“Sorry if I cut you off. I was with one of our guests when you called.”
“Well, okay, as long as you’re being nice now, I can tell you I’m making progress about Taylor’s house. Excuse me, Jonas’s house, seeing as how he’s the one who legally owns it. I keep forgetting he inherited it from his father’s family. Anyway, I’m at city hall right now, trying to nail down the protocol for scoring building permits.”
So Kevin was dug in, which was not good news. She squeezed her eyes shut. “Is the place worth it?”
“It’s run-down, for sure, but not so far gone that it can’t be repaired. And forget about making it better to live in—if down the road they want to sell it, it needs to be in better shape. The location’s good, and it could be worth a whole lot more than it would be now. Some carpentry here and there, maybe a new porch, a coat or two of fresh paint . . .”
Annie was trying hard to let him talk. But she only had so much patience, and she didn’t want to waste what little she had listening to things related to Taylor. She opened her eyes. “Kevin,” she interrupted, no longer able to hold back. “I really don’t care. I need you to come home. Now.”
The delay before his response could have been due to the miles and oceans and landmasses between them. Or it could have been because he wasn’t accustomed to having Annie tell him what to do. He might have thought she’d already learned not to hassle him.
“Are you all right?” he asked.
At least he didn’t act as if he thought she hated him. “I’m fine. Everyone’s fine.” She swallowed the wordsIncluding Meghan. Instead she said, “But there are things here that need your attention. It’s too complicated to get into over the phone. Please trust me, I need you here.”
He laughed.
Seriously? He laughed?
“You’re kidding, right?” he asked. “I just got here.”
“Technically, you’ve been there more than five days. Five of the busiest days at the busiest time of year.” She prayed she could stick to her intention to be straightforward and firm, yet not hostile. Unless he provoked her. “I can’t believe I agreed that you could go right now. It should have waited, Kevin. I’m sorry, but if we’re going to be partners in the Inn going forward, I need to feel that we’re on the same page and taking equal responsibility. Which I guess means you can’t take off whenever you feel like it.” Her voice had begun quivering, which she hoped he would think was because she was upset, not because she was riddled with anxiety for trying to trick him. “I didn’t press you at first, because I didn’t think you’d actually go. I thought you knew better.” Her monologue tumbled out before she could reel it back in. She wished she could write a scene in one of her books so adeptly and as fast.
The lag time kicked in again. Then Kevin said, “Jesus, Annie. I knew you were pissed, but I thought you had everything under control. You always do, don’t you?”
She really wished he wouldn’t try to be rational. “That was before Francine and Bella relinquished their room for Simon Anderson’s assistant, and before I turned over my place to Simon. I know I said I wouldn’t do that, but there you have it. I felt backed into a corner. Your idea of a tent was asinine, though it might have been smarter as Mr. Anderson has already trashed one of my Adirondack chairs and God only knows what else. I’m sleeping on the plywood floor over the freaking workshop, where I don’t have as much as a single electrical outlet to keep my phone charged.” She had started to pace, her steps matching the escalation of her diction. She’d apparently forgotten her vow not to sound hostile.
“Are you more pissed about all that or about me being with Taylor? I know she’s not your favorite person, Annie, but . . .”
“Stop!” she snarled. “This has nothing to do with her.” For once, Annie didn’t have a hard time lying. Meghan was at stake. And maybe Kevin’s happiness. And the last thing she wanted was to hear him say anything related to his feelings for Taylor. “It’s about your commitment here. To Earl and me. To our business. You knew before you left that I have a book tour coming up. Well, it turns out I’ll be gone for six weeks. Francine will be back in Minnesota. So who’s going to mind the store? We can’t dump all this on Earl. I’m afraid we’re already wearing him out. And probably Claire, too.” When he didn’t reply right away, she kept spitting words of bogus anger. “I’ll say it again, Kevin: You need to come homenow. You can go back later if that’s what you want. When we don’t have an Inn full of people. Let me know when someone can meet you at Logan.”
With that, she abruptly ended the call, her scene spoken as she might have written it after all, if she’d ever created a character as heartbroken as Annie was about deceiving her brother, when all she’d been trying was to do the right thing.
Hopefully, when—if—he returned and saw Meghan, he’d forgive Annie for having stuck her nose into their business, where it clearly did not belong.
Depleted and depressed, all she could think of was that she wanted a drink.
Chapter 18
“It didn’t occur to you that your brother would call me?” Earl stood at the top of the stairs over the workshop, his head cocked to one side, his stocky, solid frame silhouetted in the early morning light.
After her argument with Kevin, Annie hadn’t gone in search of wine. Instead, she’d huddled inside the sleeping bag and stayed there, barely moving, through the night. John hadn’t showed up unannounced. Or called. Or texted. At some point, either her mind had finally quieted or she’d given up trying to convince herself that it was okay that she’d called Kevin and misled him. She only wanted Meghan and him to be happy; not that Annie knew squat about mending relationships. Which was becoming clearer every day.
“Kevin thinks you’re losing your mind,” Earl added.
“Maybe I am,” she muttered.
Earl guffawed as only Earl could do. Then he sauntered toward her, tugged his pant legs up at his knees and sat on the floor, which was a surprise, because he often said that one benefit of being over seventy was being entitled to sit on a chair. He wore a new T-shirt, that one turquoise and white, touting the MV Film Center. “You nervous about going on that book tour?” he asked.
“No. I’ve done them before.”
“Not since we’ve had the Inn up and running.”
While Annie’s intention to put Kevin on a guilt trip had been without malice, she now wondered if she should, instead, have told him the truth. Or if she should at least tell Earl the truth, so he, too, didn’t think she was losing what few marbles she had left. “We have a lot going on.”
“We already knew that at some point you’d have to do your book stuff. When do you go?”
“Next month.” Because she wouldn’t be leaving until later in September, there was plenty of time to make arrangements at the Inn. But Annie didn’t want to get specific. She already felt foolish enough for having bungled her mission to get her brother to come back.
