A Haven on the Bay - Nicole Ellis Page 0,62
her dog, who was lying on his pet bed next to the table. Upon hearing his name, Pebbles lifted his head, but laid back down when no treats were offered. “You know, I should be asking you how you’re doing. You gave all of us quite a scare on Saturday night.”
“I know. I’m sorry.” Meg inhaled slowly through her nostrils, allowing the deep-breathing technique to calm her nerves.
She’d had to scrub herself down in the shower several times when she got home on Sunday before finally managing to get the stench of stale smoke out of her hair. She may not have been able to smell the acrid scent anymore, but thoughts of the fire and her guilt over not being able to stop it still intruded frequently into her thoughts. Taylor had left several messages for her, asking her if she was okay, but she hadn’t called him back. The last she’d heard, he wasn’t scheduled to fly back from California until that evening, so she figured she had a little time to figure out what she was going to say to him.
How was she going to face Taylor after she’d let Lara burn down the Lodge’s kitchen? Having Meg take over the kitchen while he was on vacation had been a huge gesture of faith in her abilities, and she’d let him down. Maybe it was time to accept Theo’s offer to sail the San Juan Islands with him. Getting away from Willa Bay for a few months might be exactly what she needed.
“You seem like you have a lot on your mind,” Celia observed. “Do you want to talk about it?”
Meg shook her head. “No, not really. I just have some decisions to make.”
Celia nodded sagely. “Well, let me know if you change your mind. I’ve been told I’m a good listener.” She patted Meg’s hand, then returned to the stack of photos in front of her.
Meg thought she’d reached the last image in her current handful of photos, but it didn’t feel right in her hand. The hair stood up on the back of her neck as she looked more closely, then eased her fingernail between two pieces of photo paper stuck together and carefully peeled them apart.
Hidden behind the first image was a sepia-toned portrait of a man, woman, and two children sitting on the steps of the Inn’s gazebo. Meg flipped to the other side. In neat, but fading handwriting were the words, Thomas and Birgitta Carlsen and their two children, Davina, age 12 and Lolly, age 6 months. August 1921.
Meg sucked in her breath. “Celia. I think I found her.”
Celia scooted her chair closer. “Thomas and Birgitta,” she said, rolling the names over her tongue like she was tasting them. “I’m not familiar with them. Maybe they were guests at the Inn?”
“I don’t know.” Meg took a closer look at the family picture. The baby, Lolly, perched on the woman’s lap, her chubby legs peeking out from the ruffled skirt of a white dress. Davina sat on the step below her parents, leaning against her father’s legs as she smiled at the camera. She wore a long, pale dress and a strand of round beads hung around her neck. Her blonde hair had been bobbed, with precisely cut bangs across her forehead and a giant bow atop her head. “1921. This was taken about five years before the journal entries, so if they were guests, they must have come here annually.”
Celia nodded. “That would make sense. Many families vacationed at the same resort in Willa Bay every year, often with standing reservations for a certain week or specific cottage.”
They both peered at the photo and Meg couldn’t stop herself from thinking about twelve-year-old Davina. Was she interested in cooking at that age, or was that something that had developed later? Meg was in the middle of imagining Davina and Lolly making sandcastles on the beach when her phone rang. Her whole body stiffened in response and her breath caught. Was it Taylor again?
She flipped over the phone and let out a long sigh. Not Taylor. She didn’t recognize the phone number, but it had a Seattle area code. “Hello?”
“Hi,” said a woman on the other end. “May I speak with Meg, please?”
“Speaking.” Meg readied herself to hang up on a telemarketer.
“My name is Penny, and I’m calling to see if you would be interested in appearing on Coffee Talk Seattle. One of our producers covered the Inn’s grand opening, and he couldn’t stop