Page 80 of Key West Homecoming

Jake smiled.

“D.K.?”

“D.K.”

“How deep?”

“Not very. You’d miss them if you weren’t looking.”

“Nobody’s touching that corner.”

Emma looked at him.

“You don’t have to do that.”

“I know.”

She smiled, although her eyes filled again.

“Thank you.”

They sat together for another few minutes. A boat horn sounded somewhere toward the water, and the late afternoon light moved through the branches above them.

Emma looked at her hands.

“There’s a safe deposit box in Miami with the original will in it. Edmund is named on it, and so am I. I need to go get it.”

“When?”

“Tomorrow morning if Rachel can go. I’ll call her when I get back to Winslow’s.”

Jake nodded.

“Do you want me to come with you?”

Emma looked over at him. The question touched her more than she expected.

“I do, but I think this is something Edmund, Rachel and I need to do. Edmund kept his promise to Gloria, and Rachel’s the one who has to get that will in front of the court. I need to be the one who signs my name and takes it out of the box.”

“That makes sense.”

“Thank you for asking, though.”

Jake nodded once.

A minute later he looked at her.

“You want anything to eat before you drive back?”

Emma smiled faintly. It was such a Jake question that it nearly made her cry again.

“I don’t think I could eat right now.”

“All right.”

He didn’t ask again.

When Emma was ready to leave, Jake walked her to the gate. She stopped there and looked back at the cottage, at the pink walls and the porch and the bougainvillea spilling over the railing. Somewhere beneath all those years of paint were her father’s initials.