Page 71 of An Island Summer
He leaned forward, his unsteady hands grasping the edge of the window. “Ask me anything.”
She looked around to be sure she was still alone and then leaned in, putting her face near the opening in the window. “You know the money I left you in off-shore accounts?” she said, her voice low.
“Of course I do,” he replied, giving Meghan goose bumps.
“Where’s the will I wrote to leave it to my daughter?”
His eyebrows shot up and he leaned back, his gaze roaming the room as if he’d only just remembered she’d had a daughter.
The sound of the wind rustled the trees behind her, startling her, and she looked around again quickly to be sure no one was coming up behind her. “It’s very important. Can you tell me?”
He paced around in front of her, as if sifting through years of memories that were locked behind closed doors, suddenly stopping cold. He put his hand over his mouth. “Oh, no,” he said.
“What?” she asked, hanging on his every move.
“She told me where it was that day she showed up at my door, but in all the commotion… I never looked for it. Did I?”
“Try to remember,” she encouraged him.
“It’s still in the desk drawer.” He looked around as if he’d find it there at Rosewood Manor.
Her heart plummeted into her stomach. There was no desk in Rupert’s room, which meant that either she’d have to go through Toby to find it in a desk somewhere, it had been moved when Rupert had gone into Rosewood Manor, or it had been left in Hester’s desk and who knew where that was now. Toby had said himself that he’d been through all of Rupert’s documents. It had probably been left at her estate, but wouldn’t someone have found it?
A light clicked on behind Rupert and Meghan darted to the side, pressing her back against the bricks of the building.
“What are you doing, Mr. Meyers?” a woman’s voice sailed through the open window.
“I’m talking to Hester,” he said.
Meghan held her breath as the voice floated out toward her. “I don’t see anyone out here. You’re letting all the hot air in.” The woman shut the window and the blinds came down.
With her body trembling, Meghan slowly walked away, hugging the building so as not to be detected. Then, with a heavy heart, she got into her car and drove back to The Seabreeze.
With her food cart permits completed online, Meghan began sifting through all the ingredients she’d bought at the store, jotting down ideas in her notebook. She’d been doing anything she could not to think about Rupert and the fact that she’d had to sneak over to a window to see him. She’d opened a text to Toby a couple of times but then thought better of it. Clearly, he didn’t want to hear from her; he wouldn’t even allow her to see his grandfather.
“What are your favorite cake flavors?” she called over to Tess, who was sitting on the sofa, flipping through a magazine.
“Red velvet and spice cake.”
Meghan stared at the empty line in her notebook, thinking. “What if I did a butter pecan spice cake in the shape of a muffin?”
Tess got up and tossed the magazine onto the table. “I’d buy them all and eat my weight in muffins.” She climbed up onto the barstool and rested her chin in her hands.
“I want to think of something no one else has thought of,” Meghan said, her mind whirring. “I need something to set me apart from every other bakery.”
“Well, Hester Quinnisyour grandmother. You could do an old movie theme or something.”
Meghan squinted at the idea, letting it marinate. “Maybe… You could be onto something. I need to wow people. What could I do?”
“You could give some of the proceeds to charity?”
“Good idea, and I’ll probably do that. But I need something new with the muffins too.” Still thinking, she reached over and picked up a few of the vanilla muffins she’d made, slathering them with her vanilla icing. “Hang on,” she said, grabbing a bar of chocolate sitting on the counter and rummaging in the drawers for a zester. After locating the tool, she covered the iced muffin with chocolate sprinkles. Then, she got another muffin, iced it and went over to the fridge, pulling out Tess’s chocolate sauce she liked for her ice cream.
“What are you doing?” Tess asked with a laugh as Meghan drizzled the muffin with chocolate sauce.
“I need those chopsticks that someone left in a drawer,” Meghan said, pulling the takeout chopsticks and removing the paper covering. She jammed one into the first muffin.
“What in the world?” Tess looked on.
