Page 99 of The Summer We Mended
Jess shrugged.“It’s okay.I mean… it’s not.It’s hard.But I expected it to be.”
Lily turned to really look at her.The fine, tired lines.The muted determination.
Jess had always been crisp, magnetic, running her old firm like a force of nature.Since the divorce and losing the business, that magnetism had dimmed, but the core of her was still there.Strong.Stubborn.
“You’ve had a heck of a year,” Lily said gently.
Jess looked down at the turkey slices.“Yeah.I have.”
Anna leaned in.“You want to talk about it?”
Jess was quiet for a second, then let out a breath.“It’s been like… the slow unraveling of everything I thought I built.First, the marriage.Then the firm.You know what’s wild?I don’t even miss him, not really.I miss the version of me that thought the future was secure.That thought that I’d earned safety.”
Anna reached over, touching Jess’s wrist.“You did earn it.Life just…”
“Doesn’t care,” Jess finished, smiling faintly.“Yeah.”
The twins’ laughter floated in from the backyard.A thud, followed by Blaze shouting, “That didn’t even hurt!”
Lily smiled, but her gaze stayed on Jess.
“I miss the firm,” Jess admitted.“I miss waking up with a full schedule.I miss having goals that stretched farther than just next month’s bills.Right now, I feel like I’m in this fog of… figuring it out.Reinventing.Surviving.”
“That’s not a small thing,” Anna said.
Jess shrugged.“Some days I believe I’m doing okay.Other days I worry I’ve peaked.That I lost the only version of me that worked.”
The silence after that was gentle, filled with kitchen sounds, bread on a cutting board, the hum of the fridge, the twins’ voices outside.Lily stirred a bowl of homemade vinaigrette and turned back to Jess.
“What would you do,” she asked slowly, “if you could start fresh?Not rebuild the old life.Build a new one.”
Jess looked thoughtful, then smiled softly.“I’d help people tell their stories.Real ones.Honest ones.Small businesses, artists.I’d create strategies for them to actually grow, not just go viral.Something meaningful.”
Lily nodded, heart starting to tick faster.
She’d been thinking about her own next steps, too.The studio classes had lit something up inside her again.Saturday mornings were no longer enough.She wanted more clay under her nails.More of the laughter, the mess, the warmth of that space alive with people.
She wanted to do something with it, and she needed help.
“What if I hired you?”Lily said.
Jess blinked.“Hired me?”
“Yeah,” Lily said, pulling off her apron and facing her squarely.“To help with the studio’s social media.And maybe more, if it goes well.I want to get serious about expanding: more classes, weekday workshops, even maybe a gallery night.I need someone who knows how to make it visible.Someone who gets people and can help me build this.”
Jess didn’t speak at first.She looked stunned, like someone had offered her a lifeline in the middle of a storm.
“I’d pay you, obviously,” Lily added, unsure if she’d overstepped.
Jess shook her head slowly.“No, I mean, yes, of course.I just… I wasn’t expecting this.”
Anna grinned.“Say yes, Jess.”
Jess laughed under her breath.“How much are we talking?”
Lily hesitated.“What do you normally charge?”
Jess paused, then said, carefully, “I’d usually quote $800 a month for a small account.That includes strategy, content creation, analytics, and weekly consults.”
