37 Peases Point Way

  37 Peases Point Way

  Sisters of Edgartown Series

  By

  Katie Winters

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

  Copyright © 2021 by Katie Winters

  This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance of characters to actual persons, living or dead is purely coincidental. Katie Winters holds exclusive rights to this work. Unauthorized duplication is prohibited.

  Table of Contents

  Copyright Page

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Other Books by Katie

  Connect with Katie Winters

  Chapter One

  Amelia Taylor’s schedule was always jam-packed, with her mind racing at its standard setting of a million thoughts a minute. It was yet another Monday morning in early March, and her beige trench coat swirled out behind her as she rushed to her car. There was nothing Amelia Taylor couldn’t do, nothing she couldn’t conquer.. She had enough time for everyone and everything.

  As she stepped on the gas, she pondered her schedule. A meeting regarding the repairs for the Edgartown swimming pool in just twenty minutes; then, a road-worker meeting regarding the approval of a bill to fix up the many potholes prior to tourist season; after that, her day planner screamed out a number of other meetings, a lunch with an important Edgartown figure, all before evening, when she’d collapse on the bleachers of the high school for her niece’s cheerleading competition. She’d be the loudest clapper in the audience. After all, Mandy’s father couldn’t make it and Amelia was something of a stand-in mom. Mandy had to know she cared.

  Five minutes later, Amelia parked in the lot at the Frosted Delights Bakery. She hurried inside, grateful to find Jennifer Conrad at the register.

  “You’re here! I was worried you would be at the office this morning,” Amelia said.

  “I thought I would be, too, but Connie called in sick again,” Jennifer said. She rushed around to the front to swallow Amelia in a hug. Jen’s red tresses stirred alongside Amelia’s dark ones. Amelia had always been secretly jealous of Jennifer’s red hair — although being the tiniest bit jealous of Jennifer Conrad’s looks was something of a Martha’s Vineyard obsession. The fact that Jennifer’s husband, Joel, had wanted a divorce had totally thrown Amelia off. Of course, Jennifer had met an incredibly hot and rich guy from New York just last December and he’d fallen head-over-heels for her.

  How did people do it, Amelia often wondered. How did they hop from love to love, as though they just trusted their own emotions? And it wasn’t as though Jennifer was altogether less busy than Amelia, although Amelia liked to use her job as her excuse for the lack of love in her life.

  “You’re probably in a rush, aren’t you?” Jennifer asked. “Can I grab you a coffee? A donut?”

  “I don’t know about the donut,” Amelia said doubtfully.

  “Come on, Amelia. I know for a fact you won’t have time to eat breakfast. And what will you have for lunch? A side salad with a main course of yet another business meeting?” Jennifer slipped a maple-glazed donut into a little brown baggie and passed it over the top of the counter. She then dotted a to-go cup of coffee next to it.

  “You’re too good to me,” Amelia said.

  “You’re just not good enough to yourself,” Jennifer replied as she furrowed her brow.

  “I don’t have time for a sermon,” Amelia said, grabbing the bag and coffee. “I gotta run. I love you!”

  “And I love you, Amelia Taylor!” Jennifer called as Amelia rushed out into the early morning chill. “Take care of yourself!”

  Once in the car, Amelia’s phone began to blare. She carefully placed the coffee cup in the cup-holder, then answered her phone so that it rang through the speaker system of her car.

  “Good morning!” she said as she eased out of the parking lot.

  “Amelia, so glad I caught you before the swimming pool meeting.” This was her boss, Zane, whom Amelia had never really respected or liked. It was difficult for her to understand why he was her boss, as it seemed he spent most of his working life locked in his office, avoiding the many people of Edgartown who needed him.

  “Morning, Zane,” Amelia said. Her voice was somber and sterile.

  “So the swimming pool people are going to push for a pretty hefty budget. They want to add several more slides and a whole new play-place for kids,” Zane said. “I wanted to warn you beforehand.”

  “Warn me?” Amelia thought back to the swimming pool, which had needed an update for at least ten years. “I think that all sounds good. God knows it gets enough foot traffic during the summertime.”

  “We haven’t budgeted for something like that this year,” Zane countered.

  Amelia rolled her eyes slightly and adjusted her hands on the steering wheel. She didn’t want to get into this argument again; Zane and Amelia had very different ideas of how to budget for the city. He edged more toward the projects that would bring in ritzier clientele, tourists with a lot of cash to throw around. It was true that those weren’t the types of people who frequented the Edgartown swimming pool. But the people who did? Islanders. Edgartown kids with nothing to do. That’s who Amelia cared about the most.

  “I’ll just hear them out,” Amelia replied. “Maybe it isn’t as bad as you think.”

  “I think you should tell them to reassess,” Zane said. “Be strict with them.”

  “Why don’t you come to the meeting yourself? Tell them in person?” Amelia tapped the steering wheel as her nostrils flared.

  There was a pregnant pause. If Amelia had to guess, Zane probably wasn’t even showered and dressed yet. He kind of eased in and out of the office when he pleased.

