“Yeah,” Mr. Aldredge said with a sigh. “She changed his whole life. He was going to come back here after he graduated and set up a practice, but now . . . I don’t know what he’s going to do.”
Jecca had seen Reede Aldredge only once, when Kim moved into the dorm, but she rememberedol.e remem him as one gorgeous hunk. In the last year, every time Kim mentioned him, Jecca listened intently. “Did they have a fight?” she asked and wanted to say, Is he available?
“Not really. Laura just dumped my son flat. Told him it was over, that she’d met someone else.”
“Poor Reede. I hope she didn’t run off with someone in your little town, so he has to see them together.”
Mr. Aldredge glanced away from the road to look at her. “She wasn’t that thoughtful. She’s taken up with the new pastor of Edilean Baptist Church. If my son ever goes to church again—which he says he’ll never do—he’s going to have to look at the man who stole his girl.”
“I’m so sorry for him,” Jecca said, but inside she was elated. Beautiful man, heartbroken, in need of consoling. The summer was looking more interesting by the second.
When they got to Edilean, Jecca made the appropriate sounds about how cute the little town was. Historical buildings had been restored and every façade was under a strict code for conformity of appearance. No glass and steel structures allowed in Edilean!
As an artist, Jecca appreciated it all, but she was working hard to get out of her small town in New Jersey where she’d grown up. Right now, she only admired cities, specifically New York.
As for Reede, he was going to be a doctor, so he could work anywhere—and now his connection to Edilean was broken. Jecca had a vision of the two of them living in Paris. He’d be a renown heart surgeon and she an artist revered by the French. They’d visit Edilean and see Kim often.
When they reached the Aldredge home, Jecca was smiling. “When can I see Kim?”
“Anytime. My wife is already at the hospital, and I’m going over there as soon as I unload your suitcases. You can go with me if you want.”
“I’d love to.”
He drove them the ten miles to the hospital in Williamsburg, and when she saw Kim sitting up in bed with a sketchbook in her hands, Jecca laughed. “You’re supposed to be taking it easy. Resting.”
Kim’s parents politely left the room.
As soon as they were alone, Jecca said, “I told your father I wanted to go painting at Florida Point and I thought he was going to faint.”
“You didn’t!”
“I did!” Jecca said. “So spill the dirt.”
“I told you not to say that name to anyone from Edilean.”
“You did not,” Jecca said.
“Okay, so maybe I didn’t.” She glanced at the door, then lowered her voice. “It’s the local makeout point—and has been for centuries.”
“Centuries?” Jecca asked in disbelief.
“Certainly since WWI and that ended in—”
“1918,” Jecca said quickly. “And donand8220;An’t remind me of the Great War. That’s when Layton Hardware was founded, and if I hear one more time that we Laytons have a tradition to uphold . . . Okay, so what about that war?”
“Somebody called the place the French Letter Point. That’s old slang for a condom and they were used a lot there. Somewhere along the way it got shortened to F.L. and since that stands for Florida . . .”
“I get it,” Jecca said. “So I’m to say Stirling Point to anyone over thirty.”
“Good idea.”
“So let me see what you’re designing,” Jecca said and picked up her friend’s sketchbook. Kim’s passion was jewelry and she loved organic forms. That was one thing that had united the three young women when they’d met at school. Whether it was jewelry, paintings, or sculpture, they liked reproducing what they saw in nature.
“I like this,” Jecca said, looking at the branch-like designs. They flowed in a way that would hug a woman’s neck. “Will you add any jewels?”
“I can’t afford them. I can barely afford the silver.”
“I could get Dad to send you some steel ball bearings.”