Jessica Best had long since tucked away her dream of opening a shop. She’d gone to college for fashion merchandising, even interned with a brand in New York City. But as life often does, it rerouted her in the best of ways. She got married, moved to Shreveport for her husband’s residency, started a family, and spent 15 years at home raising her children. By May of 2024, the spark she once felt for retail had been quiet for a long time.

Then one afternoon, as she drove past the for sale sign in front of “the little pink building” on Main Street, something stirred. A whisper, clear as day: Why not you? It’s your turn. She laughed half in surprise, half in irritation. She’d spent all day hunting for a specific birthday gift, coming up empty. “I was pouting,” she says. “I didn’t want to have to drive to Baton Rouge.”

But that whisper didn’t go away.

That night, she couldn’t shake the sense that it was the Holy Spirit nudging her. She prayed—first alone, then with her husband, then with close friends. She reached out about the property and learned someone else was also interested in opening a boutique there.

“God, if this is really Your will and not just me being selfish, please remove every stumbling block,” she prayed. “I prayed constantly. I was not asking for a sign, but for a feeling of peace so I’d know He was with me.”

She knew that years ago, a boutique would’ve been her plan for her life, but not necessarily God’s. This time, she felt the difference. The timing finally aligned.

Two months later, she signed the lease and picked up the keys. Best & Co. Boutique opened Labor Day weekend of 2024.

Since then, she’s seen God’s presence in “every little thing even the tiny pieces,” she says. Like the days she second-guessed an item she ordered three of, only to have all three sell that same afternoon. Or the way childcare always works out when she has to travel out of state for Market.

“He’s always providing,” Best says. “It has worked. He’s blessed it.”