Page 77 of An Island Summer

“Apparently everyone does,” Toby said. “I heard about it when I stopped into the inn. They were all raving about them.” He leaned in, so close that his lips almost touched hers. “Think I could try one sometime?”

Meghan closed her eyes. “You could try one tonight. I’ve got a bunch over at The Seabreeze.” She leaned forward, her lips brushing his.

“I’d like that,” he said, kissing her.

“Hello?” Tess’s voice cut through the moment. “Person and dog in the room.”

Their lips still together, Toby laughed, and the feeling of it was something Meghan knew she could never live without.

EPILOGUE

“I’ll be just a few more minutes,” Meghan called to Toby from the bedroom of their new farmhouse that they’d built on Pappy’s land. With the funds from Hester’s will, they now had a full-time nurse for Rupert named Penny, they’d renovated Pappy’s cottage for him, and he got to take walks on the beach and look at the stars every night.

Meghan sat at Hester’s writing desk with the journal. She taped in a photo of herself, standing behind her muffin cart that had a brand-new logo for The Muffin Lady on the front. While the little cart wasn’t her main means of income, her muffins having gone national with production in four nationwide facilities with distribution to forty-three of the fifty states, she still set up there every morning at the inn that Toby had decided to keep running, with Meghan at his side.

They’d opened the new wing they’d bought themselves, with no outside investors, and built an enormous courtyard full of palm trees, bright pink bee balm flowers, and blue flag irises. They’d named the courtyard Mary’s Corner. Mary had been with Toby to create the idea for the inn and Meghan had helped him carry it through to what it was today.

All of this was written in the pages of Meghan’s journal, and now, she was about to write the next entry with Charlie curled up by her feet.

Oh, Hester, so much has happened that I can hardly write it all. My old boss Vinnie called today and told me he’d bought one of my muffins at the market up in New York. He apologized, telling me how wrong he’d been, and asked if I wanted a chef’s position, but I turned him down. My life is here on Hatteras Island. What began on one “island summer,” as someone special once told me you’d called it, Toby and I have now continued. Our families’ lives have carried on in the place you wanted to be in the end. I hope that you can see it all and you’re sitting next to Pappy cheering for us.

Sorry it’s been a little while since I’ve written. Toby asked me to marry him and we said our vows on the beach outside our new home. With the help of his nurse, Rupert walked me down the aisle. I didn’t have the heart to tell him that I wasn’t married to him; his joy was overwhelming for us all. He really misses you. He shows me how much every day by the way he lights up when he thinks he’s seeing you…

“Toby’s too patient,” Tess said from the doorway. “Hurry up! Alex wants to go down to the beach and I’m trying to convince him that Hatteras Island is a wonderful place to live. Our best friends are millionaires and one of them is the granddaughter of a famous film star! It’s literally the perfect place for an up-and-coming actor.”

Meghan laughed. “Sorry. I’m just writing in Hester’s journal. I’ll finish up and be right down.”

“I’ll be back in two minutes with cocktails to entice you if you’re not,” Tess told her as she headed back down the hallway.

“That’s fair,” Meghan called to her, smiling adoringly as she thought about her favorite friend in all the world. Her pen poised, she finished her entry:

Tess was so inspired by my drive to run my own business all by myself and do things my way that she took it upon herself to call her old flame Alex Tisdale and ask him out. They’d met years ago, waiting tables together while he pursued his acting career. They’re both staying with us for the summer, working at the beach bar down the road, and Tess is trying to convince him to stay and find a house to rent with her. What she doesn’t know is that he’s already told me he’s planning to stay, and he’s got a ring in his suitcase that he’s planning to give Tess in front of us all tonight at dinner. I’ve never been happier for her.

“Hey,” Toby said, setting a bright yellow fizzy cocktail down on Hester’s table and kissing her on the cheek, his lips lingering near her ear, still causing happiness to bubble up, goose bumps on her arms. “Tess said to bring this up.”

Meghan laughed. “That wasn’t two minutes. That was about thirty seconds.” She shut the journal and placed it in the drawer of the desk, standing and turning to face the man of her dreams. He kissed her, his lips warm and tasting of rum from the drinks he was most likely making for everyone.

“Gramps is downstairs, having sips of my pineapple juice and coconut rum,” he said with a devious grin. “He says he wants one for himself.”

“Does Penny know?”

He shook his head, making her giggle. “I’ll make him a martini glass of pineapple juice so he thinks he’s having a cocktail with us.” But then his expression sobered, fondness for her sliding down his face. “You look beautiful,” he said.

“Thank you,” she said, her heart bursting with happiness. She reached out for Toby with one hand and picked up her cocktail with the other. “Come on, Charlie. Want to go to the beach?”

Charlie hopped up, rushing past them, sliding his way down the hardwood steps in a flash.

Together they went downstairs, with nothing but a sunny future ahead of them.

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