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  “Tell me about it,” Nell said, thinking of Tim.

  “Gabe would be the worst,” Lynnie went on, watching her. “You just can’t work with a man like that, you can only work for him.” She leaned a little closer to Nell. “But you could work with me. You look like you’d know how to plan, and I’d never cheat you.”

  She wouldn’t, Nell thought and walked back to her. “Listen, I’m sorry men have been lousy to you. I really am. I hope you get what you want. Preferably without maiming somebody else, of course, but I hope you get it anyway.”

  “The maiming is the best part.” Lynnie leaned on the wrought-iron balustrade. “Look, I’m working on this thing. You’d be all for it, this guy is such a user even I can’t believe it. And I’ve got the goods on him, he’s paying, and we can get more. He deserves everything we could do to him. We’re talking justice with a profit here.” Lynnie smiled at her, and Nell smiled back. “But he’s tricky. I could use some backup. How about it? You and me, payback time, full speed ahead.”

  For a moment, Nell considered it, the two of them wreaking vengeance for all womankind, but it was a fantasy. “I can’t do it, Lynnie,” Nell said. “I’m just not built that way.” She stuck out her hand, and after a moment, Lynnie took it. “Best of luck, really.”

  Then she walked out onto the street, not looking back, and headed for the McKennas, full speed ahead on her own.

  * * *

  Nell was in the office an hour later when Suze came in carrying a box of gourmet dog biscuits and a wicker basket that held a black short-haired dachshund in a red sweater.

  “You’ve got to take SugarPie,” she said to Nell. “Jack just called and he wants to have lunch. Do you suppose he heard about the dognapping? Maybe that Farnsworth guy recognized me.”

  “No,” Nell said, not sure. “But give me the dog and go.” She took the basket and eyed the dog. “What did you do to her?”

  “Clip and a dye job,” Suze said. “The clip didn’t go too well, but the dye looks great. It’s that gentle, wash-out stuff, so I figured it wouldn’t hurt her, but I washed her twice afterward with dog shampoo to make sure.”

  SugarPie looked up at Nell, her eyes as pitiful as ever over her still-brown nose. “It’s okay,” Nell told her. “I have no shampoo. Your washing days are over.” She put the basket under her desk where it was hidden from the door. Once the basket was down, SugarPie stood up. She was wearing a red sweater with a white turtleneck collar and cuffs and a white heart centered on her back.

  “Cute sweater,” Nell said doubtfully.

  “It’s cashmere,” Suze said, peering under the desk at the dog. “Not scratchy at all.”

  “It’s also September, not January,” Nell said.

  “She needs something to cover up the bad clip,” Suze said. “That was the lightest outfit I could find. I’ve got more in the car so she can change outfits.”

  “Change outfits,” Nell said.

  “You should see the leather bomber jacket I bought her,” Suze said. “Fleece lined. Come winter, she’s going to look very butch.”

  Nell looked back down at SugarPie. She looked like a miserable anorexic cheerleader. “Thank you,” she said to Suze. “That was very nice of you.”

  Suze put the box of gourmet dog biscuits on the desk and then faded toward the door. “She loves those biscuits. Really, she’s so pathetic that she’s no trouble at all. It’s just that Jack—”

  “I know, I know.” Nell waved her toward the door. “Go find out what he wants. We’ll be here.”

  When Suze was gone, Nell slid SugarPie’s basket farther under her desk so she could scratch her with her toe while she worked, and after a couple of minutes of rhythmic scratching, the dachshund sighed and stopped trembling and began to doze, and Nell began to feel much better.

  Things were finally looking up.

  * * *

  When Suze got to O&D, Jack was waiting for her outside his office, vibrating with anger in front of a lot of marble and expensive paneling.

  “Hi, Elizabeth,” Suze said, smiling at his assistant, keeping Jack in her peripheral vision.

  “You’re late,” Jack said, cutting short Elizabeth’s greeting and earning a sharp glance from her in return. “Come on.”

  “I was dropping the dog off at Nell’s,” Suze said as he hurried her toward the elevator. “You told me you didn’t want it alone in the house, so I took it to her at work.”

  “I don’t want it in the house at all,” Jack said. “It would have been nice if you’d asked me before you let your crazy friend bring it over, but you didn’t think of that.”

  “Nell’s not crazy,” Suze said sharply.

  “The hell she isn’t,” Jack said. “You wouldn’t believe what she just pulled. She’s not part of the family anymore. Go shopping with Whitney instead.”

  “She’s part of my family,” Suze said, but he ignored her to slam his hand into the closing elevator doors and pry them apart.

  They got on the elevator, taking their place in the middle as the three men already there made room for them, smiling at Suze. “Hi, Suzie,” one of them said, and she turned around to see Budge’s round face beaming at her. “Heard you and Margie and Nell are going to the movies tonight,” he said, clearly delighted to be chatting with the beautiful wife of a senior partner. “You make sure Nell doesn’t keep her out too late.”

  “Oh-kay,” she said, thinking, Call me Suzie one more time and I’ll have you fired.

  The doors opened, and Jack took her arm and hustled her out to his BMW. By the time he slammed his door and put the keys in the ignition, she was so mad that she reached over and yanked them out again, surprised at her own temerity.

  Jack looked startled. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”

  “Why are you being such a jackass?” she said, standing up to him for the first time in fourteen years.

  “Don’t use that tone with me,” he said. “Where were you last night?”

  “I told you, stealing SugarPie in New Albany,” Suze said. “Where’d you think I got her?”

  “I thought you were telling me the truth. God knows it was bizarre enough.” He glared at her and she glared back.

  “What is with you? If you have a problem with the dog, it’s over, Nell has it. If it’s something else, tell me about it and stop being such a bastard.”

  “All right, if that’s what you want.” Jack drew himself up, probably trying for dignified rage and looking like a petulant twelve-year-old instead. “You’re having an affair. Admit it. You’re cheating on me.”

  Suze gaped at him. “Have you lost your mind?”

  “Pete Sullivan saw you having dinner with Riley McKenna.”

  “I’ve never—” Suze stopped. “Last night? Nell, Margie, and I went there to talk to him. We were in a diner for about half an hour arguing with him about SugarPie. I can’t believe this. I was with Margie and Nell, for heaven’s sake.”

  “They’d lie for you,” Jack said, some of his indignation gone. “Hell, Nell’s capable of anything.”

  “Yeah, and then she got me the dog as a cover story. I didn’t even know Riley McKenna until last night, and having met him, I don’t want to know him any better. What is wrong with you?”

  Jack exhaled and let his head fall back against the headrest. “I’m having a bad week.”

  “And you thought you’d share it with me? Thanks a lot.” Suze shook her head. “I can’t believe you don’t trust me. I’m not the one with the past here, buddy.”

  “Hey,” Jack said. “Watch your tone. I have never cheated on you.”

  “Then why did you think I was?” Suze said. “Peter Sullivan is a horrible person, you know that, you know he just said that to get at you, and you fell for it. I think you’re projecting. I think you want to cheat. I think—”

  “Wait a minute,” Jack said, alarmed.

  “—you’re tired of being married to a woman in her thirties and you want something younger—”