The Love Letter (10 page)

“You don’t have to do this
, Professor, I mean, uh…Meredith. I can manage.”

“
You say my name so tentatively. Is it so difficult to remember?”

Her face paled so quickly Meredith thought she might faint. “No. I’m not likely to forget your name
,” was her quiet answer.

Meredith was annoyed with himself
; he hadn’t meant to embarrass her, but at the same time, he couldn’t guard everything he said. “You didn’t answer my question about the sausage. I am thought to be a good cook. You can ask Juliet; she has sampled my efforts often enough.”

She
didn’t want to think of him and Juliet sharing meals together. Why couldn’t she refuse his help and ask him to leave? Why did she prolong this torture? “If you can spare the time, your help would be most welcome.”

He smiled faintly at her unnatur
ally formal tones, knowing she wanted to decline his offer. “I just want my breakfast before lunchtime.”

S
abrina was arranging grapefruit onto plates when she felt Meredith’s arms go around her waist. The shock of finding herself so close to him made her stiffen.

He spoke
into her ear. “You forgot your apron this morning.”

“
Oh, thank you,” she replied huskily, hoping he hadn’t noticed her reaction.

It was a vain hope - Meredith
felt the tension inside her. This response merely confirmed something that had occurred to him last night after he kissed her. Sabrina wasn’t as indifferent to him as he’d thought.

I
f that was the case, he had to question whether the letter was an expression of her real feelings for him and not some invention of an overactive imagination. This was something he hadn’t even considered previously. It put the entire sequence of events between them in an entirely different light – a light that Meredith wasn’t sure he wanted to think about.

By the time the first couple arrived in the dining room, everything was ready. With
a tired smile, Sabrina turned to the man next to her. “I suppose this is another debt I owe you.”

Meredith
nodded slowly. “I’m glad you reminded me.”

“I don’t think you needed reminding;
you probably don’t forget anything.”

He frowned suddenly.
“Some things can’t be forgotten no matter how hard one tries.”

Sabrina said nothing as
he left the kitchen. Did he think he was the only one who couldn’t forget? She would take her love for him to the grave.

With a deep sigh, she went upstairs to check on Casey.
Why did Meredith have to keep making comments designed to put her in her place? She didn’t need him to remind her that they would never be able to reach any kind of friendship. Maybe she should reassure him of her understanding of how things stood between them. Who knew better than her that if that stupid letter hadn’t been enough to give him a disgust of her, breaking into his office had sealed her fate?

Upon finding Casey much improved, Sabrina changed into jeans and a raincoat and headed outdoors. Instead of going toward the beach, she set off down the public road that meandered around the northern part of the island. Before she had walked very far, it began to rain. Not bothering to put up her hood, Sabrina raised her face to the sky. In a matter of minutes, her hair hung in damp tendrils. She thought of what Casey would say when she returned and laughed.

Sabrina
was upon the cottage before she realized. Since her last stay there, the pastel blue walls had been repainted a light green. The window boxes still contained the lamb’s ears her mother had planted. Her eyes misted with tears. If only she’d known that summer would be the last she would ever spend with her mother. She would have done so many things differently.

With an abrupt movement, she turned an
d walked quickly away. All the wishing in the world wasn’t going to turn back the clock and allow her to redo that summer. Her eyes moved restlessly over the tiny cottages lining the road, seeking anything to divert her sad thoughts. It was then she remembered the gazebo.

Sabrina
moved off the paved road onto a sandy path cutting through the sea oats that bloomed all over the dunes. In a matter of minutes, she could see the cupola in the distance and then the shingled roof. As she got closer, she was disappointed to discover that the magical place of her childhood was in a sad state of disrepair. Its once pristine white paint was peeling and numerous slats of the railing were missing. None of those things were enough to stop her from going inside.

Here the damage was less noticeable. After wiping away the cobwebs, she gingerly sat down on the wooden bench.
For a moment, she was back in time – a young girl waiting anxiously for a man with blue eyes. Her eyes instinctively swerved to the path where she’d first seen him.

All she could recall
from that time was the glossy, dark hair and brilliantly blue eyes. Nine years later, David still had both. He didn’t remember the pigtailed girl who’d read him stories from her journal, and she hadn’t reminded him. Obviously, he’d made more of an impression on her than she’d made on him.

On her way back to the inn,
Sabrina passed the Victorian house again. The scaffolding was still on the front, but progress had certainly been made. Before she could talk herself out of it, she jumped the small ditch that stood between her and the edge of the property.

Nothing much had been done to the yard
; tall weeds had taken over whatever grass had once grown there. As she got closer, she realized the house was actually much larger than it appeared from the road. Walking slowly up the steps to the porch, she admired the ornate gingerbread that adorned the eaves and then unable to resist, took a peek through one of the wide windows.

If this room was indicative of the rest of the house, the inside had fared much better than the outside.
The high-ceilinged room with its light paneling and wood floors was lovely and would be lovelier still when completely restored. Sabrina had no trouble picturing it filled with antique furniture.

She walked all around the outside peering in windows until she caught sight of the car parked under an archway at the end of the driveway. That was enough to send her back the way she
’d come. Sabrina didn’t feel secure from the prying eyes of whoever had been in the house until she was safely on the main road.

