“I’d like to stay for longer, but I need to leave. We’ve got the meeting with grandma’s solicitor this afternoon. I’ll go to that, then leave tomorrow night.”
Diana’s eyes widened. “I thought you’d spend at least a week with us. Why do you have to leave so soon?”
“A lot of people are depending on me to sell the apartments in our latest project. I can’t stay any longer.”
“Yes, you can,” Barbara said. “Your grandma has just died. No one will complain if you stay here for a few more days. It might be the only time we’re together for a while.”
That thought alone made Penny’s heart sink. Her grandma’s death had made her realize just how important her family was to her.
“Don’t badger Penny,” Katie said as she breezed into their grandmother’s living room and flopped into the chair beside Diana. “She wants to be here as much as we all do. But she has other responsibilities.”
Barbara scowled at their youngest sister. “We all have things we need to do, but family should come first.”
“That’s easy to say when you earn a huge salary. We can’t all afford to take time off work.”
Penny grabbed the plate of cookies that were sitting on the table and held them in front of Barbara. Her sister’s quick temper always got the better of her around Katie. “The gingerbread cookies are delicious with the coffee. Mom and I made them yesterday.”
Reluctantly, Barbara took one of them. “So, when are you going home, Katie?”
“Tomorrow night. I can’t afford to take more days off work.”
When she wasn’t writing children’s books and trying to get published, Katie was a server in a family-owned restaurant. The pay wasn’t great but, combined with her tips, it was enough to pay the rent and utilities on her small apartment.
Before her sisters started bickering again, Penny offered them the plate of cookies. “What does everyone think about inheriting Grandma’s house?”
Diana looked at the framed photographs sitting on a chest of drawers, the vase of roses that Penny had picked from the garden. “I think it was really generous of her, but what are we going to do with it?”
Katie curled her feet under her. “It’s too big to sit here empty. Unless anyone needs somewhere to live?” She looked at Diana. “Charlie would enjoy staying here.”
“Before we decide what to do with the house we should wait until Grandma’s solicitor tells us we’ve inherited it. She might have something else written in her will.”
Penny frowned. “She definitely said she was leaving the house to us. I told her Mom and Dad would be disappointed, but she said they’d have more than enough money to buy their own house.”
Barbara bit into her cookie. “I’m with Diana. We’re seeing Grandma’s solicitor in a few hours. We can make more plans after that.”
Penny looked at her sisters’ unhappy faces. They were all in shock but, as soon as they’d decided what to do with the house, she’d be on a flight back to Seattle, living a life that had suddenly lost its appeal.
Four hours later, Penny and her family were sitting in the solicitor’s office, frowning at the poor man who’d given them the bad news.
“That can’t be right,” Penny said. “Grandma didn’t mention anything about us having to stay in Sapphire Bay for twelve months. Are you sure you didn’t make a mistake?”
Mr. Rogers, her grandma’s solicitor, looked over the top of his black-rimmed eyeglasses. “I can assure you, Betty knew exactly what she was doing. Next year, you can do what you want with the house. But for now, you and your sisters have to stay in Sapphire Bay if you want to keep it. If you decide to live in the house, Betty was happy for you to do any remodeling work that is necessary.”
Katie looked as worried as Penny. “What if we can’t stay?”
“Then the house will be donated to The Connect Church. They’ll use it as a boarding house for people who can’t find other accommodation.”
“A boarding house?” Diana repeated.
“A lot of people come to Sapphire Bay without a job or anywhere to live. The church has been working hard to help them. Your grandma did what she could.”
Barbara read her copy of their grandma’s will. “What about our jobs? If we stay here, we might have to resign.”
Mr. Rogers’ eyebrows rose. “I can’t help you with those decisions.”
Penny turned to their mom and dad. “Did you know Grandma wanted us to stay here?”
Mabel shook her head. “The last time we talked, she didn’t say a word about you staying here.”
Allan crossed his arms in front of his chest. “I might have known something about it.”
Five pairs of female eyes swiveled toward him.
“And you said nothing?” Mabel asked with a touch of annoyance.
“Betty made me promise not to say anything. She knew the girls loved the house, but she wanted it to be more than somewhere they came for vacations.”
“And she also wanted your daughters to reconnect with each other,” Mr. Rogers added.
“We don’t need to reconnect,” Katie insisted. “I speak to at least one of my sisters each week.”
Mr. Rogers looked over the rim of his glasses. “Your grandmother was old-fashioned. She believed that talking on the phone isn’t the same as seeing each other.”
Penny agreed with her grandma. Even though she’d come home more in the last six months than she had in the last five years, she still missed her family when she wasn’t here.
Katie frowned. “Can we contest Grandma’s will in court? It’s unfair to expect us to live here when we have jobs and lives in other cities.”
“Of course, you have that option,” Mr. Rogers said. “But it can be a long and expensive process to go through. However, the decision remains with you.”
Penny looked at her sisters and then at Mr. Rogers. “Maybe there’s another way of making it work. Do we need to stay in Sapphire Bay all
