Page 36 of An Island Summer
“That sounds amazing,” Meghan said before taking a sip of the sweet, creamy liquid, the bite of coffee just enough to give her senses a jolt. “I have to see Rupert and then pick up my dress first, and then we’ll spend the whole day on the beach.”
“We’ll glow tonight after all that sun,” Tess said happily. “Oh! I just thought.” She sat up. “You get to wear your grandmother’s earrings! That’s exciting.”
“Yes.” She’d get to wear the earrings she’d never imagined she would. In an odd way, she felt like it was Pappy telling her to believe in herself and one day, she’d be someone she was proud of.
Meghan knew that she should save her tip money, but she stopped in to Lost Love Coffee for an iced latte and a little time to herself to get her mind ready for her visit with Rupert. She gave her order to Chloe and then perused the relics. Under the hiss of the latte machine, as Chloe cleaned it for the drink, Meghan stopped at the journal pages that she’d read the other day.
“We think we’ve found another page of that diary,” Chloe said, nodding toward the glass from the bar, where she was dumping the shot of espresso into the cup. “The second-hand shop found it wedged in an old picture frame. It had apparently gotten separated from the others. The owner dropped it by.”
Intrigued, Meghan leaned over it and read the entry:
Sometimes I feel like the worst person in the world. I’ll never be able to make this better. The guilt of choosing myself over my family is a weight I wish no one to ever have to bear. I still think about those untainted days… The first day I’d met one of the best people in my life. I’d made him laugh. Just sitting there, in my favorite dress, on a bench by the sea, writing a postcard to Aunt June…
Meghan’s breath caught. Those final words screamed at her. “How long has this journal entry been on display?” she asked, swallowing, her mouth bone dry.
Chloe slid the coffee across the bar. “Just a couple of days. Why? Do you think it’s too personal? I was iffy, but it mentioned such a lighthearted moment…”
Meghan took the cup of coffee on autopilot, not hearing Chloe’s explanation, her mind consumed with getting answers. “You know Toby Meyers?”
The machine hissed again as the barista wiped the spout with a rag. “The guy with the inn?”
“Yes, has he brought his grandfather here since you displayed this?”
The barista gave her an odd look. “Not that I know of. Isn’t his grandfather at Rosewood Manor?”
“Yes,” Meghan answered breathlessly, trying to tell herself that this was all a huge coincidence, her eyes fixed on the journal entry she didn’t want to admit to herself wasstrikinglysimilar to Rupert’s story of meeting Hester Quinn.
What if Rupert actually did know her? What if the story was true and Toby had no idea? If Rupert wasn’t as delusional as they’d thought, he might be eligible for that medicine the doctor mentioned and his memory loss could be halted for even just a bit more. Or maybe he’d reverted back to his twenties to avoid the pain altogether, and with counseling or something, he could have more memory than they thought. As much as she didn’t want to get involved with Toby, Meghan would have to tell him and the hospital staff as soon as she confirmed it.
She snapped a photo of the journal entry with her phone. “Thank you!” she said to Chloe, holding up her coffee cup and racing out the door. She needed to see Rupert right now.
“Hello,” Meghan said tentatively, sitting down beside Rupert. “How’s your day going?”
“As good as any other,” Rupert replied.
She wanted to blurt out all her questions the minute she’d walked through the door, but she knew better. Instead, she asked, her words careful, “Did you know that I had a journal?”
He looked at her, his eyes glazed, a confused look in them. “How would I know? I don’t know you.”
“What?” she asked, taken aback by his answer.
He kicked off his slippers and put his bare feet under the covers. “Are we having cream pie tonight for dessert?”
Meghan’s heart fell into her stomach. “You don’t know me?” she asked. The idea of him not recognizing Hester was incredibly more concerning than when he thought shewasHester.
“Are you new here?” he asked, busying himself with one of his books—a big, glossy hardback of Hollywood stars that lay open across his lap.
She let his question go and scooted closer to him to see the page he was looking at, all the while trying to keep her disappointment in check. Then, she spotted a picture of a woman with dark hair and a jawline the shape of hers. “Do you know Hester Quinn?” she asked, tapping the page.
He looked up at her with those cloudy eyes for a long moment and didn’t speak. But then a tear fell down his cheek.
“What is it?” she asked.
Rupert didn’t answer. He closed his eyes and laid his head back on the pillow. “I need to sleep,” he said.
She inwardly cursed herself for taking so long at the coffee shop. She’d missed her window and now Rupert wasn’t able to converse with her. As he lay there, instantly falling asleep, she willed him to wake up and tell her everything, but perhaps it was all just wishful thinking, a fantasy, and the doctors were right. She pondered why she was so invested, why she cared so much about Rupert and his failing mind. And she knew exactly why. She wanted to save him, give him even a few more days of his life back, something she hadn’t been able to do for Pappy.
“What if Rupert became lucid or he’s subconsciously decided that he doesn’t want us to know that he has ties to Hester Quinn?” Meghan asked Tess, as she hung her grandmother’s plastic-draped dress she’d picked up at the cleaners in her closet and plopped down on her unmade bed. “What if he was putting on the fact that he didn’t know me?”
