Page 23 of A Whisper of Summer Magic

“Because he took care of you so… hotly heroically…” Jessica smiled like she was auditioning for the role of Cheshire cat in theAlice in Wonderlandmusical, though of course, she’d played Alice in the summer drama workshop “I’m letting go of the dog visit, besides…” She sighed. “Storm thinks we should get a dog for the property. He doesn’t like me being alone here.”

“We?” Meghan made an air circle with one finger around Jessica and the no longer present Storm.

Jessica blushed prettily. “A dog makes sense, but Storm really wants a dog. He loves Jackson’s Whiskey and was thinking if we got a pair, and trained them, he could take one out on calls with him, and I could have one at the nursery. I got a little freaked out one night when I was closing up the barn and a coyote was watching me. It wasn’t aggressive, and I know they don’t usually attack people, but…” She trailed off. “Storm was happy when Jackson moved home to house-sit, although with his shift work, he’s either gone for twenty-four or forty-eight hours and then back for a day or two. I can’t keep it straight—not regular hours, but Storm feels safer knowing Jackson’s close, but as a firefighter, he’s not always.”

Meghan wished she’d had a heads-up that Jackson was back in town.

“I’ll make you some tea.”

“Us some tea,” Meghan said, settling into the couch cushions, not lying down exactly, but she was tired. Touring the property, cooking, pretending she didn’t hurt as much as she did, and chatting with Jackson had worn her out, and she couldn’t put off talking to Jessica anymore, even though she hadn’t made any set-in-stone decisions.

“Jackson already made me several cups of what was called yellow milk for my inflammation.”

“Excellent.” Jessica smiled. “It’s a blend of spices that I’ve packaged in these colorful little bags that are reusable for gift bags or whatnot. The stickers arrived Friday right before we left, and I nearly brought the whole lot with me to work on during the buying trip, but Storm said he’d help when we got back. He wanted me to take a break.”

Jessica didn’t look like she needed a break. She was glowing, smiling, humming.

“Since my unexpected presence chased him off, you can draft me to help with the stickers. Sounds like something I can do sitting.”

“We can put on BritBox,” Jessica said. “And I’ve got some other small projects I can work on after you tell me what you were doing up in a tree.”

“I’m not that old or out of shape.”

Jessica gave her a look and then returned to preparing the tea. “You’re not old, and you’re not out of shape, and you can come over whenever you want. The house and the property is all of ours. I have a business up here, but there’s still plenty of room for all of us. Heck”—Jessica poured the water into the teapot—“you can ditch your corporate suits, kick off your heels, and move in.” She laughed like that was really funny.

Absurd.

Meghan said nothing. Jessica, because she was Jessica, added small star-shaped lemon lavender sugar cookies to a plate, and trayed the cups, cookies, and teapot and walked out to the closed-in porch so that they could watch the sunset.

She put down the tray and handed Meghan a small, pressed flowered cotton napkin. Something in Meghan’s stillness must have tipped her off.

“Meghan?” She sat down abruptly without her usual grace.

“What if I did?”

“Did what? Ditch your… really?” Jessica’s eyes resembled dinner plates.

“Not ditch totally as in donating them to the thrift shop, but…” She palmed her tea for warmth, tried not to think how this would go down easier with a shot of whiskey in the tea and gulped in a breath. “What if I moved in?”

“Of course,” Jessica said. “Of course.” She stared at her—her expression a mix of hope and worry. “Of course. I’d love it. You can have the primary bedroom and bath. I’m still in the room Chloe and I shared. I just like it there.”

“I know.” Meghan smiled, warmed by Jessica’s acceptance. “But you may want that primary room and bath soon. It’s bigger,” she hinted.

“It’s only been a few months working together,” Jessica said. “A little over one month of us being a couple. He’s so… perfect. I don’t want to jinx it.”

“Chloe and Rustin were engaged after only a few months and, listening to Chloe, sounds like we’ll have a summer wedding.”

“Thank the baby Jesus, the gardens are even more repaired and will be blooming, but”—she sliced her hand through the air—“are you serious about moving here or just beginning to think about it? Is everything okay? What about your job? Would you commute? It’s manageable, I did it for a while, or are you…”

“I’ve been thinking about resigning from my firm,” Meghan said, almost as shocked as Jessica to hear her words, but the second they were out there, she felt the rightness of them.

Jessica bobbled her tea and placed it on the saucer.

“I… I’m a hamster, running to stay in the same place,” Meghan admitted. “I work so many hours and yet so little of it has meaning to me. At first it did. It was challenging, and I loved traveling and being the closer, finessing all the details, but…” It sounded shallow to say she was exhausted by the lack of acknowledgment, but she was.

Jessica curled up in the high-backed armchair upholstered in peacocks that she’d taken from Grandma Millie’s house before Sarah had begun to settle the estate, but it had always been Jessica and Chloe’s favorite chair along with the ottoman, which Chloe had taken due to her smaller apartment. She sipped her tea, totally focused on Meghan, who wasn’t sure how to present her argument—not that it was really an argument.

“I’ve been reviewing a lot of family law,” she admitted. No one else knew that. “I don’t want to give up law.” She was definite about that. “But I want to do something that’s more… contained. Relational—me and the client.” Was she making sense? “Full of purpose. I’m thinking about working part-time in town at Greggor and Associates. I went to high school, college, and law school with Elise, and her grandfather is retiring, and the town is growing. We’ve kept in touch, and she always seems so content. Motivated. But she has a life. Hobbies, friends. I miss so much because I’m always jetting off and…” She sipped her tea.

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