The Cottage on Nantucket Read online

  She didn’t need to be anyone but the responsible, reliable Tessa she’d always been. Why she thought she’d needed to prove anything to anyone, she now didn’t understand.

  Her frustration morphed and aimed inward, and Tessa sighed.

  “We still have the chairs on the deck,” Janey said, approaching with a cup of coffee. “Should we go sit out there? I can catch you up on things here, and you can tell me why you’re two days late.” She looked so hopeful, her eyes wide and filled with concern.

  Tessa fell into that spot where she belonged to Janey, and Janey belonged to her, and she accepted the cup of coffee with, “Sure, let’s go sit outside.” She’d taken two steps before she turned back to Janey.

  “And bring that blue binder. I want to look at it.”

  Half an hour later, the hook in Tessa’s stomach had been joined by at least two more. Mom had outlined everything in this binder, and Janey had simply followed the directions. If Tessa had bothered to read it instead of downing a bottle of wine, she wouldn’t have had to suffer with her unwarranted bitterness, frustration, and suspicions.

  She’d finished her coffee a while ago, and now she simply sat watching the sun paint the sky with rays of gold, orange, rose, pink, and violet.

  “How’s Milford?” she finally asked into the silence. Thankfully, she hadn’t accused Janey of anything.

  “Great,” Janey said, reaching up to touch something at her collar. She’d done so a couple of times in the past thirty minutes, and Tessa finally looked over to her.

  “New necklace?” The silver starfish boasted diamonds along each of its five arms, and while it looked familiar, she couldn’t place where she’d seen it before. Perhaps Sean had given it to Janey.

  “New to me,” Janey said. “Mom left it for me in the safety deposit box in the city. I found it when I went to close the account.”

  Surprise moved through Tessa, but she’d had enough experience to keep her mouth shut even when her thoughts begged to come out.

  “I gave it to her for her fiftieth birthday,” Janey said. “I guess she wanted me to have it back.” She sniffled—actually sniffled—and Tessa’s shock only grew. She hadn’t seen Janey cry in years. She stuffed everything away from prying eyes, even Tessa’s, and always remained the picture of perfection on the outside.

  She reached over and took Janey’s hand in hers, squeezing as she said, “I’m glad she gave it back to you. It’s beautiful.”

  Janey nodded, her eyes still trained out on the sand, surf, or sky. Several minutes passed, and just as Tessa released her hand, Janey said, “I’m not seeing Sean.”

  “I didn’t say you were.”

  “But you’re thinking it.”

  “I wasn’t actually thinking about anything but how early is too early to go to bed.” She flashed her sister a smile, but it wavered at the top of the curve, quickly falling flat.

  “Then I just wanted you to know.” Janey sighed and slouched further in her Adirondack chair. “I also broke up with Curtis. I’m only seeing Milford right now, and he was able to come to Jersey for a couple of nights over the weekend.”

  “That’s great,” Tessa said, pleased with this personal update. “Are things…serious with him? Or are you keeping him in the outer box?”

  Janey had once explained to Tessa about outer boxes and inner boxes. She kept men where she wanted them, so she wouldn’t get hurt, and neither would they. She’d let too many into her inner boxes, allowing them to get close enough to her heart to break it, and she proceeded with much more caution now.

  Tessa had simply nodded along like she understood, but she hadn’t. She wasn’t sure if she did even now, but she wanted to communicate with Janey in her own language.

  “He’s getting really close to the inner box,” Janey admitted. “Especially now that I’ve told him I’d like to be exclusive.” A smile touched her mouth. “He said, for him, we’ve always been exclusive. That he didn’t want anyone but me.”

  “I bet that was nice to hear.” Tessa wasn’t sure what she needed to hear from Ron. They’d had a fine weekend together. Nothing special. Sleeping late on Saturday, then her work at the library, and brunch on Sunday. He’d gone running both days, claiming he missed the clear air and hated running on a treadmill in the city. He’d made love to her early on Sunday night, said he couldn’t wait for their vacation right here on Nantucket in a couple of weeks, and he’d been gone before dawn on Monday morning.

