Page 6 of Meet Me at the Grand

ChapterTwo

How could anyone who had lived here any length of time not want to stay forever?

Dani bustled against the wind down Main Street, Myrtle’s gift in her large brown purse that had seen better days. She was utterly alone. Everyone was either tucked away in their homes or celebrating at Martha’s on Main, one of the only eating establishments still open on the island.

The flicker of light from the wrought-iron streetlamps lent an ethereal glow to the dusty windows of deserted buildings. Dani’s breath hovered in the air as she hurried down the deserted street, past quaint shops with white-washed walls, green accented beams, and striped awnings. Some okay. Some tattered and in desperate need of replacement.

If she weren’t a local—if she hadn’t read every sign taped to the abandoned shops, thanking customers for their loyalty over the years—she wouldn’t know which were closed permanently and which were just waiting for Memorial Day, when the island officially opened for the season.

Unfortunately, there were only a handful in that category anymore. But maybe things could be different. If her plan had any merit, anyway.

Dani picked up her speed. The road curved, opening up to a brilliant view of the harbor abutting Lake Huron in the distance—and the hulking shell of her family legacy. The Grand Sullivan Hotel, burned half to the ground. An ache that never ceased pulsed deep in Dani’s chest, but she pushed it aside.

Hope. There was always hope. Especially now.

She passed Good Day Coffee and Kelley’s Bar & Grill, both of which had their signs turned to Closed, and finally set eyes on the lit interior of Martha’s on the left—nearly the last building on Main, save the public library. When she pulled open the door, a chorus of hellos rang out, and Dani was met with the mingled smells of cooked meat, wine, and chocolate. Even as she tugged off her coat and hung it on the overstuffed rack just beneath the sign that read “Check your guns, politics, and religion at the door,” the warmth of the place, of the people, enveloped her.

Now to find Uncle Seb.

“There you are.” Mia Jonathon Franklin appeared at her side and pulled Dani into a hug. “I was starting to think you weren’t going to show.” Her petite younger cousin tucked a piece of her curly brown hair behind her ear, eyebrows raised expectantly.

“Sorry. I got busy talking with my dad?—”

“Ah, say no more.” Mia turned to the wooden bar and snatched a glass of dark fizzling pop, shoving it into Dani’s hands.

Dani laughed. “He’s not that bad.” She set her gift and purse on one of the green-topped wooden stools and took a sip of the drink. Ah, Dr Pepper. Mia knew her well. Then again, despite their four-year age difference, they’d been close ever since Mia’s family had moved full time to the island when they were both kids.

“Uncle Daniel isn’tbad. He’s just…persistent.” Mia waggled her eyebrows as she took a sip from her straw.

It was nice that she still referred to Dani’s dad as her uncle, even though he hadn’t legally been that for a long time. It was Dani’s mom, Becky, who was Mia’s aunt by blood.

But Mia was kind like that. Always attuned to everyone else’s feelings. And she knew Dani’s deepest wish. Might be the only one who wouldn’t laugh at how utterly ridiculous such a hope really was.

“He is that.” Dani shook her head, her eyes scanning the room. Dark hardwood booths lined one side of the restaurant, and the square tables and chairs that sat in between the booths and the bar had been cleared out to make standing room for the party goers. “I don’t see my favorite little cousins. Are you kidless tonight?” She took another draw from the Dr Pepper, and the bite of the carbonation burned her throat going down.

“I am. Mom offered to watch them for me.” Mia blinked and smiled, but there was something falsely bright in the action. And who could blame her? At twenty-four, she’d experienced more tragedy than anyone should have to in a lifetime.

“Well, that’s great.”

Mia shrugged a delicate shoulder. “I think she wants me to get back out there, you know?”

Snagging her cousin’s hand, Dani squeezed. “There would be nothing wrong with that. If it’s what you want.”

Closing her eyes momentarily, Mia sighed. “All Iwantis to be snuggled up in bed with my babies right now.”

Aw, Mia. “Nothing wrong with that either. We all miss Troy, and I can’t fathom how hard the last two years have been for you all.” Especially Finn and Maggie, the latter of whom had never even met her daddy. “But I’m proud of you for coming out tonight regardless of how you feel.”

A whoop rose from the corner booth right next to the kitchen door that swung open as Jordi Chamberlain brought out a platter of appetizers that looked like Martha’s famous sliders. Dani’s stomach rumbled at the thought, but her eyes caught on a seventy-something man dancing a jig beside the booth. His arms were raised in victory while the other older men sitting with him—big-as-a-bear Stuart “Mac” MacBride, retired pastor Augo Kennedy with his familiar flat cap, and the very bald, very curmudgeonly Frank Kelley—grumbled good-naturedly, a card game spread in front of them.

“Looks like Lyle won gin rummy again,” Mia said, this time a true smile creeping onto her face.

“He always does. I’m surprised the others keep playing with him.”

“It’s a matter of pride at this point. Eventually one of them has to win.” Mia cocked her head, eyes glittering. “Dad almost had him once, but old Lyle still won in the end.”

Ooo, the perfect segue. “Speaking of Uncle Seb, where is he?”

As mayor of Jonathon Island—which was originally founded by Mom and Seb’s great-great-great-times-a-hundred grandfather, Jacob Jonathon—Seb might be talking with anyone, really. But he wasn’t there, by the small group of gossiping church ladies, or there, by the large window overlooking Main where two of the troublemaking Barrett brothers flirted with a waitress. Or there, where guest of honor Myrtle was surrounded by a few of her dearest friends, not looking a day over her seventy-one years and, in fact, looking much younger thanks to her spiked white hair and purple cat-eye glasses.

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