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"No, but--"

"I wish you well, but--"

"Do you?" I asked, cutting her off My hands shook as I walked over to the displayand securedclasses

"What’s that supposed to mean?"

I turned to face ood three inches taller thanat us noonder if anyone would guess ere related and yet ere small we resembled each other quite a bit

"I think you want me to fail," I said honestly

"That isn’t true! I ca because…because I’" Her chin went up a notch as if she was daring ain "How old are you? Twenty-nine, thirty?"

"Thirty"

"Isn’t it tis?"

That was blatantly unfair "I’ to do exactly that I left Mom’s house and I moved into the apartment upstairs I’ve started my own business, too, and I’d appreciate your support"

She turned her hands over to display her palms "Do you want me to buy yarn from you? Is that what you want? You know I don’t knit and have no desire to learn I much prefer to crochet And--"

"Just this once," I said, cutting her off a second ti to say?" I waited, silently pleading with her to search inside her heart for at least a token word of encouragearet She faltered for several seconds "You have a good eye for color," she finally said She gestured toward the display of yarn I’d arranged on the table by the door

"Thank you," I said, hoping to sound gracious I didn’t mention that I’d used a color wheel to create the display Hard as it was for Margaret to offer ive her an opportunity to withdraw it

Had we been closer, I would’ve told her the real reason I’d decided to open a yarn store This shop wasI had toconqueror who came ashore and burned his ships behind hio under

Asresponsibility for a future I couldn’t predict

The bell above the door chiain I had a customer! My first real custoe of words with her married son had distressed Jacqueline Donovan She’d honestly tried to keep her negative feelings regarding her daughter-in-law to herself But when Paul phoned to tell her Tanant, Jacqueline had lost her te up in , her husband had phoned soon afterward, asking her to drop off blueprints at the construction site on Blosso on her mind, she’d confessed what she’d said and now Reese was upset with her, too Truth be told, she didn’t ht, but Paul, her only child--now, that was a different story

Feeling anxious and depressed, Jacqueline drove down to the job site and wasted twentyspace Needless to say, the one she found was quite a distance down the street, across fro the blueprints, she picked her way through the constructionunder her breath Just leave it to Reese to screw up her entire day!

"You brought the drawings?" Her husband of thirty-three years walked out of the trailer to meet her as she neared the site Jacqueline stepped over steel tubes, trying not to dirty or daamo heels Her husband’s architectural firm, Donovan and Gray, was responsible for this renovation project Dressed in a Brooks Brothers suit and a hard hat, Reese was still a good-looking man at fifty-nine

Jacqueline handed him the all-important set of rolled-up prints It was unusual for Reese to ask anything of her, which suited her perfectly He set the prints inside the trailer and turned back to face her, standing just outside the door

"I’ her best toHe worked long hours and Jacqueline pretended to believe that all the time he spent away from home was business-related She knew otherwise So if he was tired, she certainly wasn’t going to sympathize

For the sake of Paul and their friends, Jacqueline and Reese e hadn’t been happy for a number of years Reese had his life and she had hers They hadn’t slept together since Paul left for college twelve years ago In fact, there was very little they shared except their love for their son

"So Ta her concern