Ryan Taggert was an asshole. He had deliberately misled her. He’d misled a gullible 102-year-old woman, too, and he did it just to make a buck. He was not at all the man she thought he was.
Emily leaned over to grab her laptop from the counter, flipping it open so she could look at flight times. “Chloe, you should head on upstairs. I just need to make some plane reservations, and then I’m going to bed too.”
“Okay, but I still feel like if we just ask Mrs. O’Malley not to sell it, then she won’t. Or if she has sold it, I really think we just need to ask Ryan and Tag not to build there.”
Emily patted her arm. “I hope you’re right, honey. I’ll ask them about it when I get back from San Antonio.”
“How long will you be there?”
“Four or five days. I have to pack up all our stuff at home, I mean, from Jewel’s house, and put it in storage until we figure out where we want to live.”
“Would this be a good time to mention that I want to try living here? Maybe not for forever, but for a year or so? Just until my boobs grow in and then we can go back to San Antonio and I can tell Anastasia Whitcomb to kiss my butt.”
Emily smiled for the first time in several hours. “Do you really think you want to live here?”
Chloe came up and hugged her. “I think it would be fun. We could help Aunt Brooke become the mayor, and I could ride horses all year round. I really like my new friends, too. Susie Mahoney is like my best friend in the world.”
Chloe looked so earnest and hopeful. What was Emily fighting against? She had everything she needed right here. Eventually Taggert Property Management would finish their jobs and get the hell off her island. She was the one who had a right to be here. Not them.
“Probably, honey. I can’t give you an answer tonight because I’m kind of confused about some stuff, but I promise I will think about it.”
“Do you want to know the other reason I like it here?”
“Why?”
“People have started calling me Niblet. I think that’s kind of cute.”
“Thanks for giving me a ride to the boat docks, Dad,” Emily said as she sat next to her father in the police wagon early the next morning. “You really didn’t have to.”
“I know I didn’t have to, but once in a while maybe you could try to let me do something nice.”
“Okay, I will. In that case, can I ask you for a favor?”
“Of course.”
“Will you stop by the cottage I’m renovating once or twice a day and make sure my crew is actually working and not doing yoga or square dancing or just generally wasting time?”
“I can absolutely do that. Will you do something for me?”
“I can try.”
“Okay. I won’t tell you to move home because I don’t think that’s my business. You have to do what you think is best for you and Chloe, but I want you to promise to come visit more often. And if you decide you do want to move here, I could sure use some updating at my place. Nothing too fancy, but it might be time for me to get a dishwasher or replace the green appliances.”
“Are you offering me a job?”
“A job, a place to stay, whatever you need.”
Emily turned her face away to brush off a tear. If Harlan saw her crying, he’d regret saying anything at all. “I think maybe I would like to move home, Dad. Maybe not permanently, but long enough so Chloe can see what she thinks of a Michigan winter, so maybe we could stay for a year and see how it goes?”
“I like that idea. I like that idea a lot.”
She smiled. “Me too.”
There. That was one decision made. She was going to pack up her stuff in San Antonio and ship it here. She’d miss Jewel like crazy, but since her friend now had a new job and a new fiancé, realistically she wasn’t going to have much time for Emily for a while anyway. She’d just have to come to Trillium Bay for a summer vacation.
“Can I ask you something, Peach?” Harlan said a few minutes later.
“Of course.”
“What do you think I ought to do about that Taggert fella and your sister?”
He was asking her opinion. That was a pretty big deal.
“I don’t really know, Dad, but one thing I suggest is that you don’t freeze Lilly out. You might not realize this, but sometimes you’re a little hard to talk to.”
She saw the slight twitch of his lips. That was the Harlan Callaghan version of LOL, so she was satisfied.
“That might be true, so I’ll try. But this is a hard one. It was bad enough when you took off, but at least I could understand the attraction. But this? Her and him? He’s my age. Do you know how wrong I’d feel spending time with someone her age? It’s indecent.”
“I’m not sure what to tell you. It doesn’t make a lot of sense to me, either, but it’s Lilly’s life, and she has to learn to deal with the consequences of her decisions, just like I had to.”
Apparently Emily was still learning that lesson, because by all accounts her judgment in men had not improved much in the past fifteen years. She wasn’t likely to meet anyone on the island, either, but at the moment, that felt like a blessing.
“Here we are,” her father said, pulling on the reins. The horses shuffled to a lazy stop, and Emily grabbed her bag from the back.
“Thanks again, Dad.” She felt another tear coming and flicked it away. “I’ll be back in five days. I’ll see you then.”
“I look forward to it.”
She climbed down from the buggy and smiled up at him. “Me too, Dad.” And she actually meant it.
Chapter 31
The first thing Emily Chambers noticed five days later when she stepped off the ferryboat and walked down the dock toward Main Street of Trillium Bay was Dmitri Krushnic in his beekeeping hat sitting out front of Joe’s Cuppa Joe enjoying some version of coffee that included whipped cream and sprinkles.
“Hiya, Peach. Good to have you back. How was San Antonio?”
She shrugged and readjusted the travel bag slung over her shoulder. “It was okay, I guess, but can you keep a secret?” She knew he could not.
He put his hand over his heart solemnly. “I’ll take it to the grave.”
That was a risky promise to make, knowing his track record. “I’ve decided to move back home. Here to the island.”
His smile broadened, exposing that gap between his two front teeth. “Why, that’s wonderful news. Just wonderful, and I promise my lips are sealed. No one will hear it from me.”
She sincerely doubted that, but no matter. Peach had come home to stay, and telling Dmitri it was a secret was certainly the most expedient way to spread the word.