Page 101 of Key West Homecoming

She got as far as his name on the screen before putting the phone back in her bag.

Leah’s words from the night before had stayed with her. If there was someone in Key West she planned to come back to, she needed to make sure he knew it.

Emma still didn’t know what she was doing with Jake, but she knew one thing she hadn’t been willing to admit even to herself a few days earlier.

She wanted to see him.

That was exactly why she didn’t call.

Instead, she walked into town and had a grouper sandwich at a counter where nobody knew who she was.

Jake was setting the third pergola post at three-thirty when he heard a car coming down Hibiscus Lane.

He knew most of the sounds on the street by now including Emma’s rental car, the mail truck, the neighbor’s old Ford.

This was none of them.

A navy sedan stopped at the gate and idled for several seconds before the engine shut off.

Jake set down the drill and walked around the side of the cottage.

The man who got out was in his sixties, wearing a wrinkled polo, khaki shorts and boat shoes. Jake recognized him before he reached the gate.

Arthur Kendrick.

He looked smaller than Jake remembered.

Arthur came toward the gate with his hand out.

“Jake. Buddy. It’s been a while.”

Jake stopped several feet inside the fence and left his hands at his sides.

“Arthur.”

“Look, I know you’ve heard some things. My niece has been down here stirring up trouble, and there’s been a real misunderstanding. I was hoping I could come in and take a look at the place. It’s been years.”

“No.”

Arthur lowered his hand.

“I own this cottage.”

“You don’t.”

“I’m the personal representative of my mother’s estate, and that cottage is an asset of it.”

“There’s a court filing that says otherwise.”

Arthur’s mouth tightened.

“So let me in.”

“No.”

He put one hand on top of the gate but didn’t open it.

“Jake, come on. I’ve been your landlord for three years. You signed the lease with me.”