Rueben took his time reading the article, and when he raised his eyes to Kelli’s, he seemed thoughtful. “He didn’t seem to know your father. They talked a lot, obviously, because they were both artists. I remember Guy giving him some advice, and they got together without me several times.”
Kelli nodded, almost wanting to record what Rueben said. “Okay.”
“I did not get the idea that they were related. Zach said he was from Maine, and he’d come to Savannah to the SCAD—the Savannah College of Arts and Design. He was a great student.”
“Anything about his family?” Kristen asked.
“Yeah,” Rueben said. “I remember his family came for the unveiling of the new wing. His mother, his aunt, and two sisters.” He pressed his eyes closed. “Julia or Julie, I think? She was the younger one. The oldest one was Katherine, and she went by Kate.” He smiled, a fond look entering his eyes. “I remember, because I wanted to ask her out.” Rueben chuckled and shook his head. “I didn’t, obviously, but that was her name.”
“Same last name as Zach?” Kelli asked.
“Yes,” Rueben said. “There were no grandparents. No father. No one came for Guy, and you and Dad came to support me.” Rueben looked at his mom. “I think that’s it.”
“Thank you,” Kelli said. Her nerves had fled, and armed with more information, she couldn’t wait to get back to her computer to see what else she could find. She hugged Kristen and thanked her too, declined any cookies or coffee, and went up to the second-floor deck, where she’d told Parker she’d be.
Her phone buzzed as she went through the door, and she pulled it out to see a text from Julian. Thank you, babe. Tonight? Eleven?
Fingers flying and with her heart tap dancing in her chest, she messaged him back. Just me and you?
Yes.
Okay.
Kelli had just arrived at the Cliffside Inn, her lecture to Parker about being willing to get dirty and to pitch in and help no matter what over, when her phone rang.
Her heartbeat leapt, because she preferred texting over calling, and everyone in her life knew it. But a local island number sat on the screen, and she decided to open the call though she didn’t know who it was.
“Hello?”
“Kelli,” a pleasant, familiar voice said. “It’s Chief Sherman.”
“Oh, hey, Aaron.” She got out of the car and nodded for Parker to go inside the inn without her. “I just got to the inn. Are you here?”
“On my way, actually,” he said. “Which works out perfectly. I was hoping to stop by your place, but if you’re up there, I can talk to you there.”
“About what?” Kelli wrapped her free arm around herself.
“Zach Oakwood,” Aaron said. “I’ve been looking into him, and I have some information for you.”
Kelli’s blood ran ice-cold for the time it took him to speak, and then it returned to normal. “Sure,” she said. “So you know his last name isn’t Watkins.” She wasn’t asking, because Aaron had just said Oakwood.
“Yes,” Aaron said. “Did you?”
“I’ve been doing some digging too.”
“Kelli.” Aaron’s voice turned stern and carried a hint of disappointment. “I asked you not to do that.”
“No,” she said. “You asked me not to go by his place again. I haven’t. I haven’t called or texted him. I did exactly what you asked me to do.”
He sighed and said, “Okay, I’m about twenty-five minutes out.”
“See you soon.” She hung up and faced the inn. Eloise’s was the only car in the drive, which made sense with the RideShare system on the cove. Robin and Alice had to ferry to Sanctuary Island, and they’d just used the service to get here.
The front door opened, and Kelli’s tears began the moment the tall, leggy blonde stepped onto the front porch.
“You gonna stand there or come hug me?” AJ asked, and Kelli flew toward her best friend.
As they hugged, AJ laughed while Kelli wept. “Oh, I missed you,” AJ whispered, and Kelli could only agree.
They parted, and AJ held Kelli by her shoulders. “You look so good, Kel. Strong. Sure. Sexy.”
Kelli laughed then and shook her head. “That’s you, AJ.”
“Yeah, well, it’s a good look on you too.” She linked her arm through Kelli’s. “Come in. Eloise is having us tackle the kitchen while we’re all here, and it’s unlike anything I’ve ever seen.”
