Page 34 of The Cottage on Blueberry Bay

She sent it to Remy.

INCREDIBLE!Remy wrote back immediately.Send more pics.

But Meredith didn’t want to send more. She wanted her sister to call her, so she could explain that she was about to have a nervous breakdown. Everything was starting to pile up.

After scrubbing the counters, she cleaned the cabinets, ran the dishwasher, and removed all perishables from the fridge. As she was taking out the trash, a pickup truck pulled up.

A teenage boy jumped out of the driver’s side, holding bags in his hands, and walked up and into the house. She could smell something fantastic coming from one of the bags. He came back out as fast as he went in.

“Um…Ms. Johnson,” the boy said. “I’m Quinn’s son, Kyle. My dad wanted me to bring this stuff to you.”

“Hi, Kyle,” she said, looking down at the garbage bags in her hands. “Do you mind bringing it into the kitchen?”

“Sure thing,” he said. He pointed at the trash bags. “You can leave those by the garage if you’d like, and I’ll take them.”

“Oh, um, where will you take them?” she asked.

“To the dump,” the boy said. “We don’t have trash pickup around here.”

She thought about that for a moment. They didn’t have trash pickup.

“That’s really nice of you,” she said.

“We always took Jacob’s garbage for him,” he said with a shrug.

Kyle walked up to the porch and inside like he had been there many times before, easily walking through the mess of things.

She was impressed with the young man. Would her children offer to take the trash across town for a stranger?

Meredith thought about the time Ryan had dropped a whole bag of garbage and it exploded all over the kitchen floor. As it had happened, she’d almost lost it—a great big mess that she would have to clean up. But Ryan hadn’t asked for help, like usual. Instead, he’d done what he had to do to clean it up. She watched in amazement as her son, who she had thought knew nothing about housework, had pulled out the bucket and mop. She’d been so proud at the time—of Ryan for taking ownership of his mistake and of herself for raising a young man who cleaned up after himself.

When Phillip had come home that night, she couldn’t wait to tell him. But rather than share in her small victory, it actually upset him. “You’re excited about Ryan cleaning up, and I barely want to come home,” Phillip had complained.

At first, Phillip had thought he was depressed, that his unhappiness was him needing more free time, and then even more free time. Then her mother got sick. Phillip suddenly had all the free time in the world with her taking care of her mother.

Then a year after her mother’s death, he asked for a divorce.

It wasn’t until later that she knew what Phillip was doing in his free time.

“Ms. Johnson?” Kyle said.

“Oh, sorry. Were you saying something?” she asked, realizing she was still standing with the garbage bags in her hand.

“Would you like me to take them for you?” Kyle asked.

“Yes, please, that would be wonderful,” she said. “How far is the dump?”

“It’s a good drive,” Kyle said, looking behind him. Then he said, “But it beats mowing the lawn, so I’ll take the trash anytime you want.”

He plucked the trash out of her hands and walked toward the truck.

“You hungry?” Quinn said, coming out of the house. She noticed the bags with a lobster on it. “We’d love for you to join us tonight.”

Was this guy for real? Or was it all an act to get her to continue to work with him on Jacob’s estate? Maybe he continued to get a fee the longer he helped?

But by the way he held up the bag, and how badly her stomach growled, she didn’t see a better option.

“Sure. That sounds great.”

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