Page 50 of Key West Homecoming

She couldn’t remember the last time anyone had done that. Months, probably. Maybe longer.

Leah let her go.

“Four days,” she said. “You’ve been on this island four days.”

Connie came through the door from the back with her reading glasses pushed up on her head. She stopped when she saw them gathered together.

“Well?”

“It’s stopped, Connie.”

Connie took off her glasses, folded them and tucked them into her apron pocket. Then she gave one slow nod, as though the whole thing had gone exactly as she’d expected.

“I’m glad I sent you my niece.”

Tess turned toward her.

“You sent her a niece who isn’t allowed to practice law in Florida and still managed to get it done.”

“Maeve is awesome.”

Emma smiled, “So are all of you. I couldn’t have done this without your help. Thank you all so much.”

Connie disappeared beneath the bar looking almost embarrassed by the compliment.

From his usual stool at the far end, Lloyd spoke without turning around.

“Which house is it?”

“Oh, for heaven’s sake, Lloyd,” Leah said. “Drink your beer.”

Emma looked down the bar. Lloyd did exactly that.

“He just likes to be included,” Tess whispered. “He’ll forget all about it in ten minutes.”

“And about the man living in the cottage?” Leah asked. “Jake, right?”

“Jake Kelleher. He’s been there three years.”

Emma turned her glass slowly on the bar.

“He handed me an important document on my second day here. I hadn’t told him much of anything, and he still trusted me enough to let me walk away with it.”

Tess glanced at Leah.

Emma noticed the look but chose not to ask what it meant.

Connie came up holding a bottle and four small glasses. After a moment, she added a fifth and carried it down the bar to Lloyd.

“To Gloria Kendrick,” she said when she returned, “who sat at that table by the window and never once told me she had a granddaughter worth all this trouble.”

Emma smiled.

“I’m not sure that was a compliment.”

“It was from Connie,” Leah said.

They raised their glasses.