By Design by J. A. Armstrong

pointed out.
Candace rolled her eyes. “So, why are you lying on that couch? Don’t you have
her number?”
    “Of
course.”
    “Hello!”
    “Shell!”
Candace couldn’t help but laugh. Michelle was, in many ways, her best friend.
They had always been kindred spirits. Candace thought most people would find it
unbelievable, but she had felt the bond between them from the moment Michelle was born . Much like she had felt a bond with
Pearl the first day she sat with her in her granddad’s kitchen, and much like
the connection she felt the moment she saw Jameson Reid standing in her
doorway. She shook her head. “She’s a friend. A friend who happens to be twenty
years my junior,” she reminded her daughter.
    Michelle
retrieved her mother’s cell phone from the side table and put it in Candace’s
hand. “Senator Fletcher, meet the twenty-first century,” she said. Candace
sighed. “We can watch the news on phones we carry in our pockets, open car
doors without a key, a woman can marry anyone she chooses, even another woman,
even if she is…wait for it twenty years younger, oh, and the entire world now
knows Rock Hudson was, in fact, gay,”
Michelle declared.
    “I’m
not getting married,” Candace said flatly.
    “Won’t
be getting much of anything if you can’t even make a call,” Michelle said with a broad grin before starting to run away.
      Candace threw another pillow at her daughter. “Lunatic!”
    “Call
her!”
    Candace
looked at the phone in her hands and sighed. “Call her, huh?”
    “Might
help!”
    With
a deep breath, Candace closed her eyes and pressed the name on the screen.

Chapter Six: Baby
Steps
    “Hello?” Jameson answered the call in disbelief.
Candace found herself tongue-tied for a
moment, wondering what excuse she could use for the call. “Candace?” Jameson
began. “You there?”
    “Sorry, yes, I’m here.”
    “Did you butt dial me?”
    “Excuse me?”
    “Well, you called me, but you sound surprised to
hear my voice,” Jameson observed with a chuckle.
    Candace laughed softly. “I’m not sure my butt, as
you put it, is quite that talented,” she said in reply.
    “That’s a good thing, trust me. Dana dialed me
once at about one in the morning. Let’s just say I got an earful of more than I
ever needed to hear,” Jameson said. “So, what can I do for you?”
    “Nothing, unless you would like to bring over some
Chinese food to go with this bottle of wine I opened.”
    “Craving Chinese food? Really? Too much home
cooking?” Jameson asked.
    “Let’s just say I could use a fortune cookie about
now,” Candace said. “How’s your visit home?”
    “Fine. Always interesting here. Lots of unsolicited motherly advice. You know
how it goes.”
    “Mm. I do, except in my case it seems to be lots
of unsolicited daughters’ advice.”
    “Oh.” Candace had told Jameson a bit about all of
her children. Pearl had filled in some of the blanks. “Issues with the
remodel?”
    “If Marianne could, she would remodel my entire life,” Candace answered
flatly.
    “Ouch.”
    “Then again, so would Shell; just in a different
way it seems,” Candace laughed.
    “Sounds like a spirited weekend.”
    “I’ll tell you something, they never really change and as much as they think they
grow up; they never really change,” Candace said affectionately. She was still
angry with Marianne’s line of questioning and her daughter’s unfair assessment
of Jameson, but that was Marianne. At the end of the day, Candace loved all
three of her children more than anything in her life, even with their quirks, habits,
and unwanted advice.
    Jameson listened to the sudden lilt in Candace’s voice. “So, wine to celebrate
the remodel or wine to forget about it?”
    “Depends on which remodel you are talking about;
my house or my life?”
    “Do you want to remodel your life?” Jameson asked.
    “No,” Candace replied. Jameson nodded on the other
end of the phone. “Shell was quite