Though Annie had no idea what he was referring to, she didn’t ask. Donna must have asked Earl to pick up something in town, and, coupled with having enlisted Georgia whatever-her-last-name-was as a home companion, Donna certainly was entitled to manage her own life. As for Earl, God knew, he’d comply. Without his penchant to help others, Annie wasn’t sure how she would have navigated her first year on the island.

Then, as Earl zipped his jacket, he abruptly asked Annie, “How are things over at the Flanagan place? Was it unlocked or did you have to break in?”

Stupefied, Annie said, “I wasn’t in the main house.”

“Well, I didn’t figure you would be.”

“But how . . .”

Lucy laughed. “Your car was here, your keys were in it, so Grandpa said you couldn’t be far. It took him two seconds to find the path again. Then he saw your footprints on the ground.”

“Fresh prints,” Earl added. “It rained pretty hard last night, but you probably slept through it. If someone had left ’em earlier, they’d have washed away. I figured not many people either know about or would bother with that path. No reason to. Since no one’s around. Bet you never knew that my son gets his investigative skills from me.” He donned his baseball cap and tipped it toward Donna. “Have a pleasant evening.” Then he waddled out the door and into the waning sunset, with Lucy and the dog behind him, the teenager mimicking his gait, and Restless continuing to wriggle his backside.

“You broke into your old rental space so you could write?” Donna asked after they were out of sight.

Annie snapped on the light over the table and sat across from her birth mother, knowing she must look sheepish. She toyed with the buttons on her fleece. “I loved that little place. I wrote one of my novels there. It has nice memories.”

“Earl thought you were hiding from us.”

The laugh Annie emitted sounded more like a sputter. “Earl likes to spin an incident into a tale. The longer you know him, the more you’ll get to hear. But if he drives you crazy, let me know. The whole first fall and winter I was here, he stopped by every day. He usually pretended he had something to do, like bring me wood or fix the door. After a couple of months I realized he was keeping a watchful eye out for me. In case anything happened, you know? Anyway, let me know if he gets to be a pest.”

“There could be worse pests to have around. And Lucy is delightful.”

Annie nodded. “That she is.” There was no need to fill Donna in on Lucy’s not-so-delightful antics. “So how was your afternoon? Did you get any rest before your visitors arrived?”