Honor and Jess looked at each other. “I couldn’t stand her,” Honor said, and she started to laugh. “She had a one-year contract with us, and I was counting the days. Good for you, Jess. Well done. I better call our lawyer, but thank you.”
* * *
JESS SPENT THE rest of the afternoon writing up the job description for a new event planner. Then, because Honor was the most efficient person on earth, a computer forensics expert came in. It wasn’t hard to prove; Marcy had accessed the computers of Ned, Jess and Honor and in some cases, just copied files in their original state and rewritten them as separate documents, leaving the originals right there in the folder.
She’d also forged her own reference letters.
“This is on me,” Honor said. “I hired her. Call it pregnancy brain. From now on, my dad gets to hire anyone new.”
“What about me?” Ned asked. “Can’t I hire people?”
“You didn’t find Jessica.” Honor smiled, then said, “Oh, hang on,” and ran for the bathroom. A minute later, they heard her puking.
“I think I’m gonna have another cousin pretty soon,” Ned said with wink.
Jess smiled. “I’d better get back to work.”
“Fine. Shame me into working on this gorgeous summer day. Oh, hey, another beautiful woman. How’s it going, Colleen?”
Jess looked up. Colleen had Isabelle in her arms and a rather frantic look in her eye. “Hi, Colleen. Here to see your mom? She’s not working today.”
“Nope. Ned, out you go.” Colleen pushed past him into Jess’s office and sat down. “I have to nurse.”
“Please let me stay.”
“I’m telling Lucas you said that.”
Ned flinched. “I’ll give you some privacy,” he said, closing the door.
Colleen yanked down her shirt, did something to her bra and maneuvered the baby in place. She winced, then visibly relaxed. “Okay. Good. I can breathe again. So. My brother.”
Jessica sat down. “Yes.”
Colleen’s eyes narrowed. “First of all, I know everything. The whole history.”
“Really?”
“No. But I know enough. You and him, all this time. And then he proposes, and you turn him down, and I get that, I do, because he’s a dolt and he rushes into things. And I did punish him by setting him up with those losers and buying you some time, so you owe me there.”
“Um...thanks?” She wasn’t completely sure what Colleen was talking about.
“But Jess...” Colleen’s voice softened. “He loves you.”
She nodded. There was that vise again, clamping down on her throat.
“So what’s the problem? I know you love him. I mean, you never once slept with him in high school. And you haven’t been with anyone else except him since. Have you?”
Leave it to Colleen to know everything.
“And now Davey even likes him, and believe me, that wasn’t easy. Do you know how patient Connor is? He isn’t!” The baby squeaked at the sound of her mother’s raised voice. “He isn’t,” Colleen whispered. “Not at all. Except with Davey. And you. So if you’re just gonna sit there and let him find someone else, well, I seriously misjudged you.” She popped the baby off her breast and switched sides. “Sorry about this, by the way. Now you’ve seen my boobs. Congratulations. So. Back to Connor. Go get him, Jess! I mean, what the hell?”
“He turned me down,” Jess whispered.
“He what?”
“He turned me down. I asked him to get back together, and he said no.”
Colleen frowned at that. “Oh. This surprises me.”
They sat there in silence for a minute or two, the only sound of little Isabelle chugging away.
If Colleen had nothing to add, Jess was pretty screwed.
She swiveled her chair a little, her throat aching. The view of the vineyard stretched out before her. Honor and Tom were standing by one of the barns, talking to Jack, Honor’s little dog biting at Tom’s shoelaces. Up the hill were Prudence and her father in the 1780 Rieslings.
Beyond that was the Liberty maple, its branches wide and graceful, the leaves lush and green, rippling and bobbing in the breeze. Planted all those years ago, because one man had trusted that his family would thrive on this land.
Trust had never come easily to Jessica. But she had to hand it to the first Holland.
He’d been right.
She’d asked Connor to get back together, but nothing else. She’d had no faith in the future.
“Colleen,” Jess said, not looking away from the tree, “is Connor working tonight?”
“Yep. He’s been working every night.”
“So he’d be there in, say, an hour?” She turned to face Colleen.
Colleen started to smile. “I can make sure of it.”
“I’d appreciate that. Take as long as you need here. I have to run.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
JESSICA DUNN HAD not said the words I love you to anyone other than her brother in roughly twenty-five years.
She had never asked for vacation time.
She had never asked for a favor.
She had certainly never asked someone to marry her.
She was doing all of these things today.
The first person she talked to was Honor. Then Mr. Holland, the younger. Then Pru, then Keith. Then she called Levi and asked him to get a favor from the mayor’s office.
Then she drove home to talk to Davey.
This was the most important favor of all.
Davey and their father were sitting in the backyard, laughing. “Jess!” Davey said. “Watch Chico Three! He can do a new trick. Chico, climb the tree. Climb the tree. Climb the tree, boy! You can do it!” Chico ran around the small yard, failing to climb the tree. “Well, he did it before,” Davey said.
“He did. He made it to the crook,” their father agreed.
“Dad, can I have a minute alone with Davey?” she asked. It still felt strange to call Keith Dad, but it also felt good. He nodded and went inside.
Davey bounced a tennis ball for Chico, who caught it neatly in his mouth, then dropped it at Davey’s feet so Davey would do this a thousand or so more times. They were a match made in heaven, those two.
“Davey,” Jess said, and suddenly her eyes were filled with tears.
“Are you sad?” he asked.
“No,” she said. Then, after a beat, she added, “A little.” The truth was, she had no idea how to ask him this. She’d never planned on it being anything but the two of them.
Her brother put his arm around her. “Are you lonely?”
Sometimes, she realized, she was as bad as anyone, assuming her brother couldn’t understand certain things. Maybe Connor was right. No, he was definitely right. She needed Davey to need her. “A little bit. Yes.”
“Maybe we should get another dog,” he suggested, bouncing the ball for Chico.
She swallowed. “I was thinking, actually, that maybe we should get another person.”
“Like Ned?”
“Well...” Here goes nothing. “I was thinking I might marry Connor.” She bit her lip. “I would really love to marry him.” Her heart shuddered. Faith in the future. Faith in the future.