Page 8 of Family Bonds- Kelsey & Van

“I can see that,” Van said.

He’d been hearing how difficult it was to get housing, but he didn’t have that issue.

Everything on the island cost a lot more since it was shipped over on the ferry. If he wanted something he couldn’t find here, he had to take the ferry to Plymouth or Boston.

So far he’d been to Boston twice. Once for the reading of the will months ago. Second to sign all the paperwork and take possession of things.

From that point on, if he needed anything, he went to Plymouth, as it was a shorter ride and the city was not as congested.

“What do you think of it so far?” Zac asked.

He’d rather not sit here and shoot the shit, but it’s not like any calls were coming in right now.

Zac got comfortable leaning on the wall next to Van.

“It’s good,” he said. “Nice. I don’t talk to many, but the few neighbors I see on a run wave to me.” He waved back because he wasn’t a complete dick.

His father had reminded him more than once he always ran and hid rather than addressing things face-on.

He never believed that. If anyone did that it was his cheating father with a wife on her deathbed.

“Everyone is friendly here,” Zac said. “You’ll be able to pick out the tourist from the residents in no time. The Bonds, you’ll pick them out faster.”

He found the whole thing hilarious.

Sure, the Bond family founded this island well over a hundred years ago, but so many looked at them as untouchable.

Or stuck up. Yeah, that was more like it.

In two months he’d heard more about the lore, legend, and the five branches of the family than he cared to know.

Van hadn’t run into any of the Bond family and didn’t care.

Yep, he had to deal with Bond Law in Boston, owned and operated by Hailey Bond, but he didn’t meet with her. One of the many lawyers she employed reached out to him via certified mail. He’d thought it was a joke and later learned otherwise.

“I’m one of those people who just lives my life,” he said. “I don’t bother people if they don’t bother me.”

Zac laughed. “I got that read on you right away.”

Yet the dude was still chatting him up as if they were classmates at a reunion and catching up on life.

When the phone rang a second later, he started to wonder if it was true about this island playing interference in people’s lives and that fate saved him from telling his boss to go find someone else to bug.

“Nine-one-one, what is your emergency?” he asked.

He saw Zac move out of the corner of his eye as he listened to an elderly woman calling because she burned her toast and smoke was filling her house and the alarms were going off. She didn’t think her house was on fire but couldn’t shut the alarms off either.

Yeah, this was the excitement of his life.

3

GOOD SENSE OF HUMOR

“You know you can’t bring a dog into my restaurant,” Duke said two days later.

“You’re not open for a few hours,” Kelsey said. She had Frankie in her arms, but he was wiggling to check out her twin brother.

“Doesn’t matter,” Duke said. “I don’t want to be shut down.”

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