Chapter Nineteen
Eloise’s heart filled when AJ and Kelli came into the kitchen together. They were all back together again, and there was nothing as comforting for Eloise as being with her Seafaring Girls.
“Okay,” she said. “I know this is a disaster.” She’d taken two steps into the kitchen ten minutes ago, and her shoes had started sticking to the floor. “They emptied the Dumpster this morning, so we have the whole thing to fill. I’ve got two carts for anything we can’t carry very far.” She’d stationed them outside the door that led to the back patio, where she envisioned having at least eight tables for guests to dine.
“Aaron will be here soon,” she added, looking at Robin.
“Duke just texted to say he’s just dropped Mandie and Jamie at Alice’s, and he’s on his way to the ferry,” Robin said. “So he’ll be here in a bit.”
“And we have Parker,” Kelli said, stepping over to her son, who looked like he’d been hit with a baseball bat. She smiled down at him, and Eloise really wanted to ask how her talk with Rueben Shields had gone that morning. She didn’t, because Kelli likely wouldn’t want to talk about it in front of her son.
“So I think we take everything out that we can,” Eloise said. “I’ve rented a high-pressure cleaning system that’s usually used on outdoor siding, and I’m going to use that to clean the kitchen.” She looked at her friends, their faces ranging from determination—Alice—to incredulity—Robin—to resignation—AJ.
Eloise felt all of those same things flowing through her, but she held her head high. All the other rooms in the inn had been completely cleaned out and demo’ed. The walls would be fixed. The plumbing brought into the twenty-first century. The electrical brought up to code.
Then she’d paint, assess the floors, make decisions about carpet and curtains, design and décor, and anything else she needed to.
But this kitchen had to be cleaned. While the contractors she’d hired did their work, she could order appliances, work on the landscaping—about the only thing she hadn’t hired someone to do—and start working on the website that would make reserving rooms easy.
She also needed to start thinking about staff and putting out feelers about hiring people in the next few months.
But all of that was down the road.
“So anything we can carry out, let’s carry it out. Anything we can’t, let’s leave for the men. But I want the whole thing emptied.”
Pure gratitude filled her, and she surveyed her friends. “Thank you all for coming,” she said, her voice choking. “This means so much to me to have you all here.”
Alice stepped up to her and hugged her. “We love you, Eloise.”
Eloise had felt loved off and on over the years, but she’d experienced so much of it lately, and she held tightly to Alice as everyone else piled around them, making a giant huddle of hugs.
Eloise let her eyes water, and when they all separated, she was glad she wasn’t the only one without dry eyes.
“I just have to say something first,” AJ said. “Before Duke and Aaron get here.” She drew in a deep breath. “Peterson isn’t a man. He’s my goldfish.”
Several beats of silence passed, and then Robin pealed out a lungful of laughter. “Well, I guess I’ll stop asking you if he’s a good kisser.”
AJ laughed too, and as the others joined in, Eloise’s spirits lifted right up to the grease-stained ceiling. She saw Kelli step in front of AJ, turning her back to the others, and say something. But Eloise didn’t want to dwell on unhappy things, though her heart bled for AJ.
She knew the woman just wanted to find someone to spend her life with, and Eloise knew precisely what that felt like, what a lonely night looked like and smelled like, and how it sometimes felt like life was incredibly unfair sometimes.
She handed out gloves and she and Alice reached for adjacent cupboards. Eloise flinched at the sight of the cobwebbed dishes in hers, and she took a moment to adjust her mask over her nose and mouth.
Then she got to work.
When Aaron arrived, he swept one arm around her waist and pulled her against his side. “Hey, beautiful.”
“Hey.” She smiled at him, but he couldn’t see the gesture. He got the idea though, because he grinned back, his eyes crinkling up in that adorable way he had.
