Page 5 of An Island Summer
Tess’s eyes grew round, clearly enjoying the exchange. “She’s definitely on the market.”
Meghan kicked her under the table, causing her friend to double over and grab her shin.
Picking up her drink, Meghan swirled it around with her straw, the breeze having its way with her auburn hair, her curls fanning across her face while she fought them off and tried to take a sip of her cocktail.
“So, I’m dying to know… who is this Hester?” Tess asked the old man outright, nodding at Meghan.
He gave Meghan a tender look, his eyes glistening. “The love of my life.”
When he said it, despite the fact that it was directed at Meghan, who clearly wasn’t his love at all, he seemed so sure of himself.
“She’s my wife,” Rupert continued.
“Who’s your wife?” Toby said, returning to his seat with an open bottle of rosé. He poured himself a glass. He offered the bottle to Meghan, but she politely declined, opting for just the one cocktail.
“Hester is my wife, silly boy.”
“Ah yes.” Toby leaned forward, his forearm on the table, as he took a large drink from his glass. “Do you remember Elaine?” His question was softer, with pain laced through it.
“Of course I do,” Rupert barked, getting agitated again.
“Isn’t Elaine—my grandmother—yourwife?”
Rupert looked over at Toby, perplexed. “Yes.” His gaze fell to the table as if he were putting together an invisible puzzle. “I’m sorry,” he said suddenly. “Yes, Elaine is my wife.”
Toby nodded in encouragement, before filling his grandfather’s glass with a drop of wine. “We won’t tell them,” he said with a sad smile.
“About Hester?” the old man said in almost a whisper.
“No, your nurses at Rosewood Manor. We won’t tell them about the wine.” Toby winked at him and handed his grandfather the glass.
Rupert seemed to dive inward. Then, he surfaced again. “Yes,” he replied. “Let’s not tell them.”
THREE
“That was weird tonight at dinner, wasn’t it?” Tess said, finally mentioning their odd meal with Toby and Rupert, as she lugged her suitcase across the living room to the small bedroom opposite where Meghan used to stay whenever she’d visited Pappy. “That poor old man.”
“He seemed really confused.”
Meghan had thought about their encounter the entire time she and Tess had picked up a few items they’d needed from the store to get them through the next few days. She scooped a cup of dog food from the bag they’d bought and reached around Charlie’s excited snout to drop it into his bowl. The dog’s tail wagged vigorously as he dove in.
Tess twisted her hair into a bun and wound a hair tie around it. “That’s got to be hard for Toby. Rupert didn’t even remember Toby’s own grandmother. But sweet of him to take him out to dinner.”
“He seemed so flustered by the whole thing, didn’t he?” Meghan opened the cabinet to put the groceries away. She tried not to focus on Pappy’s coffee mugs as she scooted them to the side to make room for Tess’s boxes of macaroni that wouldn’t fit in the small cupboard Pappy had designated for food.
“He wasn’t the chattiest person we’ve met, that’s for sure. He barely said a word at dinner.”
“Here’s hoping for a less strange day tomorrow.”
“Yes,” Tess said with a laugh, as she grabbed the last bag of frozen vegetables and put it into the freezer, clapping her hands. “Well, that’s that.” Folding the empty grocery bags and wedging them between the cabinet and the fridge, she asked, “Want to clean now and unpack after?”
With a deep breath, Meghan put her hands on her hips, ignoring how exhausted she was. “Sounds like a plan.” She leaned down and stroked Charlie’s head. “What doyouthink, old boy?” she asked. “Ready to clean this place up?” He followed her lead, pacing beside her as she took the cleaning products into the living room with Tess.
The two of them stood silently in the middle of the room. “What first?” Tess asked.
Overwhelmed by the task at hand, Meghan surveyed the cases full of dusty books, the furniture that had needed to be covered for the last ten years and hadn’t been, and the line of dead potted plants at the window.You have to talk to them.That was what Pappy had told her once about the philodendrons he’d kept next to the dining table. It was all so overwhelming, both physically and emotionally.
Tess draped an arm around Meghan, the gesture causing tears to well up in Meghan’s eyes. “Why don’t we keep everything just the way it is for right now? All we have to do is clean.”
