“Okay,” he mumbled, then clicked off the phone.
Five
When the phone on the bedside table rang, Sophie wasn’t sure she should answer it. Maybe it was a private call for Kim. But after about the eighth ring, she picked it up. “Hello?” she asked tentatively.
“Is this Sophie?”
For a moment her heart stopped. She’d been found! She glanced at the envelope on the bed, a tire track across it. Beside it was the old cookbook, tattered and frayed. It was made of yellowing papers tied together with ribbon, each page with writing on it. But it was either written in a language she didn’t recognize or it was some sort of code.
“Yes it is,” she said, her breath held. There was no use lying.
“This is Dr. Reede. Actually, forget the doctor part. After the dinner you made you can call me any name you want.”
His voice was nice, deep and rich. Actually, it sounded a bit like melted chocolate. “I hoped you would like it.” She was trying to remember what Kim’s brother looked like.
“If it weren’t for Treeborne’s I—”
“What?!” Sophie said in alarm, then realized that he meant the frozen food she’d seen in his freezer. Opening that little door and seeing the name on the stack of boxes had given her a shock. “Oh. Sorry, I nearly spilled my drink. Yes, the frozen food people.”
“What are you drinking?” he asked in a way that was decidedly flirty.
She’d learned to believe the old saying of “Feed a man well and you’ll own him.” “You drank the whole bottle of wine, didn’t you?”
“I ate it all, drank it all. I don’t usually get . . . ” He searched for a word.
“Tipsy?”
“Spoken like a true Southern belle. Yes, tipsy, but I didn’t have lunch, and breakfast was one of those egg and muffin things.”
“Not good for you. What time do you want me to come in tomorrow? If I have the job, that is.”
“Are you kidding?” Reede said. “I’m going to double your salary. By the way, how much am I paying you?”
Sophie laughed. “I have no idea. Kim didn’t mention money.” She wondered how much Kim had told her brother about Sophie’s situation. “Didn’t she speak to you about me and the job?”
“I thought you knew my sister. She called me and said she’d hired you to be my PA, then said she had to go. I didn’t even know what day you were going to arrive.”
Thank you, Kim, Sophie mouthed. “I, uh, needed a job quickly, and Kim got me one.”
“That sounds ominous,” Reede said with sympathy in his voice. “Let me guess: boyfriend problems.”
Since what Carter had done to her, Sophie hadn’t had a chance to tell anyone. In college she and Kim and Jecca had spent a lot of time commiserating with one another about the treachery of men. Since then there’d been no one to talk to. “I . . . ” she said and felt a lump forming in her chest.
“What happened?” he asked softly.
There was so much understanding in his voice that Sophie decided to tell the truth, but she did her best to make it sound light. “It’s an old story. We had a difference of opinion. I thought we were serious, but he said we were just a summer romance. Turns out that the whole time he was engaged to someone else.”
Reede didn’t laugh. Instead, he said softly, “I know.”
“What did Kim tell you about me?” Sophie asked, alarmed.
“Nothing. Honest. I meant me. Nearly the same thing was done to me.”
Sophie tried to remember what Kim had told them about her brother, but it was a long time ago and a lot had happened since then. “Wasn’t there something with you and Jecca? Didn’t she have a crush on you?”
“Jecca? Naw. Nothing like that. She was a kid. She grew up rather nicely and I envied Tris, but there was nothing between us. Unless you count that I think she saved my life and almost drowned doing it.”
“Now you have to tell me,” Sophie said as she snuggled down in the bed.