a second.”
Emma bit her bottom lip and worked hard to keep her expressionneutral even as the anger began to curl in her stomach. Did Knightley really talk to Nadine about this before he told her? Emma’s brain suddenly recalled every Sunday dinner, every random moment here in this kitchen when Knightley and Nadine were together, every time they shared a private laugh and whispered conversation.
“I’ve never been to LA,” Nadine lamented, her notebook forgotten.
“Well, it’s awful,” Emma scoffed.
“You’ve been?”
“No. But it looks awful.”
“Oh.”
Emma’s phone began to ring and she pulled it from her back pocket. Her sister’s face illuminated the screen.
“Hi, Margo,” she answered. Nadine smiled and waved at the phone. Emma gave her a curt smile back. “Nadine says hi too.”
“Emma!” It was Margo’s signature panicked tone, the one that made her voice go up two octaves because she was working so hard to make it sound like she wasn’t panicking at all.
“What’s wrong?” Emma said into the phone, catching her father’s attention.
Margo went up another octave. “Something happened. Something awful.”
A hole suddenly opened in Emma’s chest, and she felt her heart fall through it, fear and worry rising up to take its place. “What happened? Is the baby okay?”
“The baby is fine.”
“The baby?” her father exclaimed.
“The baby’s fine,” Emma relayed to him, then spoke again to her sister. “Is it Ben? Or Knightley?”
“No, they’re both fine,” Margo confirmed.
“Knightley?” Nadine gasped, looking stricken. Both she and Mr. Woodhouse were watching Emma now, hanging on her half of the conversation.
“It’s not Knightley,” Emma told her audience. “Then what is it?” she asked her sister.
She heard Margo take a deep breath, as if preparing herself. “It’s Montgomery.”
“Montgomery?”
Mr. Woodhouse turned to Nadine, whispering, “Montgomery is the gentleman staying at the Crawfords’ house, right?”
Nadine nodded sagely.
Emma held the phone close to her ear, waiting for Margo to continue. When she didn’t, she asked, “Margo, did something happen? Is he okay?”
