Page 55 of A Whisper of Summer Magic

“Oh my.” She stopped suddenly. “Does Mama know?” Jessica placed both hands above heart. “What are we going to do?”

Maybe she should have told Jessie when Sarah was here. She was always the calming influence on them all.

Meghan always had believed that the truth was better than lies. She’d seen how lies festered into deeper, more dangerous wounds. She’d always been a believer in thetruth would set you freeschool of thought, but she was beginning to see the benefits of keeping all of their mouths shut.

“The three of us will tell Chloe and see where she wants to go from there. Contact her mom. Confront our dad. We need to be there for her and let her know that we’ll back whatever play she wants to make,” Meghan said firmly.

“But what do you think she should do? How should we help her?”

“Jessie.” Meghan was both touched and exasperated to see Jessica, hands clutched together as if in prayer. “Chloe’s all grown up. She’s twenty-seven now, a teacher, engaged to be married. It’s her bio mother who could have reached out but hasn’t. Chloe will need to figure out what she wants to do, and we need to listen and support whatever decision she makes.”

“God.” Jessica jumped to her feet again, paced. “Dear God. What a pickle.”

Meghan pictured the image of God in the Sistine Chapel as a pickle and laughed, trying and failing to stifle it.

“You know what I mean,” Jessica said primly. “I know it’s Chloe’s decision, but it impacts us too. Dad cheated. He cheated on Mom. Had a child he denied. There’s no denying this, no matter how I try to find a work-around to that horror. He broke his marriage vows. He lied. He failed in his responsibilities. He…”

Meghan could see that Jessica was working herself up, and the list of betrayals and emotion was only going to grow. She hadn’t begun to process any of it, but she and Jessica had always relied on logic, although Jessica had always had the bigger heart, but a more trusting nature. She believed people would and should always do the right thing. Behave according to her expectations. Meghan had always been the skeptic, and yeah, more than a touch of judgy.

She got up and hugged her sister. “I know,” she said softly. “I know.” She pulled away so she could see her sister’s face. “But we don’t know the whole story, and I don’t think that should be our focus. Our focus should be on supporting Chloe—what she feels and what she wants.

“Yes, but our daddy cheated. And he never once embraced his own child. His own flesh and blood.” Jessica’s voice grew raw and thick with unshed tears.

It had always bothered them that their father had been so aloof with Chloe, but they thought they understood—she’d been abandoned, another one of his do-gooder mother’s charity cases. But now it appeared far more sinister.

“Jessie, people are flawed,” Meghan reminded her. “Our father was in a difficult situation. He was married to a woman he loved. He was a very public, community-oriented, respected man with three daughters. We don’t know his story. Maybe one day we can sit down with him and Mom and talk about it.”

Jessica’s eyes were huge at that idea. “I don’t know if I can,” she whispered. “I don’t know if I can look him in the face ever again.”

She gently nudged Jessica back on the couch and stood before her, tea in one hand, wine in the other.

“There’s always a choice,” she said. “You may feel like you can’t face our father now, but you will at some point. We all will.”

Chapter Eleven

Four days later,the three sisters still hadn’t managed to sync up their schedules enough to sit down with Chloe. Meghan was sure that none of them were emotionally ready. They hadn’t even texted or called each other—likely a sign of guilt. Chloe had always felt a little out of the loop as the youngest, and as they’d gotten older, each of them had made more of an effort to include her in group texts, chats and weekends away.

When was the last time any of them had done that?

But life since Meghan had quit her high-powered legal career with its lure of constant travel seemed busier. She was gaining new clients at the small Belmont practice, still refreshing herself on family law, while wrapping up a few cases at her former firm. She was starting to get a feel for what consulting looked like, and she liked it. Her former boss kept offering more money for more work, and old habits were hard to break. Yes, she wanted a personal life, but having money to invest in Jessica’s nursery and her own side hustle was tempting.

“I am still my father’s daughter,” she said wryly in the mirror at the end of day.

Jessica was already at work tending plants as the sun rose. Storm usually met her there to help with plant care. Meghan too rose early—she always had, but instead of taking a run, she would jog out to the strawberries, harvest any ripe fruit, and if it was a work-at-home day or a late start, she’d usually make a batch of jam. The blueberries were beginning to ripen, and she’d found a wonderful blueberry sauce and jam recipe in theSouthern Love Spellsbook.

She returned to the house and washed the fruit and laid it out to dry, thinking about Jackson. Should she try another recipe? Jackson had dared her. Maybe she and Sarah could make the sauce or the jam or both, and she could finagle Sarah to give a jar or two to the professor and she could take one over to Jackson—maybe when she borrowed Whiskey for her operation little girl-dog love.

She felt a rush of excitement that seemed so girly, but why not? Jackson had said the ball was in her court. She’d always been aggressive in her career. Why not go for something for herself? Jackson was hot, funny, sexy, smart, kind, and into her. Plus, her sisters liked him. What else could a woman want?

She readied herself to go into the office. She didn’t have to today, but she found she didn’t yet enjoy doing legal work at home as much as she’d hoped, at least not yet. She liked the small-office vibe. Her colleagues Elise and Rosalie. The locals who stopped in to chat, drop off something from their garden, ask a quick question and end up gossiping for ten minutes. And, of course, she loved doing coffee runs, and walking by the fire station, hoping Jackson would be working outside on the equipment or training.

She admitted to herself that that was one of the main perks of her career switch-up.

“You got it bad, girl,” she whispered.

And she was starting not to care.

She headed to work, already thinking about after work, picking up Whiskey for a walk around the park hoping to see Sage and her daddy—and make a better impression than she had at the farm’s opening. Hopefully, Jackson would be free a night this week and they could practice a pickling recipe—along with other things.

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