Driftwood Lane (Nantucket #4)(36)

The audience began to applaud, and Meridith shared a relieved smile with Max. They took their bows, the curtain drew closed, and they were shrouded in darkness as they trotted offstage.

After the show, Meridith and Max met up with Noelle and Ben in the foyer.

“Nice job, little bro,” Noelle said.

“Yeah, you guys looked like pros,” Ben said.

“I’m so proud of you, Max,” Meridith said.

Max flung his arms around her, and Meridith staggered backward. “Thanks, Meridith.”

Meridith put her arms around the child. “You’re welcome, honey. You did really good.” He was a soft cuddly bear. His hair, freshly washed, smelled like oranges and sunshine.

When the crowd thinned, they went to The Soda Fountain for ice cream to celebrate. Riding home in the van later, Meridith got the first real slice of success since she’d arrived. They’d made it through the dance with flying colors, Max was happy, Ben was noticeably proud of his big brother, and even Noelle seemed to have put her dislike for Meridith aside for the night. Maybe things would work out after all. She caught a glimpse of a possible future with the children, happy and settled in her St. Louis home, and she smiled, content.

Back at the house, they exited the van. Max put Piper in the garage, and Meridith grabbed the mail.

“Up to bed, guys. It’s late.” She smothered a yawn. What a long day.

There was a message on the machine, but it could wait until morning. She flipped through the mail and was ready to set the stack down when she came to the last one.

It was from the tax collector’s office. She slid her finger under the flap, dread kindling in the pit of her stomach. She shook the feeling away. It was probably concerning the transfer of ownership.

She pulled out the letter and unfolded it. Her eyes skimmed the words, the dread in her stomach spreading like wildfire. Nonpayment of taxes . . . delinquency . . . taking of said estate . . . fourteen days.

Fourteen days? Her eyes dropped to the amount due on the last line, and the breath left her lungs. How could she not have known?

Why would her father and Eva have all that money in the bank and not have paid their taxes? She’d gone through their business files and hadn’t seen anything regarding back taxes. But then, it had been a disorganized mess, with papers filed under the wrong headings, many of them old or irrelevant. Eva may have been a hospitable hostess, but she’d lacked in business acumen.

Meridith took the inherited checkbook from her purse and opened it to the register. After paying Jake for the repairs he’d completed last week, she barely had enough to pay the taxes. It would leave her with . . .

She did a quick mental tally. One hundred and twenty dollars.

Not enough for a week’s groceries, to say nothing of all the needed repairs. The house would never pass inspection.

She looked back at the letter and the words taking of said estate stole the decision from her hands. Pay the taxes and take her chances at the sale of Summer Place, or don’t pay the taxes and lose the property.

It wasn’t much of a decision.





Twenty

Jake climbed the apartment stairs, unlocked the door, and shrugged off his suit coat. It was all he could do to focus on Pastor Owens’s sermon. Every time he closed his eyes for prayer, he saw Meridith whirling around the elementary stage, her dress drifting behind her like an afterthought. Max had looked debonair and so grown up in his suit. Eva would’ve been proud.

He sure had been. Proud of both of them. At least when it was finished. Until then, he’d been a basket of nerves. But then they were taking their bows, and he’d never seen Max so proud. Or Meridith so radiant.

And that’s about where his thoughts were when he realized the prayer was over and he still had his head bowed.

After church he’d eaten out with Wyatt and Willow and a few friends from church, and now he found himself free for the afternoon. Maybe he’d take his cycle across the island and enjoy Surfside. Or he could ride up to the cemetery and freshen the gravesites. He’d put out fresh flowers a week ago when he couldn’t get Eva off his mind. He missed his sister so much. He’d sat there for over an hour, thinking of her, missing her, grieving for her.

But he didn’t want to go there today. What he really wanted to do right now was get the kids and take them fishing at Hummock Pond. But he couldn’t do that. He couldn’t even call them or visit them. This undercover operation had its drawbacks. And yet, what information had he found in his two weeks at Summer Place?

He was going to have to step it up. Start snooping. He hated the thought of rooting through Meridith’s private things. It wasn’t his style. Maybe he could get to know her better, cajole information from her. He hadn’t quizzed her about her future plans for the kids. Not that it was going to help him get them back.

He needed definitive information that proved she was incompetent. Something so severe that the state would go against Eva and T. J.’s will. He’d done some digging at the library and had found that keeping children in their school district was important to judges. Ripping them not only from their school but from the island would surely not be favorable. If only he could find out if that was her intention. But would that be enough?

He wasn’t sure he’d find anything worse. Even if she were bipolar, maybe it was under control with medication. The more he knew Meridith, the more he realized she wasn’t the freak Noelle had claimed. Controlling and paranoid, yes. Repressed, certainly. But incompetent? Not even close. She wasn’t exactly the nurturing type, but she wasn’t cruel.