  “I can’t make it this morning.”

  Of course, he can’t.

  Amelia was very close to city hall. She paused at the stop sign for a moment and then stepped on the gas. Her eyes were bleary with chill and annoyance. In just two seconds, she would turn left into the parking lot, where her parking spot was located near to the side door, where she could slip in and out easily. When she’d been given the parking spot, she’d thought, wow, I’ve finally made it. And then, she’d burst into tears because a parking spot was literally an empty plot of land, and that was her reward for working just so dang hard.

  “Okay then,” Amelia said to Zane. “I’ll let you go, then.”

  But the moment she placed her finger over the button to end the call, it all happened. There was the crunch, then the tip of her car toward the left. She gripped the steering wheel with white fingers and stabbed her foot on the break as she hollered out. She yanked her head to the right to see the car — a Mercedes Benz, which had just struck her corner. It had attempted to come out of a small alleyway and hadn’t seen her. To be fair to the driver, there was a massive brick wall between the alley and her dire
ction of the road, which had blocked his field of vision.

  Even still, a minor car accident hadn’t been on Amelia’s schedule.

  Amelia grumbled as she made eye-contact with the driver. She pointed toward the parking lot, and he nodded and followed her in so they could assess the damage. The Benz pulled up alongside her, parking in Zane’s spot.

  Amelia jumped out of the car and stepped around to the right-hand corner of her vehicle to inspect. There was the slightest crunch, and the glass of the light had been busted through. She scrunched her nose as the driver who had struck her stepped from his Benz. When her eyes turned up toward his face, her heart thudded in her throat.

  He was maybe forty, forty-five, with broad shoulders, dark, salt-and-pepper hair, and piercing, cerulean eyes. He wore an expensive suit beneath a long black trench coat, assuredly also expensive.

  “I am so sorry,” were the first words that came out of his mouth. His voice was a deep baritone. It sent a shiver down Amelia’s spine. “That brick wall back there — I should have just turned around rather than take a risk.”

  “I understand,” Amelia said. “I’ve gone out that way before. It’s scary.”

  “I guess you’ve never wrecked your car doing it, though,” the guy said.

  “No. True,” Amelia said. Her heart slowed as she gazed into his eyes. “But it’s not so bad. I have a busted light. And yours?”

  They analyzed where his car had struck hers, on the left-hand side, again near the light.

  “It’s like looking at two puzzle pieces,” Amelia said with a laugh.

  The guy laughed along with her. “I’m so relieved you’re okay. I can’t remember the last time I was in an accident. Ten years, maybe? I was driving a clunker back then, so it didn’t really matter.”

  “I think it’s been longer for me,” Amelia replied, surprised that she and this guy had fallen into such sudden and easy banter.

  “You seem way too intelligent and responsible to ever cause an accident yourself,” the guy said.

  Amelia felt her cheeks warm and prayed that they hadn’t actually turned red. Blushing at forty? Was there anything more embarrassing?

  They exchanged information as Amelia exhaled deeply. There was something so bizarre about any car accident, no matter how serious. It reminded you that at any point, your entire day could be yanked off the rails. It wasn’t up to you. It was up to fate.

  “Amelia Taylor,” the man, whose name was Nathan Gregory, said. He said her name as though it was a beautiful song.

  It had been a long time since someone had said her name like that.

  “Nathan Gregory,” Amelia recited.

  “It was a pleasure to bump into you today,” Nathan said. His smile was crooked and charming.

  In spite of everything, Amelia laughed aloud. “Be careful out there.”

  “You too. You never know what kind of idiots are ready to jump around corners,” Nathan quipped.

  Amelia eased a dark curl around her ear. She wondered what she looked like to this man, who’d already told her he was on the island only briefly for a few meetings. He was from Boston. When his eyes connected with hers, her stomach dropped. It had been a long time since she had thought of herself through a man’s eyes.

  Amelia stepped back toward the door of city hall and watched as Nathan dropped into his Mercedes Benz. There was so much more she was curious about, so much she wanted to ask him about his time on the island and his career, all while gazing into those bright eyes.

  But that moment, her secretary hustled out of the side of the building and called her name. “Amelia! Your eight o’clock is all set up and ready in your office. We’re all waiting on you.”

  Nathan nodded, his eyes still latched to hers through the glass of his windshield. Reluctantly, Amelia turned and followed her secretary back through the door. It was time to set herself up for the rest of her day.

  But it had certainly been a rather interesting start.

  Chapter Two

  A few minutes after Amelia’s lunch meeting, her stomach gurgled. She’d hardly had time to pierce through her salad as she’d discussed plans for a new line of docks with more stability, to be purchased and set up prior to summertime’s sailing season. She’d watched her salad return to the kitchen, where it had been tossed out into the trash. There had been too much to discuss, too many questions to ask and her hunger had abandoned her, only to return in full-force.

  The donut! Amelia reached for the little brown baggie, still in her purse, and removed the maple-glazed wonder. She closed her eyes and took a small bite. The flavors engulfed her tongue as she moaned. At that moment, her phone blared yet again with perhaps the fortieth call of the day. When she glanced at it, however, a very welcome name appeared.

