Anything for You (Blue Heron #5)(108)

She waited for Marcy to finish congratulating herself on last weekend’s wedding. Jess had an idea to pitch—an exclusive foliage tour of the vineyard in October with a special dinner up at the Barn afterward. Very pricey, very exclusive, since the Hollands wouldn’t want dozens of people tramping through their fields and forests.

Finally, Marcy finished. “Okay,” Jess said. “I was—”

“Oh, and one more thing,” Marcy said. “I was thinking that we could totally get a foliage piece into New Jersey Lifestyle,” Marcy said. “Get people up from New Jersey, it’s like, hey, New Jersey, get off your ass and come on up, okay? We’ve got wine! We could put together this special tour of the vineyard for October, show off the trees, maybe do a dinner at the Barn. What does everyone think?”

How did she do that? How did she manage to scoop every idea Jess had had lately?

“And sure, foliage, who cares, everyone’s got it, but we here at Blue Heron have something a little special, don’t we? The Liberty maple.”

Jess’s skin prickled.

The Liberty maple. The tree Prudence had told her about, the one the first Holland had planted as a sign of his faith in the future.

The tree the Hollands didn’t talk about except to their best friends. She looked at Honor, who was frowning.

“Right?” Marcy went on. “I mean, who else has a two-hundred-and-thirty-year-old tree planted by their ancestor, the war hero? So we could do this special wine called Liberty maple muscadet or something, Liberty maple merlot, it really wouldn’t matter, and we could—”

“How do you know about that tree?” Honor asked.

Marcy stopped talking. “Excuse me?”

“How do you know about the Liberty maple?”

Holy crap. Jess’s mouth fell open. “You hacked into Honor’s computer,” she said.

There was a beat of silence.

“What? I did not!” Marcy’s eyes darted between Honor and Jessica. Her face flushed, a deep red.

Got you, Jessica thought. “And mine,” she said.

“Um...okay, chill, Jessica. I can’t remember who told me about the tree. Prudence, I guess. Maybe Faith. Anyway—”

“My sisters did not tell you about that tree,” Honor said, her voice glacier cold. Ned wore a rare scowl on his face. “Nor did anyone in this family.”

Marcy didn’t answer. Her flush had spread down to her chest, leaving blotches of red on her neck.

“I never put it together,” Jessica said. “But you’ve come up with quite a few ideas that were awfully familiar. The story on the new grape varietal, the sales retreat, now the foliage tour and dinner. You’ve been on my computer, reading my files. But the Liberty maple...there is nothing on my computer about that. That must’ve come from Honor’s.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, Jessica. I just... I had an idea. Sorry. I thought ideas were encouraged here.”

“Holy shit, you did, didn’t you?” Ned said. “You little weasel.”

“You’re fired,” Honor said calmly.

“You can’t fire me,” Marcy sputtered.

“I just did. Ned, please escort Miss Hannigan from the premises.”

“Hells, yeah. That sounds fun. Let’s go, Marcy.”

They left. Marcy, for once, speechless.

Honor and Jess looked at each other. “I couldn’t stand her,” Honor said, and she started to laugh. “She had a one-year contract with us, and I was counting the days. Good for you, Jess. Well done. I better call our lawyer, but thank you.”

* * *

JESS SPENT THE rest of the afternoon writing up the job description for a new event planner. Then, because Honor was the most efficient person on earth, a computer forensics expert came in. It wasn’t hard to prove; Marcy had accessed the computers of Ned, Jess and Honor and in some cases, just copied files in their original state and rewritten them as separate documents, leaving the originals right there in the folder.

She’d also forged her own reference letters.

“This is on me,” Honor said. “I hired her. Call it pregnancy brain. From now on, my dad gets to hire anyone new.”

“What about me?” Ned asked. “Can’t I hire people?”

“You didn’t find Jessica.” Honor smiled, then said, “Oh, hang on,” and ran for the bathroom. A minute later, they heard her puking.

“I think I’m gonna have another cousin pretty soon,” Ned said with wink.

Jess smiled. “I’d better get back to work.”

“Fine. Shame me into working on this gorgeous summer day. Oh, hey, another beautiful woman. How’s it going, Colleen?”

Jess looked up. Colleen had Isabelle in her arms and a rather frantic look in her eye. “Hi, Colleen. Here to see your mom? She’s not working today.”

“Nope. Ned, out you go.” Colleen pushed past him into Jess’s office and sat down. “I have to nurse.”

“Please let me stay.”

“I’m telling Lucas you said that.”

Ned flinched. “I’ll give you some privacy,” he said, closing the door.

Colleen yanked down her shirt, did something to her bra and maneuvered the baby in place. She winced, then visibly relaxed. “Okay. Good. I can breathe again. So. My brother.”