  “It was,” Janey admitted while Tessa continued to evaluate her weekend. Ron often complained about his life in the city, but he’d been living it for over two decades.

  Maybe it was time for a change, and a brand-new life bloomed right before her eyes. Perhaps even right here, on this deck. She imagined sitting here with Ron at her side, not her sister, as they talked about their day, what they’d do tomorrow, and when Ryan would bring his girlfriend home to meet them.

  He’d not reported any more about who Ryan had met, citing that their son hadn’t wanted to say much about it.

  Her mind felt stuffed full, and Tessa needed a mental break. That was why she’d started drinking in the evenings. Too much to think about, and it weighed her down. The buzz of the alcohol removed all of that, and she didn’t have to think so dang hard.

  Sleep would do the same thing, and tonight, she simply wanted to do that. “Well, I’m tired,” she said. “I’m going to head to bed.”

  “You never said why you couldn’t come on Tuesday,” Janey said, standing with Tessa. Her eyes probed, and Tessa had never been able to lie to her sister very well.

  “Oh, just a meeting at the library, and then some stuff with Ron and Ryan.” She watched Janey’s eyes round. “Minor stuff,” she said.

  “Did you tell them about the new assets?”

  “Just Ron,” Tessa said. “He went over the packet of evidence, but he wasn’t terribly impressed.” She shrugged, though she had brought the documents with her. “I’m surprised we haven’t heard from any of Dennis’s children.”

  “Besides Aleah showing up at my hotel room,” Janey reminded her.

  “Right, besides that.”

  “We need to talk about those assets,” Janey said as she started for the corner of the house. “Tomorrow? While we’re knee-deep in whatever’s in that garage?” She glanced at Tessa over her shoulder, a teasing, sarcastic tone to her voice and a glint of it in her eye.

  “Sure,” Tessa said, tired from tomorrow’s events already. “I also want to go see the house on Long Island.” She thought fast, because for some reason, she wanted to make the trip alone. “In fact, I have a ticket to fly out on Monday morning to do that.”

  “You do?” Janey paused and turned around completely, and Tessa made her face as impassive as possible.

  “Yes,” Tessa said, watching her sister carefully. “Unless you’ve already gone? I didn’t think you had, and I want to see what we’re dealing with there.”

  “I haven’t gone,” Janey said, indicating the blue binder in Tessa’s hands. “It said more information about the house would be provided once we went to the bank and the hotel. Have you gotten anything?”

  “Gotten anything?” Tessa repeated, thinking telling little fibs to her sister had somehow gotten easier. “No, I haven’t received anything. You went to the bank and the hotel. Did you get anything?”

  “No, nothing.” Janey whipped around so fast that Tessa knew instantly that she was lying.

  “Strange,” Tessa said moving around the corner of the cottage to find Janey had already reached the door. It was almost as if she was running away from Tessa and the conversation.

  Definitely strange—and her sister had definitely received something. Tessa just needed to figure out what, or how to bring up the subject again in a way that would get her the answers she needed.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  “All of this is junk.” Tessa exhaled and wiped the back of her hand up her forehead, clearing away the hair that had stuck there. Cleaning out a
garage in the middle of the summer wasn’t a treat, and trying to get the job done with her sullen, mostly silent sister only added tension to the chore.

  “I agree,” Janey said, coming to stand beside Tessa in front of the large bank of lockers that took up the entire far side of the garage. Ragged surfboards, boogie boards, plastic buckets and shovels, and beach chairs lay or stood haphazardly in the compartments. “Lord, look at those life jackets.”

  The end locker held an assortment of life jackets, all of them with frayed straps and faded colors on the padding. Several dark spots had bloomed on a couple of them, and Tessa backed up a step. “They’re moldy,” she said, looking at Janey. “We should’ve gone to get those masks.”

  She’d suggested it that morning, but Janey hadn’t wanted to waste the cooler morning hours with driving downtown for protective masks. They’d been working steadily for a while now, and the temperature in the garage kept climbing.

