Page 74 of An Island Summer
“Running with a stick?” Meghan asked.
“No,” Tess said, poking her playfully. “Swimming in the ocean. Do you have a swimsuit inside?”
“Yeah,” Meghan replied, remembering the yellow bikini she’d left behind when she’d decided to pack the pink one instead. “It’s in Pappy’s room. Do you have one?”
“Yep. I have two here and one at The Seabreeze.” She stood up, brushing off her bottom and then reaching for Meghan’s hands. “Let’s go join Charlie and forget all our troubles.”
“I’m totally up for that,” Meghan said, rising and following Tess into the house.
“I’m starving,” Tess said, as she picked up the large plastic sheet covering the furniture and took a towel from the trunk she’d brought for the summer. “Should we call in a pizza?” She tipped her head to the side, toweling off her hair.
“Where would we eat it in this mess?” Meghan asked, buttoning her shorts and draping her wet suit over one of the plastic-covered dining chairs. “There’s nowhere to sit.”
“True…”
The sound of crunching gravel under tires outside stopped their conversation.
“Did one of the workers forget something?” Meghan asked, drying her hair and lumping the towel on the chair with her suit.
A door slammed and steps clambered up to the door, Meghan and Tess staring at each other, neither moving. Then, both of them jumped with the sound of a knock.
Tess went over to the window. “It’s Toby.”
Meghan opened the door.
“You said there’s a will,” he said, his blue eyes focused on her.
“Yes,” she said.
“Gramps told me too. He said it’s in the desk.”
“Yes,” she said again. “He told me that as well.”
Tess stepped forward as if in solidarity with Meghan—two to one—but something told Meghan that they weren’t necessarily on opposing sides this time.
That was the first time Toby regarded her. “Hi, Tess,” he said. “Can we have a minute?” He waggled a finger between himself and Meghan.
Tess silently asked if Meghan would be okay without her, and Meghan nodded.
“Come on, Charlie,” Tess said. “Let’s go outside.”
Charlie hopped up and ran to the door ahead of Tess.
In the quiet that was left between them, Meghan caught the slight scent of Toby’s woodsy aftershave through the dust, every nerve in her body on high alert as she stared into his blue eyes.
“Want to tell me what’s going on?” she asked.
He sucked in a tiny breath but then stopped, his brows furrowing as he seemed to wrestle with his thoughts. “I don’t know where to start.”
“How about the reason you came knocking on my door?”
Toby looked deeply into her eyes, taking her hand and leading her into her bedroom. With no explanation, he located Hester’s table and pulled off the plastic. “Know what this is?”
Confusion swam around inside her. “It’s Hester’s dressing table.”
He shook his head. “It’s her writing desk.”
It took her a minute before she connected the dots. Then, suddenly, the memory floated back into her mind:She’d shown up out of nowhere, with a driver who’d filled a truck with her furniture—the pieces still full with her things, her personal items in all the drawers—and driven all the way from her house in New York.
