No one in Carnelian Cove considered hiring an architect when there were plenty of contractors willing to secure a building permit with the inexpensive-and unimaginative-basics. That’s how things had always been done, and most people couldn’t see a reason to do things differently. She’d known it might take a while to change their minds, and she’d been prepared to watch her savings dwindle during the adjustment period. But she hadn’t realized there might never be any genuine design business for her architecture firm.

Her very own firm, her long-time dream: Roussel Designs. She sighed and carried her maple bar and her cooling latte across her office to study the model occupying the prime real estate in the windows fronting Main Street: the model for Tidewaters. Retail spaces for six smart boutiques and offices, a midsize restaurant at dock level and five spacious multilevel condominiums above. A wonderful boardwalk fronting the bay and an open, parklike space surrounding the parking area-ample, meter-free parking. A harmonious blend of commercial use and stylish housing, a contemporary building reflecting local traditions, an ideal example for future waterfront redevelopment.

And it was absolutely, positively gorgeous.

She bit into her pastry and licked creamy custard from the corner of her mouth. She’d get Tidewaters built, all right. She’d pull it from her imagination and raise it from the ground, and then they’d see the three-dimensional proof of what she had inside her. She’d show them all what she could do-everyone back in San Francisco who’d warned her she’d never make it on her own, everyone here in the Cove who didn’t think an architect could make a difference, everyone in her family who’d patronized her ambitions and doubted her abilities.

Everyone but her grandmother, Geneva Chandler. Grandmère didn’t need proof of her granddaughter’s talent and determination. She’d already put up the financial backing for the construction and had been calling in her political markers for this building she wanted as much as Tess did herself. They’d make a hell of a team.