From Bags to Riches. Sandra D. Bricker
her into Danny’s arms the instant the gavel rapped for the last time.
“I wonder what the Suit would do if I went over there and kissed him right on the mouth,” she exclaimed in his ear as he held her. But when her eyes landed elsewhere, Jessie gasped. “Oh, I have to thank Courtney.”
And with that, she flew out of Danny’s arms, stopping to hug Amber and Charlotte on her way toward Courtney.
“Today,” she heard Piper softly exclaim to Danny as she moved away. “Not tomorrow or next week, okay? To-day.” But elation kept Jessie from stopping to ask what she meant.
Chapter 1
1
Jessie hummed along with James Taylor as Danny drove along in silence. She glanced over at him and smiled. She loved the way he always removed the elastic band from around the gear shift and pulled his shaggy, long hair back into a ponytail before they set out anywhere in his open Jeep . . . and the way he always reached into the box behind the driver’s seat and produced a cloth band for her hair. Even the music serenading their drive embraced her with a comfortable, predictable lull. She’d had so much instability in her life that the calculability of Danny’s behavior had become a welcome warm blanket on a chilly night.
“Hey,” she said suddenly as a thought struck her, a memory of her best friend speaking to Danny in a whisper. “What was Piper talking about?”
Danny’s dimples deepened as he grinned. “What do you mean?”
“Before we left the courthouse. She told you something like, ‘Today. Not tomorrow, but today.’ What did she mean? And where are we going, by the way?”
“To celebrate,” he stated. “You have just been set free from a barnacle by the name of Jack Stanton. You’re free. Your store can reopen, and you can write your name with confidence again. You, my friend, are Jessie Hart.”
Not that she’d ever actually been Jessie Stanton, but for a dozen years or so, she’d been duped into believing it while living in a world of utter make-believe, a world Jack had fabricated for the benefit of just about everyone he knew—including her, his fairy tale wife. Instead, Jack had been a handsome cancer making his silent and diabolical way into every available cell of her life, conning her into believing their world—his business, the home they made, and the dreams they’d been dreaming—had been built on a solid foundation of rock. But when the sand was discovered, that life crumbled so quickly she’d barely had time to escape with anything more than the clothes in her closet and the rock on her hand—both of which became the stuff new foundations were made of. In her case, Jessie’s non-sand bedrock came from the sale of nearly four carats of perfect Neil Lane clarity dropped into a platinum setting, and the proceeds had funded a marginally acceptable apartment. Combined with the designer labels left behind in her closet, the infrastructure of her brand-new life had been built: Adornments. Designer labels for rent to wannabes with champagne dreams living on ginger ale budgets.
“Hey, wait a minute,” she blurted as she noticed the familiar surroundings. “Where are we, exactly?”
“Somewhere we can celebrate.”
“But where?”
She hadn’t meant to let him off the other hook about Piper’s comments at the courthouse, but new curiosity trumped old.
“Oh, wait a minute,” she remarked. “Isn’t this the beach where we parked our Jet Ski that day we went boating with Steph and Vince?”
Danny lifted one shoulder in a partial shrug that revealed nothing.
“Danny?”
He parked and shot her a quick smile before hopping out of the Jeep. “Let’s go for a walk.” He’d made the same suggestion the afternoon they parked their Jet Ski in the sand.
Jessie stepped out of her shoes and looped them over two fingers before quickly following his lead. As they headed across the shoreline, her memory confirmed the first—and only—time they’d strolled this particular beach together. And she remembered it now like it just happened the Tuesday prior.
Danny had taught her all about tide pools that day, and the sea life surrounding them. And then he’d kissed her half senseless. He’d kissed her in a way that washed away all of her fears and insecurities about making another mistake. At least in that one enchanted, extraordinary moment Jessie’s doubts had drifted away.
“I haven’t been kissed in such a long time before you,” she’d admitted to him. “In fact, I’m not sure I’ve ever been kissed the way you kiss me.”
She could almost feel his fingers tangled into her hair again as she walked with him across the sand now.
“Again, Danny,” she’d muttered to him then. “Kiss me again.”
“What are you grinning about?” he asked, dragging her back to the moment so rapidly that she nearly heard the thud.
“Just remembering the last time we were here.” She slipped her hand into his. “That was such a special day.”
“What was so special about it?” he prodded in a playful tone.
Jessie smacked his arm, and laughter spouted out of him.
“Something happened to me that day that had never happened before,” she said as seriously as she could manage. “Don’t you remember?”
“Oh, I remember.”
“Good. Because a girl doesn’t see her first tide pool every day. I’ve never forgotten that moment.”
Danny deflated slightly, so she poked his side with her elbow.
“And then, of course, there was that kiss.”
He shot her a sideways glance. “Oh, did we kiss that day?”
Danny led her with caution as they climbed to the ledge of flat rock where they’d perched that afternoon. A lifetime ago, and yet just a moment ago. He helped Jessie settle into place before sitting beside her.
She leaned forward, inspecting the foamy surf below. “No sign of the tide pool,” she commented. “I guess they float away?”
“The tide’s just higher than it was that day.”
“Oh. Do you think—”
His warm touch on her arm stopped her words in midair between them, and she jerked her head toward him. Without a word, he lifted her hand to his face, kissing her knuckles tenderly.
A warm, unexpected grin wound its way upward and she asked, “What was that for?”
“For love’s sake,” he replied.
Jessie giggled. “You love me?”
“Is that really a question?”
She shrugged before leaning forward and giving him a sweet little kiss. “No. I guess not.”
“Good,” he said, “because I have a question for you now.”
“Okey dokey.”
He reached into the pocket of his jeans and produced his cell phone. “Hold this?”
“Sure.”
He placed it into her hand before digging back into the pocket again. This time, he came up with keys, a few random coins, and the stub from the parking spot. “These, too,” he said, placing them into her open hands in one lump.
“Umm, okay.” With a clumsy chuckle, he dug into his other pocket, and Jessie cocked a brow. “What on earth are you looking for?”
Danny smiled as he produced a small black velvet box and displayed it in his open palm.
“What’s that?” she asked him.
“Well, here,” he said. “First . . .”
Leaving Jessie with a glaze of