“Makes no sense to buy or rent one when we already bought one,” Earl said. “We’ll figure out something else, once we need it for the Inn.” He not only spoke as if the Inn were going to open, but also as if Donna would still be there. In the nearly two years Annie had known him, she would not have thought that Earl would wind up being the optimist. No one, however, mentioned that, once they picked up the bed, the cost would show up on one of their credit cards. Unless the Louis Vuitton was filled with gold bricks after all.

Donna said she’d have a bowl of soup but would pass on the sandwich. Earl said he’d have the one that Annie had made for Donna. The four of them then squeezed around the cottage-sized table and shared a pleasant meal, the conversation brimming with hope.

“In case Annie’s attorney friend is right, I made some housing inquiries,” Earl said. “If the yahoos up in Boston can’t give us an answer before Memorial Day, that doesn’t have to mean our Canada goose is cooked. Hard as it might be to believe, I have a few friends here on the Vineyard. Even some on Chappaquiddick. And I’ve been asking around.”

Kevin leaned back in his chair and folded his arms. “Asking around for what?”

Then Donna piped up, “Don’t lean back in the chair that way, honey. You’ll fall over and split your head wide open.”

Annie and Earl laughed, but Kevin resumed a straight-up position. “She’s only saying it because I did it once. Well, I didn’t exactly split my head wide open, but I did get a nice gash. Seven stitches.”

“Eight,” Donna corrected him. “Not to mention that it scared me half to death.” No one acknowledged that she’d used the word “death.”

Earl cleared his throat. “Anyway,” he continued, “I’ve lined up a couple of places where our tenants can stay until we can officially open. They’re only temporary, and they’re not very special, but they’re clean and, more important, they’re available if we need them. I still need to find one more—I’d hoped Taylor would let us use Jonas’s apartment, but now that he’s coming back, that idea’s out the window.”

“But we’re happy that he’s coming back,” Annie said firmly.

“Yup,” Earl replied. “We’re going to need his extra pair of hands once we get the go-ahead to finish.”

“If we get the go-ahead,” Kevin said.

“We will,” Earl said, then winked at Donna. “Donna and I discussed it, and she insists we should stay positive, so that’s what I’m doing. As soon as I did, then like that”—he snapped his fingers—“two solutions out of the three appeared under our noses. Or rather, under my nose, I suppose.”