“Yes,” he said. “I think you should stay here for a few days. But then I want you to go back to Boston. And I’m going with you.”

Annie was stunned. Had his mood only improved because, like Jonas, he wanted to run away? “I thought we were going to wait to make a decision.”

He shook his head. “I changed my mind. I’m taking Mom back to Boston. I’ll look after her there.”

Annie wished she had a pin to drop on the wood plank floor to see how loud it would sound. She couldn’t imagine how Donna must feel.

“See, here’s the thing,” Kevin said as he stood and began to pace the room. “It’s time to get realistic. Getting out from under this mess with the skull might take a very long time. We need to accept the fact that, more than likely, we’ll never make our deadline. And I think we need to cut our losses before we pour any more money into a losing proposition.”

It was clear he was not going to listen, but Annie had to try. “So this is about the Inn? Not about . . . Mom?”

“Well, partly. It’s been fun being on the Vineyard,” he went on, “but let’s face it, Annie. You have a life here; I really don’t. I’m still an interloper. In fact, both Mom and I dropped into your life so fast you probably wonder sometimes what the heck happened. You have books to write, you have soap to make, and you have a relationship that looks like it could go somewhere more than where it’s at today if you could give it a little more attention. But I’m afraid that having this Inn isn’t going to fix that. And I’d hate for you to lose John.”

“Kevin . . .” Annie began, but he held a hand up to shush her.

“No. I’ve made up my mind. You have the cottage now. I don’t think anyone will say you can’t live here for now. That’s why we started this in the first place, isn’t it? As it stands now, that might be the best reason for us not to try to pull strings in a lame attempt to push Boston to come to a conclusion.”

“I don’t care about . . .”

He shushed her again. He paced some more. “Please, Annie. I’ve thought this out. The most important thing is that Mom will probably get better faster in her own home in Boston. Not to mention that, with summer coming, there’ll be a whole lot of commotion around here. Hardly conducive to recuperating.”

“I might not last until the summer.” Donna’s words were calm and matter-of-fact, suspended in the air as if waiting for someone to contradict them.

Kevin blinked.