“Come back,” he said. “Your old position is yours, with full benefits, back pay, a raise, and new staff now that Jeanine is gone. You’d be back coordinating luxury events at all of our East Coast properties, doing what you do best.”
Tessa felt like she’d been doused in cold water. Or…a backup plan.
“I—” She shook her head, pressing her fingers to her temple. “Gerry, I don’t know what to say.”
“Just think about it,” he said. “This is where you belong. Our events have prestige and run smoothly because your capable hands were on the project.”
Oh, please. Her capable hands were cut off at the knuckles the minute someone in power decided she should take the fall.
“This could offer you a lot of stability,” he said. “And you know I’m retiring in two years, so…”
So she could have his job?
She squeezed her eyes shut and when she opened them, she looked right out at the horizon, the snow-white sands, and the jade and turquoise water that shimmered with…magic. Not stability and not a future. Just…magic.
“I’ll think about it,” she said finally. “I have a lot going on right now.”
“Of course. Take your time. Talk soon, Tessa.”
“Sure.”
She hung up and stared at her phone, then back out to that beautiful vista. It would hurt to give it up.
“Tessa! Look! Look what I did!”
It would hurt to give up Figsworth, too.
On a sigh, she pushed up and walked back into the house, bracing herself. She expected Nolie to have given up, wiped the board clean, and drawn stick flowers—her go-to response when the math got too…mathy.
She stopped dead in her tracks at the neat circles, the tiny Hs representing chairs, and—best of all—the numbers next to each circle—7, 6, 3, 8, 5, 6, and 5.
Which added up to…she had to use a few fingers but, it was indeedforty.
“That table is a little crowded,” Nolie said, pointing to the eight. “But I thought that’s where we’d sit with my mommy and daddy, right up front. And you and Lacey and Uncle Eli and Aunt Vivien, and Jonah. I made a list…here. It’s eight, but I’m small. And if that’s too many, I’ll sit on my daddy’s lap when I’m not dancing.”
Tessa blinked, everything blurring through tears. “I’d say…you understand the concept.”
Nolie smiled. “I just needed to think a little, but I did it.”
“Youdidit!” Tessa swooped in and scooped Nolie up, twirling her around while the little girl giggled. “And you nailed it!”
She set her down and looked again at the white board, pride swelling in her chest.
Nolie bounced on her toes. “Can I dance now?”
“Like you’re carried by the wind, Figsworth.”
Nolie pirouetted away and Tessa stared at the circles, momentarily forgetting about Gerry and his job offer, which, of course, she had to consider. But right now, these circles and numbers and that spinning top of a child were all that mattered.
July 24, 1990
I have got to start standing up for myself.
I say that a lot, don’t I? I should make a sign and tape it to my back. You know, the one that doesn’t have a spine. But today was yet another example of how I, Vivien Lawson, am a complete and total doormat. Not even a fancy, welcome-to-our-beach-house kind of doormat. Just a plain old brown one that gets stepped on every single day.
Let me explain.
Today was the worst and it’s all because I am too nice.