Once she was back at the inn, this minor worry was forgotten in the rush to get
the fruit tarts made in time for tea. Neither Meredith nor Juliet appeared for that daily treat, something Sabrina wasted much of her afternoon speculating about. Casey gave her thoughts a different direction while they were cleaning up.

“
I found out Meredith grew up here. Did you know?”

“Yes, he mentioned it
,” Sabrina admitted.

“
I wish I had met him. I might have been the wife of an author by now. Can you imagine how good-looking he would have been back then?”

Sabrina had to laugh at this.
“He’s not exactly ugly now.”

“So you
’ve noticed something about him. That’s a good sign.”

Sabrina wondered what Casey would say if she admitted
that everything about Meredith was seared into her memory and that she would love him until the day she died. Would she think that was a good sign? Or would she consider it a lost cause?

T
hat evening, in the quiet of the inn’s parlor, Sabrina finished Meredith’s book. There was no doubt he had talent and a way of writing that fully engaged the reader. He would have been wasted teaching college classes. She felt immense pride in the man she loved. If only she could tell him how reading his story made her feel. Absently, she turned to the back of the book.

“
I’m not going to be able to talk to you this way after tonight,” she informed the picture smiling at her. “You have to go back to the library. How will I bear not being able to look at you whenever I want to?”

Meredith had no answer for her. With a wry grin, she carried the book into the kitchen
and slipped it into her tote bag.

The following morning, Carly and her crew failed to show up.
After listening to Casey waste an hour trying to find suitable replacements, Sabrina decided to take action. When she emerged from the storage room wearing one of Carly’s uniforms and pushing the cleaning cart, Casey was still on the phone. Ignoring her sister’s startled glance, Sabrina removed the large key ring from the desk drawer and disappeared through the back door.

Entering the first room, she
propped the door open with the cart. After consulting Carly’s clipboard, Sabrina selected what she needed and headed to the bathroom. She was down on her knees scrubbing the Jacuzzi when Casey found her.

“
You can’t clean eight rooms by yourself. It takes three people six hours to do it.”

“I can do enough that our guests will
consider their rooms cleaned. Now, get back to the kitchen and worry about your own work.”

“I finally reached
Carly. It appears she has the flu, and she’s the ride for the other two. We’ll have to manage the best we can for a few days.”

“Then I better get moving.”

“I’ll be able to help you this afternoon.”

By the time she reached
Room 5, Sabrina was wishing she need never see another bathroom. She had purposely left Meredith’s room for last, hoping that by doing so, he wouldn’t be around. He and Juliet usually went out in the afternoon.

Her timid knock on the door was answered not by Meredith, but by Juliet.
When she saw who it was, Juliet opened the door wider, and waved her in.

“Meredith
has gone for a walk, claiming he has writer’s block or some such nonsense. You should have plenty of time to clean before he returns.”

Sabrina
smiled at the other woman and wheeled the cart inside. “It won’t take long; he’s not very messy, is he?”

“No, he’s a neat frea
k – it drives me crazy. I’ll get out of your way.”

Like
the last time she’d been in it, the bathroom still held remnants of Meredith’s cologne. Sabrina stared at the razor and shaving cream resting near the sink and longed to touch the things that had so recently been in contact with him. It seemed silly to envy these objects simply because they were able to feel his touch every day.

When she approached the bed where he slept each night, another kind of longing swept over her. Her fingers touched his pillow and a wistful light entered her eyes.
Before she could do something really ridiculous like bury her face in his pillow, she folded the comforter and slid it from the bed. When she turned to place the bulky comforter on a nearby chair, she knocked something off the nightstand.

Bending down, she retrieved the book that had fallen. A quick glance told her this wasn’t an ordinary book – it was a journal. F
or a moment, surprise held her motionless. Here was something else she and Meredith had in common. They both liked recording their thoughts.

W
ell acquainted with the misery of having one’s private thoughts exposed, Sabrina replaced the book without peering at its contents. Then she stripped the bed and put on new sheets. She was arranging the throw pillows that Meredith had piled on the loveseat when he strolled through the half-open door. He showed no surprise at finding her in his room.

“
I’m going to take those things off as soon as you leave,” he stated with a faint smile.

“That’s up to you.”
Sabrina went to remove the vacuum from the cart, glad he hadn’t arrived when she was staring at his pillow. He already thought her unstable.

Meredith w
atched as she unwound the cord and searched for an outlet. “There’s one behind the curtain. Did Carly quit?”

“No, she’s sick.”

Sabrina plugged in the cord and turned on the vacuum. Meredith went to the table and started flipping through a stack of papers. When she finished, he looked her way again.

“You’re a nice change from Carly. She talks nonstop when she’s in here.”

Sabrina smiled faintly. “I’m too tired to talk.”

“How long do you think you can keep this up?”

“It will only be for a few days.”

She returned to the cart
and pushed it through the door. Meredith came up behind her and caught the door before it could close.

“
You didn’t by any chance get curious and look at the papers on my desk, did you?”

She should have seen this question coming. He still didn’t trust her.
“Why ask? You won’t believe what I say.”

Meredith
caught hold of her chin, forcing her to meet his eyes. “Can you blame me? You’ve admitted to lying to me before.”

Sabrina jerked
out of his hold. “I only lied to you once, and I’ve regretted it ever since. You might want to consider that I learned from my mistake and stop behaving as if it’s my normal behavior.”