“I want to talk to everyone,” he said, his mouth right at her ear. Shivers raced down her spine, and when he kissed her neck right beneath her ear, she could only think about their night together last night. “Is that okay? Can you guys take a break?”
“Sure,” she said. She abandoned the silverware drawer she’d been loading into a box and swiped her mask down. “Guys, Aaron wants to talk to us.” She looked at him. “Should we go outside?”
“Anywhere is fine.” He looked around. “Maybe not here.”
Eloise couldn’t blame him for not wanting to spend more time than absolutely necessary in the grimy kitchen. She hated it with everything she had, and she had no idea how it could’ve gotten like this.
Her father had been a clean freak, especially with the inn. Time and Mother Nature simply had a way of making things that had once been clean and bending them to their will.
“Let’s go out by the pool,” Eloise said. She’d only been working for a half an hour, but she felt like she could use some fresh air.
It took a few minutes for them all to gather in the shade of the trees that overlooked both the pool deck and the rest of Sanctuary Island. Robin and Alice had just taken loads to the Dumpster, and AJ had wanted to wash her hands.
“Go get a popsicle, baby,” Kelli said to Parker. “Take a break. Mom wants to talk to everyone, okay?”
Her son went into Eloise’s caretaker’s suite, and Eloise smiled at Kelli and moved over to her, taking her right hand in her left. AJ arrived, and she took up a flanking position on Kelli’s other side.
“I’ve been looking into Zach Watkins,” Aaron said, causing a shot of surprise to move through Eloise. She hadn’t known he was doing that, and her heart warmed toward him all over again. He was so good. He cared about what she cared about, and Eloise had never had someone like that in her life before—besides the women at the inn that day, sacrificing their weekend to clean out a greasy, disgusting kitchen.
“I’ve found a few things.” He proceeded to outline what he knew, and he produced a birth certificate with the name Kelli had discovered too.
She seemed very interested in that, and when Aaron finished, she said, “Kristen and I talked to Rueben this morning. He gave us the name of Zach’s two sisters.”
“What are they?” Aaron asked.
Kelli told him, and Aaron typed them into his phone. “I think I’m just going to leave it,” Kelli said. “He hasn’t bothered my mother again, and there’s no reason to poke at him.”
“I already called him and told him everything we know,” Aaron said. “I advised him to stay far from you, your mother, anything to do with your family, your father’s art, all of it.” Aaron wore a stern look that Eloise adored as much as his happier smile. “In fact, I asked him to leave the island.”
“What did he say?” Kelli asked, squeezing Eloise’s hand. She tried to watch Aaron and Kelli simultaneously, but she couldn’t.
“He said he was actually thinking it was time to move on.”
Kelli nodded, but Eloise still had plenty of questions. Where had he gotten those letters he’d shown Kelli? What was his real goal? How long would he stay gone?
Eloise suspected this wouldn’t be the last time they saw or talked about Zach Watkins, but Kelli seemed to want to move on, and Eloise would support whatever she wanted to do.
“What about you, Eloise?” AJ asked, leaning around Kelli. “Did you get in touch with your brother?”
Eloise’s gaze flew to Aaron, as she hadn’t mentioned much to him. She’d told him last night that she was exhausted because she’d found something at the inn that would require a lot of work. He hadn’t asked much about it, but he’d offered to come help her today after he finished at the station.
He’d known she was stressed, because he’d called for dinner instead of making it, and he’d rubbed out her feet before he’d taken her to bed. He’d slipped away soon after they’d finished making love, only to return an hour later to hold her while she slept.
She loved him a little bit more every day, and she’d started to see herself in his house and life permanently.
“Uh, no,” she said. “He hasn’t called back yet.” She took a deep breath, because she might as well report right now too. “I called the banks too, but they were all closed last night, and of course, now it’s the weekend.”
“Banks?” Aaron asked, and the mood in the shade shifted.
“I’ll tell you about it in a minute,” Eloise said.
“I called my realtor last night,” Alice said. “Asked him who developed the land where my house is on Rocky Ridge.”
