look at this! Think of what this place could be!”
“Oh, I know what it could be. And I was thinking that you could be the design expert. If you’re interested.”
She blinked and turned to stare at him. Giving her ideas for the place was one thing. Working on a project of this scale was another. “Me?”
“Why not?” He shrugged. “You know the island. You know the people and what they like. You’d be true to the history, authentic to the charm of the place.”
She would. She could. She could be everything that he was describing. But taking on a job like this was a commitment—it meant more than asking Ellie or Gemma to watch the girls for a few hours. More than helping people like Darcy freshen up their homes. It meant…It meant a whole new life. A whole new set of possibilities.
“I need some time to think about it, if that’s okay.”
He held up a hand. “Of course.”
“And thank you. For thinking of me. I just don’t want to give my word unless I can truly commit.”
“Do you mind me asking what’s holding you back?” He stopped himself, shook his head. “Sorry. That was unprofessional and I overstepped. But, this meeting wasn’t purely professional, if I’m being honest.”
“Neither was my dinner the other night,” she said gently.
They locked eyes, and what she saw in his, she realized, was hope.
She cleared her throat and began walking down the steps, eager to keep moving, even if a part of her was anxious about what would happen next.
“So, how is it that a guy like you isn’t already married?” she asked, giving him a rueful look.
“I was married,” he said simply, and she tried to hide her shock. Why hadn’t she considered this before? A man like John, patient, kind, supportive…he wouldn’t have just sat on the market, and he didn’t seem like the type who was set firmly on being an eternal bachelor either. “It was short lived. No children, much as I would have wished,” he added, casting her a glance.
Something in her tugged. He would have made a great father. He still would. After all, he was only a couple years older than she was, from what she knew. He’d be the kind of father who got down on the ground and played with the kids, who helped not just wrap the birthday presents but pick them out too. The kind of husband who’d hold doors and get the strollers through them.
“Katherine and I married young, right out of college,” he elaborated.
Hope nodded. “Evan and I met in college too.” He’d been cute, interested, and he’d seemed like the perfect choice. Her parents’ approval had only confirmed that. Made her think she was on the right path.
But had her heart ever raced, or her stomach ever fluttered, the way it did now, talking to John?
She wanted to say that it must have. But she couldn’t be so sure.
“It’s all so much simpler when you’re young, isn’t it? She was my first serious girlfriend. I didn’t know any other way. I didn’t even know who I was or what I really wanted from my life.”
Hope nodded. Yes. Yes. Yes. He understood. So, so well. What she thought she wanted was just the comfort of what she’d always known. And now…now she wanted something different.
“So we got married, and let’s just say that it was a lot tougher than we thought it would be. I was trying to move my way up at the company and I was working a lot, and Katherine struggled to find work, and that made me work even more, and then she complained that I wasn’t around, and, well, the long and the short of it is that she left me.”
Hope stopped walking. She stared at John. Possibly, she gaped. “She left you?”
The astonishment must have been clear on her face because John gave a low laugh. “Don’t look so surprised. To hear Katherine spin it, I was an absentee workaholic husband who didn’t treat her like she deserved.” He shrugged. “Maybe I didn’t.”
“I find that very hard to believe,” Hope said, shaking her head.
They had reached the beachfront now, and a breeze was blowing in off the lake. Hope slipped off her heels and let them dangle in her hand.
“Going through a divorce that young changed me,” John said. “At first, I threw myself even more into work. Told myself that I wouldn’t be punished for working too hard. Told myself that I was good