Page 42 of Key West Homecoming

“Yes?”

“Why did you agree to talk to me when you’ve never met me?”

Rachel laughed softly.

“Because Maeve Corwin called me at four yesterday afternoon and spent the first several minutes talking about everything except what she wanted.”

Emma smiled.

“That sounds like her.”

“By the time she finally asked if I could help you, I’d already figured out she cared about the answer. Maeve doesn’t call me unless she thinks something matters.”

“She told me she wasn’t getting involved.”

“I’m sure she did.”

“More than once.”

“That sounds like her too.”

Emma laughed.

Rachel’s voice softened. “You have people helping you, Emma.

For most of her adult life, she had been the person other people called when something needed to be handled. She was good at it and had built a career around being good at it. Depending on someone else still felt unfamiliar.

“Thank you,” she said.

“I’ll see you at nine tomorrow. My office will email everything within the hour.”

When the call ended, Emma remained at the small writing desk with the phone in her hand.

She had a lawyer.

More important, she had a way to stop the sale.

Emma looked at the legal pad. Her notes covered nearly two pages, but the words at the top were still the ones that mattered most.

STOP SALE.

Arthur might have lied about the will. He might have collected rent he wasn’t entitled to collect, and he might have tried to sell the cottage before Emma ever learned what Gloria had done. Rachel would sort through all of that.

For today, the cottage wasn’t going anywhere.

Emma felt some of the tension she’d been carrying since Sunday begin to ease.

Then she looked at the last line on the list she’d made before the call.

Protect the tenant.

She knew exactly where she needed to go next.

Jake was on the porch when Emma came through the gate.

He wore jeans, a clean T-shirt and no shoes. A mug of coffee rested between his hands as he watched her come up the crushed-shell path.

He didn’t stand this time.