Page 25 of A Whisper of Summer Magic

Jessica high-fived her. “I can’t believe it,” she breathed. “I wanted this to be a family farm and a family business, like it used to be when Grandma Millie was a kid, but I didn’t see how that could happen with Sarah being a doctor and you flying all over the world negotiating legal deals and Chloe teaching high school and having private voice students and directing choirs.”

“But we all came together when it mattered,” Meghan said, feeling weight fall off her shoulders now that she’d shared her dream and Jessica wanted to be a part of it.

“We did, and that was what gave me hope that maybe someday…”

“Someday”—Meghan linked hands with her sister—“is today.”

*

Well, not literallytoday. Meghan had quite a few balls to kick up in the air, starting with telling her boss and team that she would be working remotely for a few days due to a minor injury that had her on crutches. Their curiosity was as rampant as was their sympathy, and their guesses all assumed something athletic, so Meghan leaned into that with a succinctclimbing. That led to more questions she had to sidestep.

And while she didn’t shirk her actual work, she did set up a meeting with Elise, surprised that Elise offered to treat her to a coffee Monday morning at a new riverfront bakery and coffee shop that had opened a few months after the Wild Side. Elise was already seated at a bistro table with a view when Meghan limped in.

“Oh no. What happened? Here, let me help you.” Looking embarrassingly fit and agile, Elise hopped off her stool and hurried over to take Meghan’s overly large leather tote.

“I can—” She broke off as Elise, a force of nature, usually like herself, already had commandeered a different, lower table with regular chairs, helped Meghan to sit, dragged over another chair and lifted Meghan’s leg onto the chair and tucked the crutches under the table. Then she retrieved her Portland Leather large tote that Meghan had gifted both of them when they’d each passed the bar on their first try.

“Coffee and pastry is on me,” Elise reminded her. “Your usual?”

“I requested the meeting,” Meghan objected, reaching for her wallet. “And by moving tables you’ve lost your view.” Elise always loved a view.

She’d already put a deposit down on one of the townhomes Maye Development was building along the river.

“Meeting?” Elise dismissed Meghan’s intention to pay. “We’re friends, and if I’m lucky, judging from your phone call, maybe more.”

Elise often hinted that. Meghan wondered how Elise would react now that Meghan intended to seriously inquire about a job. Her mouth felt dry, she had a tickle in her throat, and her heart rate was definitely elevated. Ridiculous as she was paid well to negotiate with hostile, powerful, and resistant parties.

I really want this.

That settled her.

“Surprise me and, while you’re at it, contemplate being careful what you wish for,” Meghan said lightly, testing the waters and saw Elise’s expression immediately change—her warm brown eyes darkened to chocolate, and her mouth dropped open.

“Noooooooo,” she breathed on a shocked exhalation. She pointed at Meghan. “Don’t move,” she commanded. “I’ll be right back. I want to heareverything.”

While Elise strode up to the counter to order and pay, Meghan mentally rehearsed her points she’d written out and refined last night after she and Jessica made a light dinner of salad and splitting a grilled cheese and vegetable panini. They’d discussed Meghan’s loose plans, brainstormed and created a to-do list that might have daunted most people but was second nature to both of them.

Elise tapped her foot, waiting for the lattes and pastries to be heated up.

That was a good sign, right? It was always bad to enter a negotiation needing a certain outcome more than the opposing party. But like Elise said, they were friends. And her firm wasn’t the only one in town or in the area, but Meghan had become more aware over the past few years that she felt adrift. Practicing with a friend felt invigorating and in line with the changes she wanted to make in her life, but oh, her parents wouldn’t like it. They’d cheered on her ambitions. Reveled in hergunnertitle, but then again, so had she.

She’d tell her parents after she had the pieces in place. And she could stand on two feet again.

“Okay.” Elise first brought over the lattes and then two pastries on a plate with a knife so that they could share. She handed out napkins and smaller plates and then sat. Posture perfect from her years of ballet. Her Nordic blonde hair pulled back in a low bun like she was still a ballerina. Elise wore a sheath-style, light-blue dress and an unlined tweed-style cropped suit jacket in blue and ecru that had sequins woven into it so the jacket, along with her hair, shimmered in the shaft of light from the window.

“Meghan Maye, spill.”

She did. More honest, perhaps than she intended because Greggor and Associates wasn’t a firm with a national or international footprint, but Elise and her cousin were intent on growing and expanding their services, so Meghan’s experience was a bonus they hadn’t been expecting.

Elise got them a second coffee, again waving off the offer of payment, smiling and saying that she’d write it off as a business expense.

Elise discussed the firm’s business profile, ballparked the workload, potential salary, and process for applying and meeting the rest of the firm, although as a friend of Elise, Meghan had met her family many times over the years, but this would be different. Meghan shared why she wanted to make the change, what she would bring and even dished on her sideline of moving back to her grandmother’s farm with her sister, and getting her creative on with making jams, sauces, and pickling vegetables to sell in the nursery.

“Entrepreneur, huh?” Elise smiled. “Runs in the family. I remember Miss Millie sold her famous onion marmalade at the diner and her raspberry jam. And didn’t she make elderberry wine for gifts at Christmas?” Elise reminisced. “I remember my mama would always give me a little sip from her glass at Christmas dinner. Are you going to make wine? I’d love to learn how to do that.”

Meghan had to blink back tears. She’d not really thought about the traditions that Grandma Millie’s civic involvement and generosity had created for other families, only for hers.

“I’m hoping your sister offers some gardening classes this summer,” Elise said.

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