She batted away the thought. “Don’t try to change the subject. Cormac O’Neill.”
“You’re going to be glad he’s the one to document Magnus’s life. Our grandfather has a unique story. An important one. It’s not just family pride, Iz. He was a key player in the Danish Resistance. There were eight thousand Jews in Denmark during the German occupation, and Magnus’s group helped rescue seventy-five hundred of them. It’s a rare bright spot in the middle of the darkest of times. Most of all, it’s something Magnus wants.”
Isabel tucked a damp stray curl behind her ear and looked out the window. From one side of the kitchen, she could see the rows of trees, some of the stock decades old. The blossoms of springtime were flurrying down as the new fruit emerged, a tangible sign of renewal. She loved Bella Vista, loved the rhythm of the seasons. She was lucky to be a part of it.
“Yes,” she said quietly. “Grandfather did say that.” Neither sister stated the obvious—that their grandfather wasn’t getting any younger. “So tell me about this guy.”
“He’s written award-winning nonfiction,” Tess said. “He’s won all kinds of literary prizes. He already has a publisher on board—assuming the project gets done. Anyway, the important thing is, he’s here with us now, and I think he’ll be perfect for Magnus.”
“Where is he going to stay?” Isabel asked.
“I thought we’d put him in Erik’s room.”
Erik—their father. He had died before either of them was born, leaving their separate mothers both pregnant and alone, unaware of each other. Over the past year, Isabel and Tess had spent hours speculating about the situation, but frustratingly, had never been able to figure out what had driven Erik to do the things he’d done.
“Why Erik’s room?” asked Isabel.
“Because it’s available, and he doesn’t need anything fancy. I thought Erik’s room would be a good choice. The history, you know? If he’s going to do a thorough job, Mac needs to be wrapped into the family.”
The idea made Isabel distinctly uncomfortable. “Suppose we don’t want to wrap him into the family?”
“Our grandfather wants it. I swear, it’ll be fine. Just fine.” Tess put her dishes in the sink, then poured herself a cup of coffee and took a sip. She never seemed to be completely still, physically or mentally. She was always thinking, planning, doing. She had the kind of energy that made caffeine jumpy. “I’m really sorry, Iz. Don’t be mad, okay?”
“I never get mad,” said Isabel.
“I know. It’s freaky. I’m about to become a stepmom to two school-age kids, so I need to take lessons from you on how to be mellow about things.”
Isabel flashed on Calvin Sharpe, and she felt anything but mellow. “Hey, off the subject, but did you attend the last Chamber of Commerce meeting?”
“Yep. I’m a card-carrying member. They’re going to feature Things Remembered on the Chamber website in December. Cool, huh?”
“Very cool. And, um, was there any talk of that new restaurant coming in? It was in the newsletter...”
“Yeah, I think it’s kind of a big deal. Some famous chef...Cleavon or Calvin...?”
“Calvin Sharpe. A TV chef.” Isabel kept her face neutral. You never get mad. Great, just great.
“Yeah, that’s the one. Super good-looking, and he had an entourage with him. I remember now—he’s calling the new place CalSharpe’s. So, you know this guy?”
“He was an instructor at the culinary institute when I went there, years ago.”
“And? What’s he like?”
“Like a guy who thinks the sun rises every morning just to hear him crow,” Isabel said. “But he can cook. And it appears he’s got a restaurant empire going.” She didn’t want to talk about it anymore. She’d already given him too much space in her head. “Anyway. Back to the other guy—Cormac O’Neill. You call him Mac.”
Tess grabbed her arm and pulled her toward the lounge room. “Come here,” she said. “Let me show you something.”
She led the way to the big room, which had already been refurbished for the cooking school. It was light and airy with freshly whitewashed plaster walls and tall ceilings, filled with cookbooks and old furniture and Bubbie’s baby grand piano. When Isabel was growing up, the rolling ladder against the tall built-in bookcases had been her stairway to a different world. That was what books had offered her—all the voyages she wanted, to different realms. Even as a tiny girl, she’d been the consummate armchair traveler, seeing the world from the safety of her own home.
Now she was a steward of this place. For her, Bella Vista lived and breathed with the essence of life, representing security and permanence in a world that had not always been kind to her. Her mission was to revive the place, resuscitate it after the hard times. Her grandfather’s accident last year had shaken Isabel’s foundations. Magnus was a father figure and besides Tess, her only family.
Isabel still loved to pore over photographs of castles on the Rhein, Ayers Rock in Australia, Italy’s Amalfi coast. Sometimes, gazing at the pictures, she would feel a yearning deep in her stomach. Yet when it came to actually traveling to those places, something always made her balk. To her, adventure was always more appealing within the pages of a travelogue.
Tess pulled a stack of new-looking books from a shelf and set them on the lid of the piano. “I met Mac for the first time when I was working in Krakow. I was tracing the origin of some paintings that had been hidden by the Nazis, and he was doing an article on restoring Nazi plunder. I’m actually a footnote in one of his books.” She flipped open a thick volume called Behind the Iron Curtain. “He talks about the Krakow treasure here.”
Isabel felt a surge of admiration for her sister. They had grown up separately, in completely different circumstances, Isabel at Bella Vista, and Tess traveling the world with her mother, a museum acquisitions expert. Isabel could easily picture Tess examining old artifacts, ferreting out the truth about them. She’d had a high-level position finding lost treasures and researching their origins at an auction house in the Bay Area. In fact, her expertise had been instrumental in saving Bella Vista from bankruptcy.
But along with the estate’s reversal of fortune came a good deal of unwanted attention. She very much doubted Cormac O’Neill would have anything to do with her grandfather if not for the stories Tess had uncovered in her research. And then there was the lawsuit...brought by Archangel’s most wily lawyer, a woman named Lourdes Maldonado. She was a neighbor and friend—former friend—who was suddenly looking for some kind of settlement.
“You’ve had such an amazing career,” she said, pushing aside the troubling thought. “Do you miss it?”
“Every once in a while, yeah. I did have a good job in the city. It was great for a long time. But I found something better here.” Tess’s face softened, as it always did when she thought of her fiancé. “I know, I’m ridiculous. Honestly, Iz, I never knew love could feel this way. You’ll see, one of these days. When the right guy comes along.”
“Not holding my breath,” Isabel said.
“Not even for this
