Page 37 of The Cottage on Blueberry Bay

“His mind wasn’t well,” Ginny said.

“The fact is, we were lucky he didn’t sell years ago,” Quinn said. “If he hadn’t been a hermit, he’d be gone by now.”

“Let’s just hope this doesn’t jack up the taxes on our house.”

Quinn could barely afford his life right now. Between saving for college, paying back his own college loans, and helping with the house expenses and mortgage left from his parents, he was barely in the black. “Maybe there’s some historical housing rule I could find somewhere.”

Ginny turned off the television.

Ginny’s eyes watered. “What will happen to the Queen Bees and all our work we do for the community? What will happen to Kyle’s inheritance after they tear apart the view and build in front of us?”

“Mom, it’s going to be fine,” Quinn said. “Don’t worry.”

But the truth was, Jacob’s daughter would be crazy not to sell.

CHAPTER14

Meredith sat outside all night. She found a few blankets, washed them, and set herself up on the porch so that she could wake to the sunrise.

As the night got colder, she went inside to look for some more blankets, when she noticed a flicker of firelight out on the beach. Jacob’s beach. No one should be having a fire on the beach, well, besides her.

Because it was her beach.

She grabbed a flashlight and put her sneakers on. She didn’t have a clue how to get to where the light was, but she wanted to see what was going on. She didn’t even know what she was going to do if she got there. Did it even matter if someone was using Jacob’s beach? He didn’t seem to mind anyone on his property. Just because her name was now on the deed didn’t mean people were going to stop using a piece of property they believed they were allowed to use.

Besides, the idea of a fire on the edge of the Atlantic Ocean appealed to her.

Had she ever had a fire on the beach before?

Phillip didn’t like the beach or lakes or sand. He preferred the clean water of the pool. They had gone to Mexico for their honeymoon, but after that, they’d traveled to Europe.

Seaside villages like Blueberry Bay, with its bric-a-brac storefronts and touristy restaurants, were tacky to Phillip. He preferred the exclusive areas or cities. She couldn’t even remember the last time she’d gone to a beach.

With the flashlight in hand, she noticed a couple sitting by the fire. The two were tangled together like the branches of the bushes that she tried to carefully walk between, yet still scraped every part of her leg with its thorns.

“There’s someone coming!” The girl said loud enough that Meredith could hear, and her first instinct was to duck.

She turned the flashlight off and listened.

“That’s Jacob’s daughter.”

Meredith recognized Kyle’s voice.

“That crazy old guy had a daughter?” the girl said.

Meredith couldn’t hear what Kyle said back, but she wasn’t going to wait around to hear more of their opinions of Jacob or her. She hurried back through the bushes, scratching up her legs even more, and ran into the cottage before they saw her.

She stood inside the house and laughed at herself. Why was she running from a couple of teenagers making out on the beach?

Her phone began ringing in the other room, and she saw it was her sister.

“Hey,” she said as she answered, looking at the time. “It’s late.”

“Hey,” Remy said back. “I waited for you to call, but…How is everything?”

Meredith looked around the small room she stood in. If she were to guess, she would say it was Jacob’s studio for painting or pottery. Splatter from all kinds of art materials scattered the walls and floors. For a split second, she imagined it as a music room. But she shook the idea as quickly away as it came.

Her music room was in Andover, where she once could get lost in for hours if not days at a time. She hadn’t thought about her and her music room as a refuge in a long time. When was the last time she’d played the piano and gotten lost in the music?

---