Page 14 of The Cottage on Blueberry Bay

She found a bench and sat down, facing the bronze piece, and stared out at the water. The Atlantic Ocean sparkled in the sunlight as far as the eye could see. If she had not been visiting her dead father’s home, it would have been a perfect day—blue skies, no clouds, just enough of a breeze to cool from the sun’s heat.

She looked back at the statue. Her mother looked happy, which at the end of her life, Meredith hadn’t seen. The end had been hard for her mother, and she had been drugged up so much she had hardly been cognizant of what was happening. When Meredith had finally gotten enough bravery to ask the questions she wanted to know, Jacqueline had been too sick to answer them.

Maybe Jacqueline had wanted closure, and so did Meredith, by coming up here. There were so many what-ifs. What if her mother and Jacob had stayed married? What if she had grown up in this beautiful small town?

Taking another deep breath, she collected herself and headed back to the car. Leaving the pier, she took a few more photos of the little village square lined with potted plants and different pieces of art. The mermaid had been one of a dozen or so different pieces displayed in perennial flower gardens.

Meredith couldn’t deny the beauty of the New England seaside village. The quaint clapboard buildings, the easygoing feel everyone gave off, the simple feeling of nature being the center of everyone’s attention. It had been the reason her mother’s family had bought a summer home there and how her mother had met Jacob, the local fisherman’s boy. That much she did know about her parents.

She pulled back onto Main Street and drove toward Blueberry Bay Lane. On the GPS, it looked as though there was only one road in to get to Jacob’s house.

She drove down the long, narrow road, following a winding waterway. Soon, houses lined the sides—small Victorian fishing houses with front porches. The road curved along a sandy beach. She followed the GPS as the paved road ended and turned to seashell gravel. There at the end sat a cottage that appeared to be hanging over the Atlantic Ocean. She stopped the car in the middle of the road and looked at it.

With a deep breath, she got out of her car and walked up to the cottage.

The tiny gray cape looked even quainter than the Google Street View photo Remy had shown her. But as she got closer, the quaintness gave way to a look of neglect. Pink beach plum rose bushes grew over the windows and hid a porch she hadn’t even noticed until she got closer. The paint had peeled off the old porch that held one broken rocking chair. Overgrown brush covered what may have been the front yard. Window boxes sat empty, and broken pots sat in what appeared to have been a flower garden but now looked like a patch of weeds.

But none of that mattered when she saw the view.

The sparkling blue water dazzled, as if millions of diamonds shimmered the sun’s reflection back at her. The sight was overwhelming, and without warning, Meredith started to tear up for no reason.

She remembered the man who had chased her in the gardens.

Jacob.

She turned around before reaching the porch, deciding she wanted nothing to do with Jacob O’Neill. She wasn’t even going to bother going inside the house. She would take a quick pic for Remy and meet with the lawyer.

Then she would sell it.

CHAPTER6

Quinn Michaud waited outside Blueberry Bay High School, watching all the other parents sit in the pickup line. Parents—well, mostly, the moms—of Blueberry Bay sat in their minivans or mini-SUVs. Quinn realized there were only two fathers in the pickup line waiting for their child to finish their sports practice. Back in his day, his father had made him walk.

Always a fisherman, John Michaud believed in three things—God, family, and hard work. Along with making your kid walk home from sports practice.

“Hey, Dad,” Kyle said, getting into the truck.

“Hey, bud,” Quinn said, shifting the truck into drive.

“Didn’t you have a meeting?” Kyle said. “I thought Grandma was picking me up.”

Quinn shook his head. For two hours, Quinn had waited in his office for Jacob’s daughter to arrive. “She hasn’t shown up.”

Quinn understood this woman hadn’t had a relationship with Jacob, but to just blow off a dead man and his attorney rubbed him the wrong way.

But just as he pulled out of the parking lot, he got a text.Stuck in traffic with no service. My GPS says it will be another hour.

He moaned to himself. He had forgotten how badly the highway got clogged up by tourists during the summer. He hadn’t had to drive up to Maine since he’d lived in the city.

Take your time,he texted back.

“Dude, can I borrow the car tonight?” Kyle asked him as he typed on his phone. “I finally got Brianna to go out with me.”

“Dude, no,” Quinn said, shaking his head. “I have to meet Jacob’s daughter tonight.”

“I thought you said she wasn’t coming,” Kyle said.

“That’s not what I said.” Quinn looked at Kyle’s shaggy hair and noticed two white earbuds. “How do you even hear with those things in your ears?”

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