Chapter 20

"Honey, I only had your best interests at heart," Maggie Thornton repeated yet one more time. She sat at the island counter in the kitchen of Hibiscus House, drinking coffee and trying to explain why she'd set everything up the way she had.

"Mama" Pepper set down her glass of iced tea and stared at her mother. "I am thirty years old. I can handle my own life."

"But you weren't settling down," Maggie wailed. "I wanted you to have a home and children before it got too late."

"And you didn't trust me to find someone on my own?"

"Not as long as you were burying yourself in Bayview with Hibiscus House."

Pepper chose her next words carefully. "You can't arrange love, Mama. It either happens or it doesn't."

"I'm sorry, honey. I just wanted for you what your dad and I have."

"Let me also point out," Pepper added, "that Judd Wallace is not the answer, either. I wouldn't give the man house room."

"He's president of the local bank," Maggie pointed out.

"He could be president of the Unite