Page 79 of The Cottage on Blueberry Bay

“It was when I had my glaucoma surgery,” Hazel said. “Remember?”

“Um, well, I might not be here,” Meredith said. It was spoken so quietly that the women arguing about when they’d bought a power trimmer for the bushes couldn’t hear the bomb Meredith had just dropped on them.

“Ladies,” Quinn said, using his deep voice to power over their volume.

All the women turned in his direction.

He cleared his throat, a tad nervous with everyone waiting for him to talk.

“Meredith is allowing you use of the landthisseason,” he said, emphasizing the use of this.

“Oh,” Hazel said.

The chatter around the room stopped.

“You’re selling the farm?” Barbara asked accusatory.

“I don’t know what I’m doing,” Meredith said and added, “Yet.”

Quinn held up his hand when Linda began to ask another question. “Look, ladies, we all knew at some point this would happen. Fortunately for us, Meredith has kindly agreed for the Queen Bees to continue to farm the blueberries for the festival this year.”

“I’m sorry to disappoint you all,” Meredith said. “But I can’t afford two homes. And my children’s home is in Massachusetts.”

Ginny smiled among the rest of the sad faces. “We know you need to do what’s best for you and your family.”

“I will try to figure things out,” Meredith said.

“You’ve been more than kind,” Quinn said, looking at the long faces. “Thank you for allowing the Queen Bees to continue through this season.”

“Of course. I want to help,” she said.

“Well, I guess making her the Blueberry Queen seems a bit silly,” Carolyn said loudly.

“Wear your ears next time,” Ginny said to her sister.

“Bring beer next time?” Carolyn looked confused.

Quinn waited for his aunt to stop talking and then said, “You may want, as a collective group, to consider how you will get other blueberries if the property becomes unavailable to you.”

“Why would we need other blueberries?” Hazel asked, not understanding the situation—or maybe she hadn’t heard the whole conversation.

“Because Ms. Johnson may not keep the property or run it like Jacob has over the years,” Quinn said as clearly as possible. He closed his eyes and then looked at Ginny.

“Mom, did you tell them something different?” He hoped Ginny hadn’t gotten their hopes up that things would continue as usual.

Ginny made a face. “Well…”

“If we don’t have a field of blueberries for the festival…” Linda said, letting her voice trail off.

“Then we don’t have a festival,” Pauline finished for her.

Linda finally looked as though she understood what was at stake. “The town needs to do something to prepare for that. It’s been a tourist attraction for fifty years. People come up here for it. We need to provide something to continue the business, or we need to ask the town to buy the property.”

Quinn had been telling her selectman husband that for weeks now.

“Maybe we can work something out with other farms around the area.” Pauline looked doubtful as she said it. “I’m sure of it.”

“I’m really sorry,” Meredith said, but Ginny shook her head.

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