Page 58 of The Cottage on Blueberry Bay

“I was hoping you’d give me first right of refusal,” he said.

“Sure,” she said. She had no idea what the boat was worth, but she certainly had no use for a lobster boat. “Are you planning on catching lobsters with it?”

He smiled. “Lots of them.”

Meredith suddenly noticed Kyle’s clothes. He stood in a button-up and a pair of dress pants. He looked formal, like he was going to an office job. Not a teenage boy going to hang out for the summer.

“Don’t you look nice,” she said to the young man.

He put his hands in his pockets. “Thank you. I have a college interview this morning.”

“That’s great news!” The news seemed like something to celebrate, but Kyle didn’t look happy.

He shrugged. “Yeah, I guess.”

“Good school?” she said.

“Not my top pick, but I’ll get a good amount of financial aid,” he said. “But maybe if I had a boat, I could catch some lobsters and afford my dream school.”

“You can earn that kind of money catching lobsters?” she asked.

Kyle nodded. “They don’t call it the gold of the sea for nothing.”

She smiled at that, but was hit by the thought of how Kyle’s own great-grandfather had died in the boat accident and here he was offering to buy the boat from the only survivor. If he were her son, she’d have a hard time getting over their history and letting him go out in the waters.

“Do you know how much the boat is worth?” she asked him, having no clue. She had a feeling Quinn marked the estimated price somewhere in the portfolio he had created, but she still hadn’t opened it to know.

Kyle nodded. “I have a rough estimate of the price.”

She smiled at the confidence of the young man. She didn’t know much about fishing boats, but she knew they’d be worth a lot more than just the price of a car. Did this kid have that kind of money? The kind of money that might save her from selling her children’s home for a few months while she and Remy figured things out?

“Great, well, what are you doing in a half hour?” she asked.

“Excuse me?” he looked confused.

“I’m just about to have breakfast, then maybe you could show me Jacob’s boat.”

A wide grin expanded across his face. “I’ll meet you here, and we can walk over.”

“Perfect,” she said. “Is it close by?”

She looked out at the water—the cliffs too high and rocky to dock a boat. The harbor in town had appeared to be full of lobster boats, and she’d assumed it would be docked there.

“It’s behind the barn,” Kyle said, then gave a wave and took off, running toward the house.

She laughed at his excitement and hoped she wouldn’t have to burst his bubble if he couldn’t afford it.

Coming into the kitchen, she asked Remy, “How much do you think a lobster boat is worth?”

Remy shrugged, plating the eggs with her spatula. “Depends.”

Meredith grabbed her phone but realized she didn’t even need to look it up. She had the portfolio. She looked in the corner of the room where she had dumped all the paperwork on top of Jacob’s desk that Remy had cleaned off.

She walked over and grabbed the portfolio that listed all of Jacob’s assets and market value at the time of the writing of the will.

She brought it to the table, where Remy placed down two plates beside a glass of orange juice and a steaming cup of coffee. She stared at the booklet before opening it. She read the detailed table of contents and found the tab where Jacob’s boat was listed.

“It’s worth twenty grand,” Remy said, tapping on the price listed on the page.

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