The Nantucket Inn (Nantucket Beach Plum Cove #1) - Pamela M. Kelley
Introduction
Lisa Hodges needs to make a decision fast. Thanks to her dead husband’s gambling addiction, their savings is almost gone. In her early fifties with a large, waterfront home on Nantucket to support, Lisa hasn’t worked in over thirty years, has no in-demand skills and is virtually unemployable.
Her only options are to sell the house and move off-island, or, she could use her cooking and entertaining skills and turn her home into a bed and breakfast. She desperately needs it to succeed because she has four grown children with problems of their own and wants to stay close to them.
Her oldest daughter, Kate, has a fabulous career in Boston--working as a writer for a popular fashion magazine and engaged to a dangerously handsome, photographer, who none of them have met.
Kate's twin, local artist, Kristen, has been reasonably content with her on-again off-again relationship with an older, separated businessman.
Her son, Chase, runs his own construction business and is carefree, happily dating here and there but nothing serious.
Youngest daughter, Abby, is happily married to her high school sweetheart, and they've been trying to have a baby. But it hasn't happened yet, and Abby wonders if it's a sign that maybe their marriage isn't as perfect as everyone thinks.
Come visit Nantucket and see how Lisa's new bed and breakfast has an impact on almost everyone in her family. It's the first book in a new series that will follow the Hodges family, friends, and visitors to Nantucket's Beach Plum Cove Inn.
Chapter 1
The money was running out. Lisa Hodges sighed as she sat at her kitchen island and looked over the month-to-date transactions in her checking account. How did it disappear so quickly? She couldn’t remember the last time she’d bought herself new clothes, and she’d cut way back on going out to dinner with friends. But living on Nantucket was expensive, especially now that her husband Brian was gone—food, cable, insurance, it all added up too fast.
They’d been married for just over thirty-three years when Brian learned he had stage four colon cancer. Six months later, he was gone. That was almost a year and a half ago and when she’d finally been able to push aside her grief long enough to look at the bills, she’d been shocked at the state of their bank account.
Brian had always handled all the financial matters in their relationship. He earned the money, managed the banking accounts and paid the bills. She had access to their main checking account of course and knew there was always plenty of money in it to pay their day-to-day expenses. She also knew they had a healthy savings account that Brian regularly contributed to.
They’d always lived a comfortable lifestyle. Not extravagant, but there was always money for one or two vacations a year, college for the kids and dinners out a few times a month. And she’d assumed there was still a life insurance policy. She knew that at one time, there were million dollar policies on both of them. Brian earned his living as a financial planner and she’d always deferred to whatever he suggested as she’d never been good with numbers.
Lisa had been an English major in college and an elementary school teacher until she had the twins and then Brian pointed out that the math didn’t add up for her to go back to work. They would pay as much in day care for Kate and Kristen as she’d earn teaching. So, the decision was made for her to stay home with their children. And she’d loved doing it. In the next few years, they had two more children, Abby and Chase.
Brian’s only vice was that he was a bit of a gambler. He’d loved to go off-island with his buddies to visit the Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun casinos. And he and his friends always had poker nights the first Saturday of every month. She’d always assumed they played for small amounts and that it was all in good fun. It wasn’t until Brian was gone and she dug more deeply into their finances that she discovered he actually had a serious gambling addiction.
Brian had stopped paying the premiums on their life insurance policies several years ago and the balance in their savings and retirement account was shockingly low. The retirement account was gone. There was nothing there at all. He’d withdrawn everything that was in their 401k, paid the penalties and used the money to settle debts that she’d never even known about.