Page 67 of The Cottage on Blueberry Bay

“We took care of him.” Ginny smiled. “We all took care of him. He wasn’t alone.”

Ginny leaned over, patting Meredith on the knee. “And neither are you. We’ve got you, too.”

And it was as if Ginny’s words hit a release button, and Meredith’s emotions flooded out.

Ginny leaned over, pulling Meredith into her arms. “Don’t you think you’re alone. This is your family now.”

Meredith’s head came up with the rational argument. Theyweren’ther family. They were people who, through happenstance, lived next door to a father she never knew. But that was when she felt Remy’s hand on her back.

“This is his gift to you,” Remy said. “He gave you this as a gift, not for you to be burdened.”

Meredith nodded, wiping her eyes with another tissue. “You’re right.”

She blew her nose again, feeling stupid and emotional and sensitive—as Phillip would say—and waited for the usual weight of anxiety and irrational stress to drape over her, but it peeled away as she exhaled out.

Her shaky hands began to calm down as she sat with Ginny and Remy, listening to the waves come in from the open windows. She steadied her breath, noticing a seagull crying out in the sky. A light breeze blew through the kitchen, lifting the to-do list off the table. Meredith reached out, slapping her hand down on it and holding it to the table. She looked at the list.

Call the real estate agenthad been her next thing to do.

“When should we start dinner?” she asked, smiling at Remy, then Ginny.

CHAPTER26

When Quinn reached the house, he pulled into the drive just as he saw Meredith step out onto the front porch. The evening sun still hung high. She held up her hand to cover her eyes.

She looked stunning in a blue linen dress, which flowed behind her in the wind. Suddenly, he saw the similarity between her and the bronze mermaid statue.

He waved, wishing he had driven faster down the highway. She waved back, and a smile grew across her face. And that was when he felt his heart skip a beat.

“Good evening,” he said.

“Good evening.” Meredith held a plate with a tin foil cover in her hands. “I brought my famous chocolate chip cookies.”

“Kyle’s going to be in heaven,” Quinn said. “He’s always loved homemade chocolate chip cookies.”

She handed over the plate.

“Sorry if my mom pushed this dinner on you,” he said, taking the plate in his hands, hoping that Ginny hadn’t bothered them all day.

She shook her head. “Ginny’s a pleasure.”

This made him smile. “Glad to hear it. She can be pushy when she wants to be.”

He held out his free hand to let her go first toward the house, but she hesitated and smiled at him. And that was when he felt that crazy knee-buckling thing he’d done when he’d seen Lisa that very first time.

He was in trouble whether Meredith sold the house or stayed.

“Meredith!” Kyle called out from their porch.

Her smile grew when she saw Kyle waving at her. “Kyle! Guess what?”

“What’s that?” Kyle asked, stepping over to Quinn. “Are these the chocolate chip cookies?”

“The same ones we were telling you about,” Meredith said, walking away from Quinn to Kyle.

Quinn couldn’t pinpoint what had transpired since he’d left after breakfast that morning besides the fact that Kyle hadn’t mowed the lawn, but things had changed.

“Kyle showed me everything about the boat,” Meredith said, not realizing the fuse she’d set off.

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