“Do you think you have time for one more project?” Hutchinson asked.
“I’m sorry?” Amy stopped fiddling with the express packet. “I didn’t quite hear you.”
“I was asking if you had any time in your schedule to handle a job for Enterprise?”
She should be saying something. Something professional. But she couldn’t, for fear that the only sound she could emit at the moment was a victory cry. Hutchinson had been less than supportive of her career change. He’d come right out and predicted she’d fail, sounding too much at that moment like her ex-husband. And now he was offering her business?
“I don’t think that’s going to be possible, Phillip,” she responded, not even batting an eye before using his first name. “I have a very busy schedule right now, and I’m paying careful attention to how I balance my work hours with my family time.”
“Yes, I imagined you would.” The man knew she was a newlywed. He’d sent her and Josh a wedding gift. “But I thought this one project might tempt you, and we could really use your help.”
He needed her help?
“Ah.” It dawned on her finally what they were talking about. “The Kramer project must be in a bind. What, did Thomas get in over his head?”
Jacquie kept her updated on Enterprise office gossip, particularly on how Thomas was trying to fill Amy’s shoes since she left.
“No, actually…” Hutchinson cleared his throat. “He’s taken a job with a firm out of New York. And all my other project managers are tied up with their own clients. I need a point person to work with Jed Westing on the implementation, and…well, you did such a fine job for us bringing Kramer Industries on board. I thought perhaps—”
“I’m going to have think about it,” she said. It shouldn’t have felt so satisfying to finally be in a position to make the man wait. “Why don’t I give you a call on Monday?”
“All right,” Hutchinson agreed. “Monday, then.”
He didn’t seem at all pleased at being put off, but it didn’t sound as if he had much of a choice, either. Thomas’s departure must have really left them in a pinch.
She and Hutchinson said their goodbyes, and Amy thoughtfully hung up the phone.
Something rankled at the idea of going back to do freelance work with Enterprise, after the way Hutchinson had dismissed her when she’d resigned. But she couldn’t help but feel a professional responsibility toward the people she’d worked with at Kramer Industries. She’d talk with Josh and get his input before making a final decision. His support and insight had been hers for the asking every day of the last six months. It was second nature now to turn to him for his opinion, something she’d never have dared to do with Richard.
And thanks to her husband’s help, she was having so much fun with her new company it should be against the law, considering that she did most of her work via phone and email. Of course, she made the occasional overnight trip to meet with a client in person, with Josh staying behind in Sweetbrook keeping their family running smoothly until she could hurry back to them.
Their family.
Becky and Daniel were thriving, though they still managed to get on each other’s nerves without trying very hard. Just like a real brother and sister, which they would legally become in a few months when Josh and Amy’s petitions for adoption were formally granted.
And her and Josh’s love for each other grew stronger with each passing day, just as he’d promised. They had married four weeks after she’d moved back to Sweetbrook for good. In a private ceremony here at the White mansion. With just Gwen and a few close friends present, they’d pledged their love and their lives to one another. Becky had been Amy’s maid of honor, and Daniel Josh’s best man, completing the circle of family they were creating.
The sound of a school bus stopping outside pulled Amy from her memories. She usually met the kids at the bottom of the long driveway that stretched from the house to the street. Today, she was only halfway down when they came bounding toward her at a sprint.
“Mom,” Becky called. “It’s the coolest thing.”
“We’re studying Washington, D.C. in class,” Daniel chimed in. “And when Mrs. Lathem started talking about the different monuments, she asked Becky and me about our trip this summer.”
Once school had let out in June, Amy, Josh and the kids had taken their first family vacation. Piling into the Range Rover, they’d driven up the coast to D.C., Philadelphia and New York. They’d stopped at every tourist site along the way, some of them even educational, at Josh’s insistence. It had been a blast. But no matter how much fun they’d had, they each had been thrilled to return to Sweetbrook. Amy most of all.
