Moonlight in the Morning Read online

  Jecca gave him a look that let him know she wasn’t through with him yet, then she opened the letter. A Mr. Henry Chambers, owner of six clothing brands, said that he had been thinking about starting a line of children’s clothes. His daughter lived in Richmond, where she had a tiny boutique of upscale women’s clothes—“all manufactured by me” Mr. Chambers wrote.

  She and my granddaughter were invited to the McDowell birthday party and she saw your fashion show.

  I’d like to talk to you about designing for me. You can call your line Nell’s Closet or the Achievers’ Club, whatever you want. My daughter says the name doesn’t matter because the clothes will sell themselves. That’s high praise from her.

  I live in upstate New York, so if you’re interested, give me a call and we can meet.

  Jecca read the letter twice before looking up at her father. “Is this for real?”

  “Lucy looked him up on the Internet, and he’s a big deal in the clothing industry. Nice young man about my age. Lucy spent hours telling me all about what you did to pull that show off, so I called him.”

  Jecca’s eyes started to grow misty at the memory of the happy days before the fashion show.

  “You can work anywhere,” Joe said, his eyes boring into her.

  She was reading the letter again. “You mean that I can set up shop in the big room off the hardware store.”

  “That’s my first choice, but if you . . .” Joe said and there was no laughter or teasing in his voice, just pure pleading. At last Jecca was hearing the groveling she’d wanted from him, his apology. “When I got your doctor to buy that building, I didn’t mean to—”

  She couldn’t bear to hear the rest of that sentence. She thought she’d wanted an apology, but she didn’t. All Joe Layton had wanted was to be near his daughter. To achieve that, he’d given up the store that had been his life. She clutched his hand, scarred from years of work,yeat=" hardened by steel and lumber. “It’s okay, Dad. Really. I understand why you did it. But . . .”

  “But that stupid boy ran away,” Joe said, and there was disgust in his voice. “You’d think that a man who could curse like that would have some courage, that he’d—”

  Jecca squeezed his hand. “It’s okay. I guess I didn’t mean as much to him as I thought I did. And it was all my fault.”

  “Humph!” Joe said. “Since when do women ever make up their own minds? You think I let Lucy call the shots? Hell no! I told her what it was going to be like and the only thing she was allowed to say was yes.”

  Jecca looked at her father’s eyes and saw pure terror. “You haven’t asked her yet, have you?”

  “Lord no!” he said and ran his hand over his face. “I’m scared to death.”

  “Dad, what do you say that I take today off from the gallery and you and I drive up to visit Mr. Chambers? And I think we should go see Joey and the kids too. He said he’s made some changes to the store.”

  “Don’t get me started on that!” Joe said as Jecca got up to get her cell phone. As he started complaining about what had been done to his store, the fear began to leave his eyes.

  Twenty

  “This just came by bike messenger for you,” Della said as she handed Jecca a heavy package.

  Jecca couldn’t help groaning. It looked like yet another artist had sent her a special delivery package of his work.

  It had been four days since she and her dad had gone to see Mr. Chambers, but she hadn’t told Della about it. Jecca knew it was an offer she couldn’t pass up. It wasn’t what she’d had in mind for her life, but it was creative, she knew she was good at it, and she would be able to make a living at it.

  “There’s a lot you’ll need to learn,” Mr. Chambers had said. “I don’t believe in designers living in high-rises and not knowing who sews the clothes. You’ll need to learn everything, from pattern cutting to buttons and trims,” he said. “All of it, from the ground up.”

  “Then she’ll need to be in New York?” her dad had asked, and his expression said it all. He wanted Jecca to return to Edilean with him. He’d changed his life to be near her, and now she was going to be staying in New York.

  Mr. Chambers looked from one to the other. “Give me three years, then you can live wherever you want. If these things sell, that is. It’s all based on that.”

  Jecca didn’t say much, just nodded. The more work, the better. She didn’t want time to think about Tristan and what she’d left behind. Her dad had asked Lucy about him on his nightly calls, but no one in Edilean—not even Mrs. Wingate—knew where he was or what he was doing.

  “Livie says Jecca broke Tristan’s heart and he’ll never recover,” Lucy told Joe.

  “Yeah, well, Jecca’s heart ain’t exactly healthy,” Joe had replied.

  Jecca had formally accepted Mr. Chambers’s offer twenty-four hours after the meeting, but she wanted to talk to Mr. Preston before telling anyone else. She wanted to keep the apartment and to tell him that even though Della was young, she could handle the gallery. Besides, Jecca had seen Della’s oils and they weren’t going to sell; she needed a job.

  Jecca had an appointment to see Mr. Preston tomorrow when he returned from some overseas trip, and after that she’d start her new job. She’d already spent hours sitting in Central Park and sketching ideas for clothes. Paris meets Edilean was what she was after. Small town America flavored with high fashion.

  The night after she talked to Mr. Chambers, Jecca knew the person she most wanted to talk to was Nell. She called her home number and was glad when Nell answered.

  Nell wasn’t happy. “You left me,” she said, her voice a mixture of anger and tears. “I thought we were together, but you and Uncle Tris left me.”

  It took Jecca a while to calm Nell down and reassure her that she hadn’t been left behind, at least not permanently. She told Nell about the job and how she’d be in New York for about three years. “Then Dad wants me to go live in Edilean. Have you met my father?”

  “Yeah,” Nell said, but her voice was dull, spiritless. “He doesn’t look like you.”

  “I take after my mother’s side of the family. Nell, I’ll come visit you as soon as I can. I promise.”

  Nell said nothing.

  “If your mother will let you, you can come here to New York and help me design clothes and buy fabric. How does that sound?”

  “Okay,” Nell said, but still without much enthusiasm. “Do you know where Uncle Tris is?” There was a hiccup in Nell’s voice, and Jecca winced. It was one thing for Tris not to contact Jecca, but it was deeply unkind of him to leave Nell!

  “No,” Jecca said softly, “I don’t.” If she didn’t change the subject, she’d start crying and that would make Nell cry, then . . . “I have to go,” Jecca said. “Think of things you’d like to wear and let me know.”

  “I will,” Nell said, but the sadness was still in her voice.

  When Jecca hung up, she cursed at Tristan. How could he do such a thing to Nell?

  Jecca opened the package that had just been delivered, but it wasn’t some would-be artist’s work, as she’d thought. Instead, inside was one of those art kits in a shiny wooden box.

  She couldn’t help but remember the last one she’d seen. Tristan had bought just such a set for Nell—and Jecca had let him know what she thought of it.

  Frowning at the memory of all that had happened since then, she set the big box on her desk and opened it. It was all colored pencils, a goodencv>

  It was a moment before she saw the business card stuck inside the lid.

  Dr. Tristan Aldredge

  Family Medicine

  480 Park Avenue

  New York, New York

  It listed his phone numbers.

  Jecca stood there for a full minute staring at the card, not understanding what she was seeing.

  “What do you think?” Della asked from the doorway. “I think he matted it wrong and this is the top.”

  Jecca didn’t answer, just kept staring at the card.