  At least she’d found some gloves on the shelf just inside the garage. Sure, they’d crinkled and cracked when she’d first put them on, but the gear had protected her hands. She started pulling things from the locker and loading them into the wheelbarrow Janey had found in the garden.

  “We should probably talk about the hotel,” Tessa said without looking at Janey.

  “Probably.”

  “I looked it up online last night,” Tessa said, fitting in one more life jacket before moving around to the handles of the wheelbarrow. “It looks amazing. Plenty of rooms. High ratings. A good restaurant on ground level.”

  “It was beautiful,” Janey agreed.

  “What do you want to do with it?” Tessa asked. She didn’t want to make any suggestions today. She wanted Janey to talk, so she’d know what she thought and where she stood.

  “I don’t think Mom did anything with it,” Janey said. “I think she hired a general manager, and he does everything at the hotel.”

  “Charles Burns,” Tessa said as she left the garage. They’d ordered a massive haul-away Dumpster, and it sat right in front of the garage. She began tossing in the life jackets.

  “Right,” Janey said from inside. “He’s got housekeeping managers, a restaurant manager, hospitality managers, a security manager, and then people working in all of those divisions.”

  Tessa had seen that on the website. With the wheelbarrow empty, she returned to the lockers, passing Janey as she carried two surfboards toward the Dumpster.

  “The money flows up,” Janey said. “Mom drew a salary from the hotel, the same way Charles does.”

  “Really?” Tessa tackled the sand toys, loading the brittle and faded plastic into the wheelbarrow.

  “Yes,” Janey said. “I spoke to him on Wednesday. That’s what he said. So we can do the same thing. Split the salary each month. The only thing we’ll need to manage is hiring someone should Charles ever decide to leave.”

  “How much is the salary?”

  “Ten thousand per month,” she said. “He assured me we could set it at whatever we wanted. The hotel makes plenty of money, and he put me in touch with the financial officer—a man named Felix Conrad.”

  Wednesday. Why hadn’t Janey told her any of this then? She bit against the resentment, because she was the one who’d invented some minor crisis and had stayed away from Nantucket. Janey probably hadn’t wanted to bother her.

  “So I put a call out to him, but he’s on vacation this week. His secretary told me he’d call first thing Monday morning.”

  “Okay.” Tessa went back and forth cleaning out the lockers toy by toy and piece by piece. Janey called her over to a tall trunk in the corner by the lockers.

  “Mom’s gardening tools.”

  They both looked down into the mess of rusted shovels, handheld rakes, and even an unopened bag of decorative stone Mom hadn’t used yet.

  Tessa could see Mom working in the garden, those bright green gloves on her hands. She’d loved gardening, and Tessa had loved toddling around after her with a rake small enough to fit in her hand as she “worked” with her.

  “Let’s get rid of that bag of fertilizer,” she said. “But we could keep everything else.”

  “It should go out in the shed with the other tools.” Janey looked at Tessa, who nodded.

  Her sister reached for the bag of fertilizer, and it came free of the jumble of other items easily. “We can also stay at The Hotel Benjamin whenever we want,” Janey said. “The owner’s apartment on the forty-second floor is never rented out. Charles and some of the other higher-level managers use it also, so there is a schedule for reserving it. He sent me a link. I forwarded it to you.”

  Tessa nodded, though she hadn’t been on her email in days. “And everything at the bank is closed.”

  “Yep.”

  “What about the intellectual property?” Tessa followed Janey toward the gaping mouth of the garage and picked up the handheld brush and dustpan it was attached to. She separated the two pieces and began sweeping out the lockers.

  “That’s actually managed by someone else,” Janey said when she returned to the garage. “This literary agent listed in the binder. I called her. She said she managed the IP, selling it in various forms over the years. When royalties are due—and they come from different sources around the globe, at different times of year—then she takes her cut, and sends Mom a check for the rest.”

  “Wow,” Tessa said. “What’s her cut?”

