Designed for Love by Erin Dutton

glowing neon beer signs in the windows had made its purpose clear.
    “You oughta hire one of the high-school boys to help out nights and weekends.” Wil folded her receipt and shoved it in her jacket pocket.
    Bill shrugged. “I’ve got one part-time guy already. And my brother will be home from college next week. He’ll help out for the summer.”
    “Well, try not to work too hard,” Wil said as she led Jillian out of the store.
    “I guess there are a lot of family-owned businesses in this town,” Jillian commented as they walked to the truck.
    “There’s not much in the way of jobs around town. So if you grow up here and want to stick around, you either commute to the city or go into the family business. Most places have been in the same family for generations.”
    “Like Bill’s.”
    Wil slid behind the wheel and started the truck. “Yep. His grandfather, the one he’s named after, opened the hardware store about the same time mine started Johnson and Son. Bill’s father took off when he and his brother were young, but Bill has been working there since we were in high school.”
    Jillian suspected there were several parallels between Bill’s life and Wil’s. Except from what she’d gathered, it was Wil’s mother who had left. She recalled the flash of sadness when Rose mentioned her parents’ split.
    “Were you and Bill good friends?”
    “Oh, yeah. After Nancy moved away, Billy was my only friend for a while.”
    “Really?” Though Wil’s tone was light, it felt false, and Jillian could sense the loneliness she tried to cover. Wil was attractive and magnetic, and Jillian had difficulty imagining her so solitary.
    Wil’s right hand rested on the gearshift between them, her other draped over the steering wheel, and she stared straight ahead. “Yeah. I went to school with the same kids from kindergarten on. You wouldn’t think it would matter how much money my family had. Or didn’t have.”
    “It was really a big deal? This doesn’t seem like the type of town where wealth is important. It’s too idyllic.”
    “It’s not Mayberry. We have our share of problems.”
    Jillian laughed. “Yeah, like what? There’s no traffic, no crime, everyone knows everyone else—”
    “Exactly. So everybody was fully aware that, while my classmates were shopping and hanging out at the diner all summer, I was building additions to their houses, putting on new roofs, and unstopping their toilets. Because, after all, nothing was beneath us at Johnson and Son.”
    Wil bitterly ground out her last words, then clenched her jaw shut, a muscle jumping with the effort.
    “And look at you now.”
    “Most of the time, I don’t feel any different than I did then.”
    Jillian didn’t understand the point in holding on to that past resentment. If someone didn’t think she was good enough, well—screw them. She knew who she was, and she’d never let anyone convince her otherwise.
     

Chapter Five
     
    “Are you sure I can’t do something to help?” Jillian called from a chair at Rose’s dining-room table. Though it was just the two of them, Rose had laid out matching white chinaware and polished silver on the starched linen tablecloth.
    Rose entered from the kitchen with a bowl of mashed potatoes. “That’s okay, dear, I’ve got it.”
    “At least let me carry something.” When she returned to the kitchen, Jillian followed.
    “Okay, I’ll get the dinner rolls from the oven. You take this.” Rose handed her a platter piled with thick slices of roast beef.
    “You have a beautiful home. You must have many happy memories here,” Jillian said as they sat down.
    Rose smiled. “Yes. We had some lovely times. But the marks of my daughter’s growth on the bedroom doorjamb and the loose board in the hallway that creaked every time she tried to sneak out aren’t exactly big selling points.”
    “Well, I think they are. Not in the traditional sense, maybe. But this house has history, and with that beautiful