  “Camilla!” Amelia said, with bits of donut in her mouth. “You caught me with my mouth kind of full. I’m having an emotional moment with a donut.”

  Camilla’s laughter rang out through her speakerphone. “You mean I actually caught the famously-busy Amelia Taylor outside of a meeting?”

  “It’s your lucky day,” Amelia quipped, leaning back in her chair. “How are you doing?”

  “Oh, fine. Just got out of a shift,” Camilla returned. There was sadness to her voice, which had lingered there since her husband had left her around Christmas. “Not sure quite what to do with myself the rest of the day. Andrea and I have been busy with wedding planning all week, but she headed back to New York just now. Guess it’s another night of microwave burritos and old reruns.”

  Amelia hated this self-defeated talk from Camilla. Camilla had always been a wonderfully strong, passionate, and intelligent person, even since childhood and into high school, when she had spent a lot of her free time volunteering at the hospital. But a broken heart did horrible things to a person’s soul. At least, this is what Amelia had sensed in others; she’d never been in love and, therefore, had never fallen victim to a broken heart.

  “I wish I could take you out for a night on the town,” Amelia told her. “But Mandy has another cheerleading competition tonight.”

  “You’re always at those cheer competitions. And Jake’s ball games.”

  It was true that Amelia had missed the last few dinners with her best friends, as she’d had family priorities. Camilla, Jennifer, Olivia, and Mila all were, technically, family — but at seventeen and eighteen, respectively, Jake and Mandy just needed her in a different, bigger way. Their mother had been gone a long, long time.

  “Don’t suppose I can convince you to join me?” Amelia asked. “The concession stand doesn’t have any microwave burritos, but they do have killer hot dogs.”

  “If I remember correctly, their bags of popcorn are more like butter soup,” Camilla said with a laugh.

  “Yes. You basically have to eat the popcorn with a spoon,” Amelia stated. “You should come. There’s literally nothing like watching a ton of beautiful and powerful athletes while eating junk food on the sidelines.”

  “I think you might be right about that,” Camilla agreed.

  Amelia arrived at the high school gymnasium a bit before the competition was set to begin. She perched on the highest level of the stands and watched as Mandy spoke to several of the other senior cheerleaders, who looked at her earnestly. Mandy was a force of nature: cheerleading captain, A-student, incredibly beautiful, with dark hair that swirled down her back and big, doe-like eyes. She’d made the varsity cheer squad during her freshman year and had elevated her team to an incredible level, allowing them to compete at state the previous two years. Naturally, Amelia had been along for the ride and a proud aunt.

  As Mandy wrapped up her pep-talk, her eyes turned toward Amelia. She gave a slight wave, then bounded toward the bleachers to say hello. Amelia was reminded of a much younger Mandy, who’d always seemed wild with energy. As a kid, especially when Amelia had had to watch her and her brother, Jake, after their mother’s abandonment, Mandy had wanted to run everywhere she went. Amelia had always called
after her to slow down. She’d never really listened.

  Amelia met Mandy at the bottom of the stands. When they hugged, sharp, overly flowery perfume assaulted Amelia’s nose. When Mandy leaned back, she exhaled and whispered, “I’m so nervous for some reason. Oak Bluffs isn’t that bad this year and the team coming down from Falmouth? They have this insanely talented freshman, and their pyramids are just so solid. Ours is still a bit shaky, to be honest.” She then leaned forward conspiratorially and said, “We have a sophomore who keeps messing up. I told coach I don’t know if she can hack varsity, but now that it’s March, it’s a little late for that kind of talk, you know?”

  Amelia chuckled. She had never been particularly into sports, especially not back in high school, but she had gone to see Jennifer, Michelle, and Mila cheer several times and knew the lingo pretty well. Cheerleaders were some of the toughest athletes around.

  “I know you’ll do great. You always do,” Amelia beamed at her niece.

  Mandy shrugged. “You never know.”

  “True. Oh, I wanted to ask. How did that paper turn out?” About a week before, Amelia had helped Mandy with a school paper for her economics class. They’d stayed up till around two the night before checking all relevant facts. Amelia had been a zombie the next day.

  Mandy beamed. “I got an A-minus, actually.”

  “Yes! That’s fantastic!” Amelia lifted a hand for a high-five, which Mandy just shook her head at. Slowly, Amelia returned her hand to her hip. She should have known better than to try that, especially around Mandy’s cheerleading squad.

  “Yeah. Thank you for your help,” Mandy flashed a warm smile. “I better get back to the girls. There’s no end to the pep-talks when you’re the captain.”

  Amelia returned to her position on the top of the bleachers as other parents and students arrived. In front of the bleachers, a table was set up, where the judges would sit and rate the three teams. Toward the far end of the gym, a man sat with a microphone in preparation for acting as the announcer for the night. He also worked as one of the radio announcers for the morning radio station based in Edgartown.