  “Twenty percent on international deals, like she sold Conway’s first trilogy in Germany, and I guess it does well there. They pay out twice a year, she said. His books have actually been sold in twenty-one countries, and they all pay at different times. Sherryl—that’s her name—said she sent Mom money almost every month. Sometimes it’s a lot—like when Warner Brothers renewed their rights to make the movies of that first trilogy—and sometimes it’s not.”

  Janey paused and lifted her water bottle to her lips. Today, she wore a tight-fitting tank top that showed off her muscular arms. She’d paired that with a short pair of shorts that hugged her thighs and made her look strong and sexy at the same time.

  Tessa had opted to stay more covered, as she usually did. The extra weight she carried contributed to that, as did the fact that she didn’t think she was young enough to pull off a pair of cutoffs that barely covered anything.

  “Domestic deals are fifteen percent,” Janey said. “That’s print, ebooks, and audiobooks here in the US. Movie deals here. Comic books, graphic novels, merchandise. Anything that uses anything from his books, Sherryl sells. She takes her cut; we get the rest.” She set her water bottle down and looked up at the bicycles hanging from pegs on the back wall. “We just need to give her our updated payment information, and she said she’ll take care of the rest.”

  “Okay,” Tessa said, actually impressed by all Janey had done. Familiar guilt crept through her, and she went to help her sister get the bikes down. “Flat tires everywhere,” she said.

  “Why didn’t Mom get rid of these? I think these are the original bikes we got from that safety fair once.” Janey gazed up at the dilapidated bicycles and then met Tessa’s eye. “Remember that?”

  Tessa nodded, because she’d been thrilled to finally have a bicycle here on Nantucket. A lot of people rode them, and there were miles of trails along the beaches. Mom and Daddy had taken them to a safety fair put on by the Sheriff’s Department, and both she and Janey had brought a bike back to the cottage.

  “These haven’t been ridden in years,” Janey said. “Should we toss them and get new ones if we want them?”

  “Yes,” Tessa said. They had to work together to heave the bikes over the top of the Dumpster, and Tessa felt the bond between her and Janey restitching and regrowing. When that job was done, Tessa once again wiped her sticky hair off her forehead. Her stomach growled, and her shoulders and back ached.

  “Janey,” she said, and her sister turned toward her. “Thank you for dealing with all of that.”

  “Of course,” she said w
ith a smile. “I said I would, and you’ve already done so much with the original will and trust.”

  Tessa smiled, glad when her sister made the first move and drew her into a hug. “We should put all of these things into the trust,” she said. “That way, we’re both trustees of it, and we can both pass them onto our children.”

  Janey pulled back, her eyes bright. “Really? Mom left them to you for a reason, Tess.”

  “But I don’t know what it is.”

  Janey turned away and bent to pick up the stiff broom that had fallen. “I think Dennis’s children will come after them. Once that’s all settled, then yes. We put them in the trust—if you still own them.”

  She walked to the back of the garage, turned, and started sweeping the mess they’d made toward the wide door at the front.

  “I’m going to order from Fisherman’s Plate,” Tessa said, pulling her phone from her pocket. “I’m starving, and I’m sweaty, and I need a break.”

  “Get me the salmon tacos,” Janey said, the comforting swish-swish-swish of the broom somehow settling Tessa even further.

  That evening, Tessa watched Janey walk away from the house. They’d taken it easy that afternoon, sort of puttering around the yard and making assessments for what needed to be done more than actually doing anything.

  The shed that sat next to the cottage in the back yard held a variety of tools, most of them rusted or broken. They’d agreed to go to town in the morning and get proper equipment for tackling the yard, and then Janey had showered while Tessa had taken a nap.

  She’d emerged from her bedroom wearing a gorgeous teal blouse and a pair of skinny jeans. She said she was going to take a walk on the beach, and she’d tucked her phone in her back pocket and pinched her sandals in her fingers before leaving.

  Tessa didn’t believe for a single moment that she was going to simply walk the beach in perfume, makeup, and jewelry. She was going to meet someone for dinner, despite her declaration that she wasn’t seeing Sean.