“Okay, read me the list,” Kate said gloomily, and Jessie did.
“Is that it?” Jessie said. “We can fix this stuff.”
“No, there’s another one,” Kate said. “He doesn’t want to get married. And I do. I want it all. Commitment, rings, the church, the whole thing.”
“Okay,” Jessie said and wrote down, “7. He doesn’t want to get married.” She shoved the list across to Kate. “Piece of cake.”
Kate looked at her in disbelief. “Jessie, this is awful. What do you mean, piece of cake?”
“Well, you’re going to have to do some compromising,” Jessie said. “If the man doesn’t want a career, he doesn’t want a career.”
Kate frowned and said, “Maybe. What about the rest?”
Jessie pulled the list back and studied it. “Well, number one really is easy. He won’t call? You call him.”
“And sit and listen to his embarrassed silence on the other end? No.”
“Then go down and see him. It’s only a four-hour drive. You miss Nancy. Penny’s down there. It’s been a month. Go visit.”
“I don’t know…” Kate said.
“Do you want him or not?” Jessie snapped.
Kate thought about Jake, about how good it felt just to be with him, about how right she felt whenever he was around. “I want him,” she said.
“Great,” Jessie said. “Now number two. He thinks he might love you.” She looked up at Kate. “It’s been a month. He may know for sure by now.”
“Which is why he hasn’t called,” Kate said. “I hate this list.”
“Do you love him?” Jessie demanded.
Kate swallowed and said, “Yes.”
“Well, you haven’t called him, either,” Jessie said. “Silence does not necessarily indicate a lack of interest. He could just be as big a chicken about this as you are.”
“Chicken?” Kate said, but Jessie moved on down the list.
“Now, number three, he’s going to have to give in on. I mean, you either confront or manipulate. Personally, I favor confrontation.”
“I know,” Kate said. “That is abundantly clear to everyone who knows you.”
“So, go down there and confront him. Tell him you love him and you’re insisting on marriage.”
“And when he says, ‘I think I remember you, vaguely,’ I can just crawl under the nearest rock.”
“Stop it,” Jessie said. “You know damn well he remembers you more than vaguely. Now, number four.”
“I’m still not happy about numbers one, two, and three,” Kate said, but Jessie said, “Number four we’ve already decided you’re giving in on. If he doesn’t want a career, he doesn’t have to have one. Number five is really number seven so we’ll put that off. Number six-”
“I don’t remember the numbers anymore,” Kate said. “What was number five?”
“Number six is a career for you down there. That we can do if we just work on it,” Jessie said. “Look, you keep telling me how overworked this Will character is. And the place must be full of little craft shops and stuff like that run by people whose idea of bookkeeping is a legal pad under the register.”
“Jessie, none of those things is a full-time job,” Kate said.
“Not one of them, maybe,” Jessie said. “But maybe all of them are.”
“What?”
Jessie shrugged. “Do them all. Once people start to hear about you, they’ll come in from other places, too. All of that stuff together would keep you busy enough doing freelance consulting.” She sipped some coffee. “I also think you ought to buy into Nancy ’s bar. You need to have something to fix, and that could take years.”
“ Nancy doesn’t want to sell,” Kate said.
“She doesn’t want to sell all of it,” Jessie said. “You could talk her into half, expanding with the money you’d put in. You could convince her.”
“That wouldn’t be right,” Kate said. “It’s her bar. It wouldn’t be right for me to try-”
“It’s good for the bar. It’s good for Nancy. And it’s good for Toby’s Corners,” Jessie said flatly. “Stop being such a wimp. Do it.”
“Carl Avery of Woolf Technologies, line three,” Kate’s secretary said, and Kate groaned and picked up the line.
“Kate! Darling, how are you?”
“What do you want, Carl?” Kate said. “I’ve been talking to morons all morning. I have no patience left.”
“Well, then, I’ll get right to the point,” Carl said cheerily. “This dividend you wanted us to pay? Bad idea, Katie girl. Very bad. I’ll just pencil that out, what say?”
“Over my dead body,” Kate said, taking her pen back from Jessie. “Your stockholders are due a dividend. Pay it.”
“Kate.” Carl chuckled. “Kate, Kate, Kate.”
“Carl,” Kate said, tapping her pen hard against her desk, “pay it or I’ll put you on my SEC Christmas-gift list.”
“Kate,” he said with much less enthusiasm, “this is not good business. That’s what we pay your firm for- good business advice.”
“Carl,” Kate said, “what you want to do is morally repugnant and marginally illegal. This is good business advice.”
“I’ll talk to your father,” Carl said abruptly.
“Good idea,” Kate said. “Maybe he’ll send me to bed without my supper. Who do you think you’re kidding?”
But Carl had already hung up.
“I’m telling you,” Jessie said, “Toby’s Corners is full of Debbies. And no Vandenburgs except on the golf course. And no- Who was the moron on the phone?”
“Carl Avery,” Kate said. “A long-standing client and potential felon.”
“Well, there are no Carl Averys in Toby’s Corners, either.” Jessie finished her fritter and licked the sugar off her fingers. “You could help little businesses and make Nancy ’s bar famous-”
“Maybe Nancy doesn’t want a famous bar,” Kate said.
“Well, she’s going to get one. Which brings us to number seven,” Jessie said. “Marriage and commitment.”
“Ouch. That is the big one,” Kate said, wincing. “Are you sure we solved one through six?”
“Shut up,” Jessie said. “You’re going to have to propose.”
“No,” Kate said.
“Yes,” Jessie said. “If you want something in life, you have to go after it If Jake is allergic to marriage, you’re just going to have to make the first move.”
“He’ll say no,” Kate said. “You don’t know Jake.”
“No, but I know you,” Jessie said. “And no man in his right mind would say no to you.”
“Jake’s not in his right mind.”
“He loves you.”
“Maybe,” she said, and Jessie groaned.
“Look,” she said. “This is your choice. Are you going to choose to be happy with Jake and Nancy and Penny down south, or miserable with Vandenburg, Avery, and Whatsis up here?”
“Well, if I stay up here I have you, too,” Kate pointed out.
“No, you don’t,” Jessie said. “If you walk away from this, I’m never speaking to you again.”
“Let me see that list again,” Kate said, and Jessie handed it to her. Kate brushed the fritter sugar off it and studied it. It was a lousy list, but it was doable. “All right,” she said. “I’ll do it.”
Jessie shoved the phone toward her so fast it almost skidded off the desk. “Call Nancy. Buy into that bar.”
“Now?”
“Of course, now,” Jessie said. “Let the company pay for the call. Do it.”
Kate froze, staring at the phone. “Just like that. Change my whole life, just like that.”
“Yeah, just like that. What the hell.” Jessie looked at Kate closely. “You look strange. Are you okay?”
“I’m terrified,” Kate said. “I don’t think this-”
“Don’t be dumb,” Jessie said. “This will be a piece of cake. Trust me. Call Nancy.” Jessie picked up Kate’s fritter and waved it at the phone before she bit into it. “I’m telling you, call Nancy.”
Kate thought for a moment, picked up the phone, and began to dial. She bit her lip while the phone rang, and then said brightly, “ Nancy?”
“Kate? At last,” Nancy said. “I’ve been calling and calling.”
“You have?” Kate said. “My secretary didn’t-”
“We didn’t have your business number. I’ve been calling you at home for the past two days. You have at least five messages on your machine. Don’t you ever go home?”