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“You really love renovating these old places,” he’d said, “but you hate destroying them with new construction.”

“So?”

“So why don’t you build all new construction… of historic old floor-plans?”

By the time he’d finished saying it, my mind had already been blown.

“Think about it, Sammara. You could create one-hundred percent accurate, vintage homes, modeled exactly as they would’ve been built two-hundred years ago. Only with central air-conditioning and high-speed internet,” he winked.

It made so much sense I was almost sick with excitement. I could create masterpieces of architecture that no longer existed, using modern engineering and upgraded materials. CNC machines to model even the most complicated trims and finishes.

I could build antebellum mansions! Georgian manors. Beautiful old Victorians, like the one we lived in now…

“Is Cindy still handling the other end of things for you?”

“Yes.”

“How’s she doing?”

I smiled, pumping my arms as the treadmill’s program randomly selected a new hill to climb. “She’s kicking ass, actually.”

Cindy had started as my assistant. Now she was my second-in-command. She was smart, capable, energetic — everything I needed her to be. But she’d never be my partner. Not after what happened with Dawn…

“Oh, I meant to tell you…” Melissa said hesitantly. “I uh… I ran into Dawn.”

It was uncanny, how things like that could happen during conversation. Yet they always did.

“Yeah? And what’d she say?”

Melissa laughed. “You think I’d actually talk to her? After what she pulled?”

“No,” I smiled. “You’re a loyal friend.”

“Damn straight!”

“I just figured… maybe she might talk to you?”

My friend shook her head as she wiped her brow. “She knows better than that. Besides, she looked like shit warmed over. I heard she finally got back into the business. After… well, you know…”

Yeah, I knew. Dawn had actually been the catalyst for Universal Designs. If she hadn’t robbed me — and our interior design business — of every last piece I owned? I wouldn’t be anywhere near where I was now.

That, plus the help I received from Jason and Ryan, of course. The two of them had shown me how to fight back. In the dead of night. With a couple of box trucks, an

d a crew of movers, and—

“So where are we having the wedding?” Melissa asked, changing the subject. “Do we know that yet?”

I smiled inwardly at her enthusiasm. “No.”

“Destination wedding!”

“Maybe.”

“Hawaii!”

I laughed. “We’ll see.”

“I’m still the maid of honor, right?”