Now, both kids were beaming in excitement about their latest school project. Josh had made sure they were placed in the same class again when school started up in September. They’d supported each other through so many rough times, it didn’t seem right to separate them now that things were starting to settle down.
Becky’s ADD was a daily challenge still, but she was making great strides. Daniel still fell into bouts of melancholy after all he’d endured, but he continued to meet with Dr. Rhodes twice a month. And Becky seemed to be the one most capable of helping him. She always found a way to tease Daniel, until he was too annoyed to be quite so moody anymore.
“Mrs. Lathem said we could bring whatever souvenirs we wanted to class, to show the rest of the kids,” Becky said.
“That’s great, you guys.” Amy wrapped an arm around their shoulders as they headed for the house. “Why don’t you go look through the pile of things we brought back? Daniel, didn’t you end up buying that fake replica of George Washington’s wooden teeth?”
“Cool!” Daniel shouted as he sprinted away.
“Ew!” Becky said, trailing after him. “Boys are so gross.”
Amy chuckled as she entered the house she’d been only a guest in for most of her life. She closed the front door and shut out the world beyond, and a sense of belonging filled her. This was her home now, hers and her husband’s. Where she and Josh would raise their kids and one day baby-sit their grandchildren.
She retraced her steps to the office Josh had had custom-built for her, and lovingly caressed the mahogany desk he’d insisted she should have, even though it cost more than she would ever have spent on office furniture herself. He loved spoiling her, he’d said. To which she’d assured him that all the spoiling she’d ever need was waking up next to him each morning.
Gazing again at their smiling faces in the picture from their wedding, awed by the host of blessings filling her life, and the fact that she was finally starting to believe they were for real, Amy picked up the phone and dialed her husband’s cell number.
“Hey, baby,” he said warmly. “I’m just packing up to head home.”
Home.
That’s what this amazing man and their kids would always be for Amy. The home she’d been gifted with, just when she was convinced happiness was something she didn’t dare reach for again. Her life was so full of love these days, she found herself fighting back tears at the oddest moments. Like now.
“Amy, you okay?” Josh asked, all teasing gone from his voice.
“I am now.”
He’d been so patient as she worked through her memories of the past that had brought her to him. She liked to think of her first marriage that way now—because if it hadn’t been for her desperation to be rid of Richard and to find help for Becky, she might never have returned to Sweetbrook and been reunited
with her best friend.
“How was your day?” her husband asked. “Make enough money so I can retire and let you support me in the way in which I’d like to become accustomed?”
She laughed at their running joke. He’d encouraged her to keep working, if that’s what she wanted to do. They’d talked for hours about how she could mesh the career she still wanted with her equally strong desire to be the wife and mother her husband and kids needed. Josh had wanted whatever she wanted, as always, as long as it made her happy. As long as they were together.
“As a matter of fact,” she said, “I just received a very interesting call from a potentially lucrative client. You’re never going to guess who it was.”
And as her superlogical husband launched into deducing who she’d spoken with, Amy closed her eyes and lost herself in the sound of his voice. The sound of her future.
They were all due at her mother’s later for dinner, something they did every Friday night now. Then an entire Sweetbrook weekend stretched ahead of them. And while Amy had some work she needed to get done before Monday, she’d be fitting it in around her family over the next few days, rather than the other way around.
And that had been Josh’s greatest gift to her. He’d helped her believe that she really could follow her dreams, both the ones for their family and those for her career. Because she knew now without a doubt, no matter what happened, that he’d be there every step of the way. Dreaming with her. Loving her and their kids. And working through life, one day at a time, right alongside her.
* * * * *
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ISBN: 9781459234185
Copyright © 2012 by Anna DeStefano
Originally published as A FAMILY FOR DANIEL
Copyright © 2005 by Anna DeStefano
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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental. This edition published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.
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A Sweetbrook Family (You, Me & the Kids) Page 24