Eloise’s pulse started to bump faster and faster.
“He looked into it and got back to me this morning. He said it was Boyd Proffitt, and the housing developer had signatures from a Garrett Hall.”
Eloise nodded, acceptance starting to sink in. Her brother had known about the seven properties her father had won in his card games, and though they’d been passed to her legally in the will, he’d been managing them since their father’s death.
Eloise had never felt such a strong sting of betrayal. Her father had once hit her, and while that had been a massive blow, both physically and emotionally, Garrett’s deception was somehow worse. Far worse.
Tears pricked at her eyes, but Eloise didn’t want to cry. Not today. Not over this.
“If the land wasn’t his to sell,” Alice said. “Everyone in the Salt Pines community can sue him.” She looked at Eloise with a light in her eyes Eloise hadn’t seen in a while.
“Then what happens?” Eloise asked. “The houses are there. It’s not like I can take them back.”
“No,” Alice said. “But a judge can decree that he has to pay you the money he earned by selling land that wasn’t his.”
Eloise nodded, but deep down, she didn’t want the money. She wanted Garrett to pay for what he’d done in an emotional way; she wanted him to suffer the way she and her mother had those last few years after he’d gone off to college.
For all she knew, Garrett had conspired with her father against both of them, and that only drove the knife of betrayal further into her back.
She hadn’t told her mother anything, which was easy as she didn’t live with her anymore. At some point, she’d probably have to tell her, especially if there was a lot of money in the accounts her father had scrawled onto a single sheet of paper in that legal-sized envelope.
Three accounts, each at a different bank, the name on the account and the number all penned in her father’s hand. Eloise could see the slanted writing in her mind’s eye, and her stomach squeezed tightly, the way it had yesterday afternoon when she’d finally looked inside the envelope.
By the time she’d gotten to Aaron’s, evening had arrived, and all the banks had been closed. She’d left the items she’d found inside the walls at the inn locked in her trunk, and she’d done her best to be present for Aaron and his girls.
“I’ll know more about what I want to do once I talk to the banks,” Eloise said. “And Garrett.”
“Hello?” a man called, and Robin spun toward the garage.
“That’s Duke,” she said, and sure enough, her tall, dark-haired husband rounded the corner in the next moment.
He grinned at everyone
, broke the tension in their little group, and shook hands with Aaron. That gave Eloise time to inhale again before she had to face him and tell him what she hadn’t yet.
“Come see the volleyball court,” she said to him, slipping her hand in his and leading him toward the steps that went down to the terrace.
Once at the bottom, she looked out over the island, the ocean, and the sky. She wondered if God had such a good view of the world, and if so, how He could get anything done besides just standing there and looking over the grandness of His creations.
“I love this island,” she said.
“What’s going on?” Aaron asked.
Eloise looked at him, ready to share everything with him. “Yesterday, while I was cleaning out one of the last rooms, I found some documents hidden in the wall.” She told him everything, concluding with, “I’m trying to get a copy of my father’s will right now—I’ve called the lawyer who read it with me and my mother—and I’ve called Garrett. That’s it.”
Aaron’s frown had not budged during her story, but now he gathered her into his arms. “I don’t know what to say, El.”
“You don’t need to say anything,” she said, pressing her cheek against his chest. “And I don’t need you to do anything.” She pulled away and gave him a frown of her own. “I don’t need you to do any digging on your own. I’m working with Alice to find out about the contracts, and I can call banks and deal with my brother on my own.”
“Can you?” Aaron asked, but not in an unkind way. “I don’t remember Garrett being violent, but with his scams out in the open, anything is possible. People will do crazy things when backed into a corner.”
A slithery, tingling feeling spread across Eloise’s scalp, and she nodded. “I thought he lived in Portland,” she said. “Oregon. As far from here as he could get.”
“I’m sure he does,” Aaron said. “But it sounds like not for the reasons you thought.”
The Cliffside Inn Page 16
