about her business interactions with Royce had felt wrong.
Fortunately Dominic opened the door of the house before she had to respond to Royce. The photographer’s enthusiastic bear hug covered a lot of her strain and helped her regain her equilibrium. She’d worked with Dominic a lot over the last few years. His sheer size made clients think twice about hiring him—he looked more like a bouncer at a bar than an artist—until they saw his portfolio.
He had an ability to showcase emotion in an image that was sheer genius.
His handshake with Royce was firm but not a masculine attempt to dominate. He held the door open for them to enter the historic slate-gray and white Victorian cottage that served as his office, as well as the home that he shared with his partner, Greg.
“I’m so sorry that I was late,” Jasmine said, taking a deep breath and noticing the intoxicating scent of baking cookies.
“No problem,” Dominic said, always easygoing. In all the time she’d known him, she’d never seen him angry, even when dealing with some pretty demanding clients.
“Dang, Greg must be cooking,” she teased. “I could gain weight just breathing.” Greg was a baker who created incredible cookies and meringues in the industrial kitchen at the back of the house.
“We try,” Dominic said with a wink before leading them into a nearby office. “He probably chose what to make the minute he knew you were coming over. A little sugar for our Sugar.”
“He knows me well.”
Just following Dominic deeper into the house helped Jasmine relax a little bit more. She’d never been the corporate office type. Her one venture into cubicle-land had convinced her it was the ninth circle of hell. Dominic’s office echoed her own, though they were two totally different styles. His was comfortable, with masculine elements of leather, grommets, wrought iron. Hers was everything fluffy and feathery. But both were designed to be lived in, played in.
Which just made the work more fun.
“So, tell me a little about what you’re aiming for,” Dominic said, leading them to a round table in one corner.
“That would be Jasmine’s department,” Royce said as he held out a chair for her.
Royce might be all business, but his mama had obviously made sure he was a gentleman.
Dominic tossed Jasmine a brief glance, but she could read a wealth of questions in the look. Like, what was this guy doing here if he wasn’t doing the talking? But she didn’t want to get into that right now.
“We’re planning a masquerade event,” she said.
The light in Dominic’s eyes told her he was on board already.
“But we don’t want just your traditional ball,” she added. “We’re also looking for other options for entertainment. I was thinking about that photo booth you set up for St. Anne’s.”
“A photo booth?” Royce asked, the doubt clear in his tone.
“Oh, it isn’t your normal photo booth,” Jasmine assured him.
Dominic eagerly reached for one of the large photo albums on the table. “Check it out.”
He turned the pages slowly, giving them a chance to study the various options. “We created a background unique to the event and brought in props for the guests to use.” He pointed to a group of people in a rowboat in front of a mural of a lake with a decorative bridge over it.
“I was thinking a mysterious castle,” Jasmine offered.
The men batted ideas around for a minute. Against her hip, Jasmine felt her phone buzz. Since her family knew she didn’t answer during meetings, she assumed it was a client and ignored it for the moment. When the buzzing started again after a few minutes, she stiffened, all her earlier tension returning.
Trying to brush it aside, she tossed out some more ideas. But the third buzz was her undoing. Slipping the phone from her pocket, she glanced at the screen. Two missed phone calls and a text from her sister Ivy.
911
She looked up to find both men watching her. Her smile was probably strained but she offered it anyway as she stood. “If you could excuse me just a moment, gentlemen?”
“Nothing wrong with that beautiful baby, I hope?” Dominic asked.
Seeing Royce’s back straighten both unnerved her and ticked her off. “I certainly hope not,” she said, unhappy with the quaver that had entered her voice.
But she wasn’t backing down. She didn’t know what his beef was with single mothers and families, but it wasn’t her problem. There was no denying she wasn’t a perfect mother. She had no delusions about that. The learning curve of the last six months had been steep. Still, she’d go above and beyond for Rosie and the rest of her family.
Family was the one thing that came before her clients, regardless of what they thought.
As she stepped back out to the porch, she prayed it was something like another stalled car or a burst water pipe. Things were replaceable. People weren’t. Now that Rosie was a part of their lives, she simply couldn’t imagine it any other way.
“Ivy?” she asked as her youngest sister answered the phone. “What’s wrong?”
“I need you quick,” Ivy said, her voice trembling and breathless. “I’m at Savannah General.”
Jasmine’s heart thudded in her ears, cutting off Ivy’s voice. The hospital? So much for her day getting easier.
Royce watched Jasmine disappear out the door with her phone and was surprised at his personal concern. Ordinarily, he would have been put out. He didn’t have a problem with his employees dealing with life, as long as they did it on their own time. Normally he’d be formulating a few admonishing words after she’d kept him waiting this morning and then stepped out of a business meeting to handle what was obviously a personal call.
Instead, he sat here wondering what was wrong.
He turned back to find Dominic staring at the door with a frown on his face. The lines between his eyebrows said he was worried, too, but his expression turned more neutral when he caught Royce’s look.
“Would you like to go over a few portfolios while we wait?” he asked, his voice calm even though he seemed to have other things on his mind.
Eager for a distraction, Royce gave a quick nod. Besides, they were here on business. He needed to focus.
Dominic was quick thinking and smart, which gave him a leg up in Royce’s book. He pulled out examples of things he thought might work from the limited knowledge he had of their plans. Royce was impressed. He kept looking through one of the books while they discussed some photo booth ideas. Still, the whole time, his brain was ticking off the minutes that Jasmine had been gone.
What was going on? Did she need help?
As
