“Perfect,” Eli replied. “We’ve got the first floor squared away and once I have plywood, we’ll tackle the sliders, sandbags at the dune line, shutter the office, and we’ll see where the track goes. Landfall is predicted late Friday night, early Saturday morning.”
Kate watched Eli’s face. He had not, she realized, looked at her in any sustained way since she had sat down. He was running a list he’d been focused on for days.
There was a part of Kate that wanted to put her hand on the back of his neck and saylook at me for a minute.There was another part that knew the man had eleven things to do before lunch and looking at her wasn’t one of them.
“Dunes will hold, for sure,” Vivien said, drifting in from the deck with her own mug. “They held in Opal.”
“They did,” Eli confirmed. “It’s the only reason the old cottage didn’t get demolished. I did some digging intonewspaper accounts and, apparently, these were—might still be—the highest dunes on this strip.”
“Well, I hope Tessa’s okay.” Vivien refilled her coffee and turned to the rest of them. “They don’t have dunes down in Miramar. That whole stretch is just flat beach, road, and house.”
“She could get flooded,” Meredith said.
Eli held up a hand. “They’ll evacuate. She and Dusty are coming tonight at six for the hurricane meeting I called. I want everyone together so we can finalize plans.”
Just then, Jonah looked up from Atlas. “Isn’t anyone going to ask about the elephant—or I guesshog—in the room?”
At their inquisitive looks, he laughed. “The Harley that was parked in the driveway most of last evening. Whose was it?”
“Wasn’t mine,” Meredith said.
“Not guilty,” Vivien said. “And although I wouldn’t put it past him, not Peter’s.”
“Dad?” Jonah asked.
“I was at Lakeside till ten,” Eli said, frowning. “I thought it might be a friend of yours, Jonah.”
“Don’t look at me,” Emma called from the deck, obviously following the conversation. “I’ve done some dumb things, but no motorcycles. Yet.”
“Then who was it?” Eli asked.
Jonah tapped Atlas’s nose. “Do your great-grannies have a side hustle we don’t know about?”
Everyone laughed, but something shifted in Kate’s heart. Something wasn’t right about that. There really were only two other residents of the Summer House…a couple of near eighty-year-olds who had surprised them all with a red convertible T-Bird and a lot of mystery lately.
Kate set down her mug.
“I’m going up to see Mom,” she said.
Eli, halfway to the front door, paused. “Six o’clock tonight. Tell her.”
“I will.”
He kissed her temple again, briefly, and was gone.
The apartment over the garage was quiet when Kate knocked. “Mom? It’s me.”
“Oh, Kate, honey. I’m on the balcony. Come in!”
She stepped inside to find her mother outside on the Juliet balcony with a cup of tea and a watering can. The plants were her new obsession.
She came in and put both down on the counter, beaming at Kate. “Hello, sweetie.”
As soon as they hugged, Kate could tell that her mother was vibrating with something. Jo Ellen could not contain a secret if you sewed her into one. She was practically luminous.
“I’m so glad you came up.” Jo Ellen slid onto a barstool and patted the one next to her. “Come. Sit. I feel like I haven’t seen you in days, but everyone is so busy with this Norman fellow coming. Where’ve you been?”
“Right downstairs.” Kate slid onto the stool. “Where’s Maggie?”
