Driftwood Lane (Nantucket #4)(45)

“All right.”

“Liar,” Wyatt said. “I can see right through you.”

“Come in for a while,” Willow said. “It’s chilly out here.”

After a nice night out, the couple probably wanted to be alone. He should’ve left long ago. “No thanks, I need to get back.” He tossed the ball to Wyatt.

“Be there in a minute, hon.”

“Night, Jake,” Willow said before entering the house.

Wyatt dribbled the ball to Jake. His sport coat flapped in the breeze. “Okay, what’d she do now?”

“How do you know it’s Meridith?”

“Same way you knew ‘she’ was Meridith.”

He had a point.

“HORSE?” Wyatt tossed the ball to him.

He couldn’t usurp Wyatt’s whole evening. “Make it PIG.” Jake dribbled to the edge of the drive and put up a shot. Score.

He tossed the ball to Wyatt. “Meridith is selling Summer Place.”

Wyatt put up the shot and made it. “She tell you that?”

“Not exactly.” Jake dribbled the ball to the free throw line. Swish.

“Found a Realtor’s business card and papers from an inspection.”

“‘Found’ them?”

He shrugged. “Launched a little investigation.”

“You snooped through her private stuff. Dude.”

“She’s selling Summer Place.” Jake planted his hands on his hips, watched Wyatt’s shot bounce off the rim. P.

“What about the kids?”

“Isn’t it obvious? She’s taking them to St. Louis. I can’t let that happen.” Jake missed a long shot and tossed the ball to Wyatt.

“Wonder what her fiancé thinks about that. It’s not every guy who would agree to raising someone else’s kids.”

“She hasn’t told him.”

“You find that out by snooping too?” Wyatt missed his shot.

Jake gave him a look. “I asked.”

“Novel idea.”

Jake lined up for a three-pointer and made it. “She was going to turn the kids over to ‘the uncle’ initially. But when he didn’t return, she decided it was up to her to raise them.”

Wyatt made the shot. “She was going to give them to you?”

What an idiot he’d been. If he’d just come back and told her he wanted the kids, maybe he’d have had a prayer of convincing her he was the best person for the job.

“Gotta say, you’ve risen to the occasion. Never thought I’d see the day you’d settle down, much less take on your niece and nephews.”

“Thanks for the vote of confidence.” Though obviously Eva had felt the same, as Meridith had so kindly pointed out. Shoot, even he hadn’t realized he was capable of that level of responsibility. “I guess losing Eva showed me what’s really important.”

“Too bad Eva didn’t see this side of you before. It’s kind of shocking she agreed to leave them to Meridith.”

“Not really. Blood was everything to Eva. After being raised in foster homes, she wanted her kids raised by a relative. That pretty much narrowed it down to me and Meridith. I guess I did a pretty good job convincing her I wasn’t father material.”

“Why don’t you just tell Meridith who you are, man?”

“Because she thinks the uncle is irresponsible and self-absorbed.” Jake missed.

Wyatt snorted. “She tell you that?”

Jake scowled.

Wyatt put up another shot, this one from the left side—Jake’s weak spot. The ball swished through the net.

“Besides, after I’ve been there all these weeks incognito . . . I don’t think it’s going to go over well.”

Meridith may have been skeptical of him at first, but she’d come to trust him. And not only with the repairs. Just that she’d opened up at the café was proof of that.

“Anyway, I still don’t know for sure she doesn’t have bipolar disorder.”

“The kids want to be with you, though, right? That has to count for something.”

Jake shot and missed, then passed Wyatt the ball. “You’d think. But kids have to be fourteen to make that decision legally. Noelle won’t be fourteen until next February, never mind the boys. Maybe the fact that Meridith’s planning to take them from their home would sway the judge?”

Wyatt dribbled to the free-throw line. “It’s not going to look so good that you’re working there under false pretenses.”

The thought had occurred to him more than once. “I am a licensed contractor.”

“Not to mention the way you finagled your way into her home. You’re living there, dude.”

“I wanted to be near the kids. It’s for their own good.”

“Not sure a judge would see it that way.” He put up the shot, and it rolled around the rim before falling through the net. “I think you should wait until she tells her fiancé. I have a feeling it’ll hit the fan.”

Jake put up the ball. It hit the backboard, bounced off the rim, and landed in Wyatt’s hands.

“PIG,” Wyatt said.

“Tell me something I don’t know.”