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disappeared into the house, Jayne faced Jess. “Why don’t you go with Naomi and we can catch up tomorrow? She’s not happy about you staying with me.”
    “Hush, it’s the same old, same old.” His features took on a hard edge. “And damn her for it. We had an agreement six years ago.”
    Again, he took Jayne’s hand and they walked to Luke’s gazebo. Inside, the scents of paint and fresh wood enveloped her; they made her think about working on a construction site. Once they were sitting on a curved bench, she told him about the collapse of the walkway in the Coulter Gallery.
    “I’m so sorry, Jaynie.”
    She swallowed hard. “Sometimes I still can’t believe it.”
    “Why didn’t you call me when it happened? This is the kind of emergency we agreed to contact each other about.”
    “I didn’t want to burden you.”
    “Tell me about the collapse.”
    Because he’d been an architectural student, he understood the logistics. “You know the walkway circles the second floor of the gallery.”
    “I saw pictures on the Internet. It’s beautiful.”
    “It was. Other galleries have done the same thing, so it wasn’t that risky. But something went wrong, and a portion of it just…fell.”
    “How much?”
    “Maybe twenty-five feet. Thankfully it was at night, so no one was hurt. I don’t know what I would have done if…” She shivered and Jess squeezed her hand.
    “Don’t think about that.”
    “You’re right. There’s enough to worry about.” She told him the staggering cost of the damage. She had insurance, thank the Lord, but her reputation could be in tatters if she was somehow found at fault—or even if she wasn’t. Bad press could ruin an architectural firm. She might not even keep the jobs already contracted.
    When she finished with the details, Jess sighed deeply. “It is what it is. If you made a mistake, which I’m not saying you did, there are ways to deal with it.” He added soberly, “You can do anything you have to, honey, you know that. Just like the Snyder incident.”
    Al Snyder had been their third-year design teacher at Cornell. He’d based a major portion of the grade for the semester on a group project. Though Jayne hated being evaluated on others’ efforts, she’d felt comfortable that time because the members of her group were Jess and their two housemates—Ben, her boyfriend of two years, and Sally, a close girlfriend.
    At least Jayne had thought they were her friends, until their part of the project came under scrutiny. When it was discovered they’d cut corners by falsifying data, Ben and Sally blamed it on Jess and Jayne. Jayne ended her relationship with Ben, but her confidence had been shaken. If he could betray her so badly, had he ever really cared about her? Had she ever been enough for him?
    That event had touched off Naomi’s animosity. Jess had called Naomi, his fiancée at the time, to tell her what had happened. Without informing him of her plans, Naomi had driven up to Ithaca to comfort him.Instead, she found him, literally, in bed with Jayne. Jess was bare chested and in boxers; Jayne wore a skimpy tank top and short pajama bottoms, so the scenario was incriminating. But it was totally innocent—they’d both been devastated after the betrayal of their housemates and Jayne had gone to Jess’s room for comfort. Naomi never believed it, though. And in subsequent years, she’d found more and more reason to be jealous of any time her husband spent with Jayne.
    Hurt all over again by her recollection of the devastating event, Jayne shook off the memory. “I know I can get through it. But I never thought I’d have such a monumental thing to deal with again. And I hated that the first one caused you to leave school.”
    “It wasn’t the only reason I left, Jaynie.”
    “I know it wasn’t. You weren’t really happy at Cornell and couldn’t wait to get back to Riverdale. If it hadn’t been for my dad bringing in a team of New York lawyers, I would