He let out a gruff laugh. “Yeah. It sucked. She had to wait until she was eighteen before she could actually go to France and work as a designer, but they wanted four of her dresses. They told her they would easily bring in over twenty thousand and the demand for more of her work would be something they could see. After I calmed down, I told her I’d go with her. That when the time came, I’d move to France with her.”
“What?” I whispered. I was stunned. Beyond stunned. Here I wanted to knock the hell out of this kid this whole time and now he is sitting here saying he would have given up his own dreams so she could follow hers.
“Oh, Jackson. What did Kate say?” Ava asked.
“At first she said no. She took the contract and taped it behind a picture in the master bedroom.”
“That’s where we found it today,” Ava said.
Jackson looked stunned. “You found it? Today? How did you know to look there?”
Ava waved her hand and replied, “It’s kind of hard to explain, but we did find the contract. She hadn’t signed them though.”
Jackson wiped at his eyes again. “No. She didn’t because she said we needed to think things through. She wasn’t ready to let me walk away from my dreams and there was no way she would ever take the baby away from me. So, we decided we would decide in two days.”
The lump in my throat was growing. I needed a break. Standing, I quickly said, “I need a second. Excuse me.”
Turning, I quickly headed outside and dragged in one deep breath after another until if felt like I was able to breathe.
Dropping my head, I whispered, “Oh, Kate. My sweet sweet, Kate.”
JACKSON HAD EXCUSED himself right after Ryder did, except he went to the men’s restroom. I checked my phone and smiled when I saw I had a voice message from Renee. After listening to it, I hit her number.
“Bonjour.”
“Bonjour, Renee, It’s Ava Moore.”
“Ava! What in the hell! You have this whole damn office in an uproar right now, can I tell you that?”
I quickly peeked between the men’s room and the front door.
“Listen, I don’t have a lot of time to talk.”
“Well, you better make time. He wants to talk to you.”
My breath caught. “Does he remember Kate?”
“By the smile on his face, I’d say he does. He rattled off something about her young life ending too soon. My French is good, but when that man rattles that shit off fast I can barely understand him.”
“Yeah, I’ll have to catch you up on that.”
“Oh, Ava, there is one condition. He wants you to fly here … to Paris.”
Ryder walked back in through the front door.
“Holy flippin’ shit balls. Why? When?”
“What are you doing on the second week of February?”
My heart started racing. This is not happening. “Getting married in the Bahama’s.”
Renee busted out laughing. “Better make that Paris.”
“I gotta go. I’ll call you back in a few.”
“Don’t you dare show those designs to Maurice. Amour Des Lettres has first dibs!”
“Right. Later.”
I hit End and stood when Ryder walked up. “Sorry about that. It’s just all so much hearing this. Knowing my sister had this whole other world planned out that none of us knew about.”
Kissing his cheek, I replied, “I know. It had to have been so overwhelming for both of them.”
Jackson appeared before us and apologized. “I guess we both needed a moment.”
“I guess so,” Ryder said.
After they both ordered another drink, Jackson started back up where he left off. “The day Kate died, we left school early and hiked up River Mountain. We sat for a few hours and talked about what we both wanted. For me, there was only one option, and that was for Kate to follow her dreams. If she hadn’t, I would forever doubt her happiness. All I cared about was her and the baby. We had decided to tell your parents first and tell them about Amour Des Lettres offer to her. She was going to take it. We decided to stick with the plan of finishing high school, and then after we graduated, we’d move to France. She had called and spoke with some guy in France …”
I cleared my throat and softly said, “Michael Blancet?”
Looking at me with a surprised look, he replied, “Yeah. That’s the guy. She called and told him what our plan was and about the baby. He was more than understanding. So much so, I remember Kate saying she had to be dreaming. He agreed to wait, but he told her he wanted her designs. It was all coming together … or so we thought.”
His jaw began to tremble. “We agreed to meet at the stone house and then tell her parents. When I walked in she was … she …” He dropped his head while his body jerked with sobs. I quickly got up and went over to him.
My heart ached. It ached for Jackson and what he lost; it ached for Ryder’s family and what they lost, it ached for Kate and the future that she had that was taken from her. So many broken dreams. I was going to do everything in my power to give Kate those dreams. I could feel it in my heart she knew and she wanted this.
After Jackson regained his composure, I sat back down. My phone buzzed on the table. Ryder and Jackson were now talking about Jackson’s family. It gave me a chance to read the email that just came in.
“Oh my God.”
I wanted to kiss and kill Renee.
“Is everything okay?”
My head jerked up. Ryder was looking at me with a concerned expression. “Um … yes?”