The elderly Mr. Jenkins was still tall and thin as a pencil. Seemed he’d been that way since Cody was a kid. As they entered the office, the lawyer lifted his reading glasses from his nose and set them atop his balding head. He smiled kindly at Jenna, but didn’t appear to recognize her. “Hello, there,” he directed to her. “Can I help—”
“I’m Eddie Kingsley’s granddaughter,” Jenna explained.
“Ah, yes.” He waved to Jenna to follow him into his private office. “Right this way.” He looked back at Cody. “You, too.”
Jenna refused the chair she was offered. “I don’t want to take up much of your time, Mr. Jenkins. My grandpa asked me to hand-deliver a letter to Cody Evans and to let you know when it had been read. And it has. Right, Cody?”
“Yes. But—”
“Can I have the keys to the cabin now?” Jenna asked Mr. Jenkins before he could get settled in his chair behind the desk.Ah, the mystery is solved.“Whatever document needs to be signed, we’re happy to take care of it and be out of your hair.”
Mr. Jenkins seemed taken aback.He knows something Jenna doesn’t.Sensing he was going to be later still to breakfast, Cody silenced his phone and took a seat. Words from the list jumped out at him, but not in any coherent order.Halibut tacos, autograph, ice cream, eagles.
“Ms. Kingsley, I’m afraid it’s not that simple.”
“What do you mean?”
Mr. Jenkins looked at Cody, sympathy in his expression. “You read the letter?”
“Yes, he read the letter.” Jenna didn’t snap, exactly. But she was beyond feigned politeness. “I thought we already established that.”
“Did you tell her?” Mr. Jenkins asked Cody, solidifying his suspicions that the local sightseeing list was not so much a suggestion but more a requirement. He’d bet those cabin keys were dependent on the thirteen numbered items.
“I kept trying to.”
“Tell me what?”
Careful to separate the two sheets of paper, Cody held up the list to Jenna. “Your grandpa wants me to show you around Sunset Ridge. Said there’s a few things he planned to do with you when you two came up this year . . .” He purposely let his sentence trail off unfinished for Jenna’s sake.
“Breakfast at Moosecakes,” Jenna read aloud. “Watch a sunset at Lookout Point.Spend all day at a local festival.” She looked first at Cody, then at Mr. Jenkins. “I can do all these things without a tour guide.”
“Not according to Eddie Kingsley’s terms.”
“There’s a festival next weekend.” Jenna’s calm demeanor turned frantic. “I can knock all these out by then. Can’t I just have the keys now?”
For the third time, Mr. Jenkins motioned for Jenna to take a seat and finally, she took the hint. “Eddie Kingsley asked that Cody Evans personally escort you to complete all the items on the list. In fact, he’s requiring you provide photographic evidence for each one that includesbothof you in the pictures.”
Cody’s pulse doubled as he realized what this meant. “I’m leaving town Tuesday,” he said to Mr. Jenkins. “Can’t one of my sisters take my place?”
“Only in the event of your death.”
“That’s morbid,” Jenna muttered. Turning to Cody, she asked, “How long will you be gone?”
“Three years.”
Hopping up out of her chair, she folded the list and tucked it into her sweatshirt pocket. “Then, I guess we better get started right away.”
ChapterTwo
Jenna
“There’s no time for family breakfast,” Jenna said to Cody outside Jenkins’ Law Office. Graham’s happy-go-lucky head hung out the half-opened truck window, his tall ears perked at full mast. She’d learned the hard way not to roll the window all the way down when he was younger and leapt out of the truck. It was only a miracle that she’d been parked and he landed in a giant pile of raked leaves. “There’s too much on this list.”
“I hate to ruin your morning, but I have obligations outside this surprise bucket list before I leave town,” Cody said nonchalantly. Jenna didn’t understand how he could be so calm about all this. She hadn’t studied the whole list, but she suspected some items were going to be harder than others to pull off last-minute. They didn’t have a moment to spare. Yet his easygoing tone lacked any sense of the urgency she felt tugging at her.
“Can’t they wait until we finish the list?” Jenna realized she sounded selfish, but she was tired. Six long days on the road to get from Indiana to Alaska, including two flat tires and a shot radiator, had taken their toll on her. Not to mention the influx of texts from her pushy sister. Jenna had yet to decide what she was going to do with her grandpa’s cabin. Until she got the keys and had a look inside, she wouldn’t know if staying was feasible.
The last thing she could handle was being idle when such a heavy decision teetered on her shoulders.
