given Jonquil Island its name. Magnolia Harbor, the largest town on the island, had been founded more than a hundred years after Rose had died. But her daffodils remained.
Ashley checked the oven clock. It was nearly seven. The quilters would be arriving shortly. Their cake now took pride of place in the newly refurbished kitchen, sitting on Grandmother’s milk-glass cake stand beside a stack of her china plates and the silver cake server.
Cake had been served on those plates almost every week for eighty years. The sheer longevity of the Tuesday-night meetings made them both a burden and a joy to be a part of. Ashley didn’t dare end the tradition, but sometimes she wished the group would meet elsewhere, or maybe give up the old-fashioned practice of hand quilting. They could make a lot more quilts if someone would invest in a long-arm sewing machine capable of machine quilting. The truth was that sometimes Ashley wanted a Tuesday night off.
The sound of the big front door opening pulled Ashley from her dissatisfied thoughts. A moment later, Sandra Jernigan and her sister, Karen Tighe, came into the kitchen. Sandra and Karen, like Grandmother, were members of the Martin family. They had been Grandmother’s nieces, which made them Ashley’s cousins once removed or something like that.
In any case, Ashley, Sandra, and Karen were part of an extended family that included Topher, who was even more removed, relation-wise. But in this town family counted, especially if your surname was Howland or Martin. The Howlands and the Martins had founded Magnolia Harbor.
“How is he?” Sandra asked the moment she arrived, utterly ignoring the caramel cake that her sister immediately dived into. Sandra didn’t have a sweet tooth, but Karen did.
“I assume you’re asking about Topher?” Ashley said.
Sandra nodded.
“Well, he’s still not eating meals with the boarders. But I saw him leave the cottage and come back with a bunch of grocery sacks. I have no idea what he’s eating, but he’s eating something.”
“You should have offered to go shopping for—”
“No, Sandra, she shouldn’t have offered to shop for him,” Karen said, interrupting her sister around a mouthful of cake. “Topher needs tough love.”
Karen and Sandra bore a family resemblance if you looked hard enough, but the two of them tried their best not to enhance it. Karen rarely wore a skirt while Sandra was a bit of a fashion plate, although her sense of style was about twenty years out of date.
“The poor dear,” Sandra said, giving Karen a glare. “We really need to make an intervention.”
“And do what?” Ashley asked. Her cousins were meddling in Topher’s life. She was resisting the urge, although clearly the man needed help.
“I don’t know,” Sandra said, her voice laced with deep and genuine concern. “He’s so alone. He’s been alone since his father died.”
“Before that,” Karen said on a long, mournful breath.
Oh boy. Yes, Topher had lived a difficult life, losing his mother at the age of four and his father when he was eighteen, shortly after starting his freshman year at Alabama. Still, he’d managed, and he’d done well for himself until the accident.
Not surprisingly, Sandra and Karen, who had been babying him most of his life, wanted to swathe Topher in Bubble Wrap now that he was hurting.
“He’ll be okay,” Ashley said, trying to invest her voice with more conviction than she felt. Topher was desperately injured in both body and spirit. But maybe all he needed was a little time.
Ashley had met Topher only once or twice as a kid, when her father’s military service had allowed Daddy to return home to Magnolia Harbor for family celebrations. She remembered Topher as a nerdy kid. Sort of like Jackie, now that she thought about it.
That brought her up sharp because Ashley hadn’t been kind to Topher when they were younger. She was four years older and had hung out with their cousins Steven and Timothy. The older kids made a point of excluding Topher from their games, leaving him to play with the little girl cousins.
Melanie, Alicia, and Lindsay had adored Topher. Like him, they were all in their thirties now. Each one had checked in with Ashley over the last few weeks, concerned about him. Apparently Topher was not returning phone calls and seemed to have forgotten that his extended family loved him no matter what.
“I heard from Isaac Solomon down at the marina that Topher took his boat out yesterday,” Karen said.
“He did?” Ashley asked. “I guess I didn’t notice that he’d