Joanna, it’s gorgeous. You know, I wish you’d make that dress for me. It’d be perfect for the holidays. Zach and I have several parties, and I’d love to have that dress for at least one of them.”
Joanna sat up. “Really? You’re serious?”
“Never more. I absolutely love it.”
“I’d love to make it for you. How soon would you need it?”
“Middle of November. Is that doable?”
“I’ll make it doable.”
“So, how’d the party go last night?”
Joanna sighed. “It was nice.”
“You don’t sound sure.”
“No, it really was. The boys gave me an iPad. And my mom knitted me the most beautiful cashmere shawl.” Joanna’s mother had recently bought out her longtime employer, and now was the proud owner of a small yarn shop.
“Red?”
Joanna laughed. “Yes, red.”
“Your mother never stops trying, does she?”
Georgie was referring to the fact that Joanna preferred to wear black. Even today her jeans were black, as was her sweater.
“She keeps thinking she’ll change me,” Joanna said.
“Just like my mom,” Georgie said.
Joanna refrained from saying what she was thinking, that Georgie had changed, that Cornelia Fairchild Hunt, Georgie’s mother, had been right all along, whereas she, Joanna, was never going to be other than who she was, no matter who might prefer her to be different.
“So, are you feeling any better about the big three-oh now?” Georgie asked.
“Yeah, I’ve decided I’m fine with being thirty.” Yet even as she said it, Joanna knew her earlier pep talk to herself had begun to wear off. “I just wish I had more to look forward to,” she added in a burst of honesty. This was not something she would have admitted to anyone other than Georgie.
“Oh, stop that. You have your whole life to look forward to.”
“Said by a woman who’s already got a fantastic career, not to mention a real, live Prince Charming.” Joanna hated the tinge of envy in her voice, because she was genuinely happy for her best friend. Zach Prince was perfect for Georgie, and Joanna had loved him the moment she’d met him.
“You’re going to have a fabulous career, and it’ll be much more exciting than mine,” Georgie said. “And as far as that perfect guy goes, it’s going to happen for you, too, and probably when you least expect it. I know I certainly didn’t expect it.”
“Yeah, yeah, I’m sure you’re right. Don’t pay any attention to me. I guess I’m just tired right now. And discouraged.”
“Did you go to Pacific Savings like I suggested?” Georgie asked.
“I went yesterday on my lunch hour. And I chalked up my fifteenth ‘no’ in as many days.”
Georgie fell silent for a moment. Then she said, “Maybe I could get Harry to call Pacific Savings.”
“No! Don’t you dare ask him to call them.” Joanna might be temporarily discouraged, but she had pride. Harry Hunt, the billionaire Seattle legend who had recently married Georgie’s mother, didn’t even know her. Well, he might know who she was, and that she was Georgie’s friend, but otherwise, she was a stranger to him. If Joanna wouldn’t even ask her own father for help, she certainly wasn’t going to go begging to Harry Hunt!
“Harry wouldn’t mind,” Georgie said.
“Maybe not. But I mind.”
“You’re so stubborn. Everyone needs a little help sometimes.”
“Spoken by the woman who would have strangled anyone who tried to help her in the past.”
There was silence for a moment. Then Georgie said, “What will you do?”
Joanna grimaced. “I really don’t have a choice.”
“You’ll keep working for Chick?”
“I don’t want to, but I also don’t want to try to find another job, either. I mean, how many part-time jobs can there be that pay as well as mine?”
“I don’t want you to keep working for Chick, either,” Georgie said fiercely. “He’s a total jerk.”
“I realize that now. I seem to attract that kind of person. In lovers and in bosses.” Joanna was grateful Georgie was a good enough friend she never rubbed Joanna’s nose in the fact that she’d warned her against getting involved with both Chick and Ivan Klemenko—a designer she’d done some work for who’d stolen her ideas and passed them off as his own—from day one. And Joanna, as usual, had willfully gone her own way...and paid the price. She sighed heavily. What was done was done. And nothing was going to change the past now. “Look, that’s enough about me. Let’s talk about you for a change.”
For the next ten minutes, Georgie filled Joanna in on the doings in the Prince household. Finally, when Joanna was about to say she’d better get back to work, Georgie said, “I have something else to tell you. But you have to promise you won’t laugh.”
“Laugh? Why would I laugh? What have you done now?”
“Well, after all the years I’ve said I didn’t want children...” Georgie’s voice trailed off.
It took a few seconds for the import of Georgie’s statement to sink in. Then Joanna squealed. “Georgie! Are you pregnant? I don’t believe it!”
Georgie laughed, the sound filled with joy. “I know. I don’t believe it, either.”
“Oh, Georgie, that’s wonderful.” Joanna told herself she was not jealous. She did not begrudge this to her friend. “How...how far along are you?” Georgie and Zach had been married in April.
“A little over three months. I went to the doctor yesterday.”
“Wow.”
“Yes. Wow.”
“You’re happy, aren’t you?”
“Oh, Joanna, I’m so happy I can’t believe it. We haven’t told anyone yet except my mom, not even the children.” Zach had three children from his previous marriage. The youngest, Emma, was just four. The oldest, Katie, was eleven. Remembering how unhappy Katie had been at first, before Georgie had won her over, Joanna said, “What do you think Katie will say?”
“I don’t know. I’m a little worried, to tell you the truth.”
“I’ll bet she’ll be fine. Most girls love having a little sister.”
“Except she already has a little
