“Well, honey, I’m afraid that rumor got started when your parents sent you off to Longwood Academy. I have no idea where, although I certainly understand how. And believe me, I have done my best to set the record straight, but you know how it can be. I thought it was laid to rest, but then you came back to town and reconnected with Colton. And that just dredged it all up again.”
“Why didn’t you tell me what people were saying?”
“You didn’t know?”
Now she felt like an idiot. How could she have missed this? “No.”
“Oh. Well, I reckon that’s because you go out of your way to avoid gossip. I’m so sorry, honey. I thought…Well, obviously I didn’t think at all. I assumed, and you know how that goes.”
“Yes, I do.”
“And really, you know times have changed. I think the majority of folks in town are rooting for you and Colton to find happiness together.”
“Are you?”
“Honey, I am not my sister. All I ever wanted was for you to be happy. And if Colton St. Pierre makes you happy, then I say you go for it.”
“Donna, I want you to actively tell people that I didn’t have his baby, okay? And then I want you to make it doubly clear that I don’t love him. We’re friends.”
“Honey, gossip doesn’t work that way. But you have my word that I’ll try my best.”
It wasn’t nearly enough, but it was all Jessica was going to get. So she let it go and spent the next five minutes making small talk, mostly about her cousins Noah, Ethan, and Abby.
When she finished the call, she pushed her conversation with Donna aside and got to work on her critical to-do list. Now that she had a firm client in hand, she needed to upgrade her office space, get those business cards printed, and fix her web page. She wanted to have another client lined up before Topher’s project was completed.
And if, by some miracle, she made it into the final round for the City Hall project, she wanted to make sure her office looked professional. So she hauled out her interior design plans and got to work. She’d just placed an order for Herman Miller room dividers to partition off the conference room and reception space when her phone rang, a gentle reminder that she also needed a business phone system. Running Blackwood Designs from her personal cell phone had to stop.
She checked the caller ID but didn’t recognize the Miami, Florida, number. Another potential client? She’d spent the morning drawing down her savings—this call might be the answer to her prayers.
She pressed the connect button and answered with, “Blackwood Designs.”
“I’d like to speak with Jessica Blackwood,” the deep male voice replied, and she once again kicked herself for not purchasing that phone system sooner.
“This is Jessica,” she said, then held her breath.
“Oh. Hi.” The voice got a tiny bit friendlier. “This is Damon Brant. You may not remember me, but we met at the Building Resilience Conference about two years ago.”
Her breath caught in her throat. Who wouldn’t remember Damon Brant? When she’d been working for Costa Designs, she’d attended one of Damon Brant’s workshops. She’d been so impressed with what Mr. Brant had said about resilient design and climate change that she’d given him her card and then shamelessly inquired as to whether Brant, Waller, and Palmer Associates, his Florida design firm, was looking for new architects.
Unfortunately, they weren’t. Otherwise, returning to Magnolia Harbor when Momma had gotten sick might have been a much bigger sacrifice. Not getting that job turned out to be a classic example of the simple beauty of an unanswered prayer.
If she’d gotten that job, she might not have been able to return to Magnolia Harbor to nurse her mother in the last months of her life. Those months had been precious. She and Momma had reconciled after too many years of recriminations over what had happened her senior year in high school.
She was glad she’d forgiven Momma.
“Uh, yes, I remember you,” Jessica said, pulling herself away from bittersweet memories of her mother’s last days.
“Good. Because I remember you too,” Brant said, his tone warm. “You sent me no less than five résumés over a six-month period, and I do recall you asking me face-to-face at a conference about job openings in our Miami office.”
“I was working at Costa Associates in Charleston at the time. They weren’t terribly