Page 103 of Meet Me on Lilac Lane

He stood there, not moving.

This was his fault, wasn’t it?

The doors started to close, but he stuck his foot into them. “Why didn’t she ask Dad for help figuring out her taxes?” Frank Kelley, Grandma’s oldest son, was a CPA and handled all of the accounting and marketing for the three family businesses.

“He asked the same thing. Apparently she didn’t want to be a bother.”

“Aw, Grandma.”

A female receptionist greeted visitors from behind a sleek black desk, the logo of the McGentry Food Company behind her. She sent Declan a friendly smile, wiggling her fingers at him while she spoke into her fancy headset.

Shoot. He took his foot out of the door. It closed.

Declan leaned against the back wall. “Surely someone in the family has the money to bail her out of this.”

“It’s a lot of money, Dec.”

“I get it—I’d do it myself, but most of my savings went to paying down my student loans and living while trying to land this job.”

“I get it too. We all want to help. It’s Grandma. But everyone’s strapped—money is tied up in businesses and home and debt. They don’t have enough pooled between them. And you know what the pandemic did to us. Every restaurant is leveraged, just trying to stay afloat. Mom with Good Day Coffee, and Uncle Patrick with Kelley’s Bar & Grill, and your mom with Martha’s on Main. And it doesn’t help that the competition has rolled into town with the one-dollar houses?—”

“The what?”

“It’s a marketing thing—the town has been giving away houses for a buck for businesses that move to the island.”

“Seriously?”

Someone had called the elevator, and it began to move.

“You do know they’re restoring the Grand Sullivan Hotel, right?”

“I feel like Mom mentioned that, but kind of zoned out when she was talking. Shoot. I have to go, bro.” The doors opened on the floor below, and Declan got out into a hallway of law offices. He followed the signs to the stairs. “Thanks for letting me know about Grandma, and please keep me posted. Are you on island right now?”

“I’m at the hospital in Port Joseph at the moment, but yeah, visiting my mom for a while. But Dec?—”

“Declan, is that you?”

Oh, great. He opened the door to the stairwell. “Hi, Mom.” Clearly she’d stolen Brandon’s phone from his hands. “I heard about Grandma. I’ll be praying for her, all right?”

“Yes, it’s just awful.” But Martha Kelley’s voice didn’t sound tearful or weepy. It sounded…well, the same it always did. No nonsense. Commanding. There was a reason she’d assimilated so well into the Kelley restaurant dynasty on the island, running the café herself after she and Dad had gotten married, changing its name from Kelley’s Diner to Martha’s on Main. Nobody could say no to her. “You need to come home right away.”

He stood in the cold hallway and rubbed the vein between his eyes—the one that always throbbed when he spoke with Mom. “I’m starting my new job today, remember?”

“Right.” She sighed. “If they’re a good company, they’ll understand that family comes first.”

Ha. And the words were right there, on his lips—then why didn’t she get along with her own brother-in-law? Then again, if anyone outside the family ever spoke ill of Patrick, she chewed that person out. Apparently, only a Kelley could insult a Kelley and get away with it.

“Listen, Mom. Brandon said Grandma’s doing okay. Maybe I can come visit this weekend, once she’s out of the hospital.” He did the mental math—he’d have to leave early on Friday to beat the traffic out of town for the Fourth of July weekend. Six hours to the ferry in Port Joseph, and then another hour to the island.

“You should be here. Now.”

He sighed. “Mom, I appreciate your desire for our family to be together at a time like this?—”

“What Iappreciateis that shrewd brain of yours. You’ve got financial savvy, and we need that now to save Grandma’s house.”

“Me? What about Dad? He’s the accountant.”

“And he’s good at what he does, but I need someone who can think outside the box.”

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