I pried them off. “It wasn’t Grant.”
“Then who?” Brooke asked.
“It wouldn’t bethathard to connect Vivian to Chase,” Katie argued, getting up with her cup. “This is the digital age—right, Jackie?”
Jackie nodded while she finished chewing an egg roll. “Definitely. And publications like The Sentinel know how to find the information they want.”
“Ooh, where’d you get this, Viv?” Katie asked from the kitchen.
I sat up straighter to see what she was referring to, but I couldn’t see, so I stood.
She was hunched over, looking at the glass bowl I’d put Grant’s dead plant in.
I squinted, then stepped over Nick and went over.
If I hadn’t been 100% confident in my building security, I would’ve thought someone had come in and replaced the tumbleweed with something else. The crusty brown had unfurled into a fern-like plant, green and lush.
“I’ve always wanted one of these,” Katie said. “The time lapses of them are mesmerizing.”
“What is it?”
“Rose of Jericho,” Katie said. “Or Resurrection Plant, depending on who you ask. It can survive years without water.” She touched one of the fronds.
I stared at it, quiet. Grant hadn’t given me baby tumbleweed. He’d given me a Rose of Jericho.
He’d said it had reminded him of me.
“How much was it?” Katie asked.
“I don’t know,” I said absently. “Grant gave it to me. I thought it was a dead plant—his idea of a joke.”
“That’s…really sweet, actually,” Katie said. “How many guys would give their woman a Rose of Jericho—or even know it existed?” She looked up. “Nick! What are the last flowers you gave Hailey?”
“Roses,” he responded. “Why?”
“Just curious,” Katie said, but she shot me a raised brow likecase in point.She grabbed a glass from my cupboard and filled it at my fridge. “It’s official,” she said to the entire group. “Grant didn’t do it.”
“Oh!” Brooke said suddenly, holding her phone. “Lauren Chen from Stratus said yes to a meeting, Viv. She asked if tomorrow at ten would work. She had a cancelation in her schedule.”
I took a breath. Would I be in the right headspace to meet with a VC firm tomorrow?
I needed togetin the right headspace. That was the reality.
“That works,” I said.
The doorbell rang, and the room went quiet as all of us looked at each other.
“It’s probably Hailey,” Katie muttered to me. “Where’s the closest closet?” She avoided Hailey like the plague, and I didn’t blame her. Hailey wasn’t a Katie fan.
I strode to the door and opened it.
THIRTY-TWO
I stared at Grant,my body flooding with relief.
He was here. He’d come back, like he said he would.
“Speak of the devil,” Katie said, her big smile making it clear she considered him more like my angel.
