“Well, you’re talking to your soon-to-be HR specialist.” There was complete silence on the other line. “Hannah? Are you still there?”
“I’m here. I just had to do the happy dance. Jasmine, you’re the answer to my most fervent prayer. I was just telling St. John the other day that I need to start looking for someone trained in hotel management to help me with the inn.”
“Well, look no more because I’m in.”
“I’ll draft a contract and email it to you to go over. You can get your attorney to look at it. If you want, you can suggest changes.”
Jasmine knew she could get Amelia to check out the contract. Once she’d decided to divorce Raymond, Jasmine had asked her cousin to represent her, but Amelia had to decline because she was involved in her own very combative divorce from a man who was requesting spousal support. “My cousin will look it over.”
“That’s good. Should I still expect you on the twenty-ninth?”
“Yes.”
“Email me your flight information and I’ll pick you up at the airport.”
“You don’t have to do that. I’ll take a taxi.”
“You don’t have to, Jasmine. My cousins are on another cruise on the other side of the world, St. John is spending the next month on the West Coast for a taping of a historical documentary, and if it wasn’t for Smokey I’d end up talking to myself.”
“Are you telling me St. John is going to miss his cousin’s wedding?” Gage Toussaint and St. John were cousins.
“No. He’s flying back just for that weekend.”
“You’ll still have me as a houseguest after the wedding because I didn’t book a return flight. But if it gets too hot like it did last year when we came down, then I’m gone.”
“It’s not the heat as much as it is the humidity. Hold on, Jasmine, I have another call.” Seconds later, Hannah said, “That’s St. John. Can I call you back?”
“You don’t have to. Talk to your husband and I’ll talk to you later.”
“Thanks.”
Jasmine ended the call, and then tapped the screen for Nydia’s number. “Hey, chica.”
“What’s up,mija?”
“I’m going to invest in the DuPont Inn.”
There came a pause before Nydia’s voice came through the speaker. “Why did you change your mind?”
“My parents are moving to a retirement community in North Carolina.”
“What about your condo?”
“My cousin’s planning to move from Buffalo, and I told her she can stay at my place.”
“There goes your last excuse for not relocating. I know I sound selfish, but I don’t want you to leave.”
“Come with me, Nydia. You’re no longer involved with Danny so there’s nothing to keep you in New York.”
“I’m going to have to sleep on it.”
“Don’t sleep too long Sleeping Beauty,” Jasmine teased, “or you’ll miss your prince.”
Nydia’s distinctive high-pitched laugh echoed throughout the vehicle. “All of the princes are taken,mija.”
“I’m certain there are a few left wandering out in the universe.”
“Maybe an alternative universe, Jazz, but not the one we live in.”
