Nantucket News Read online

  Nantucket News

  Pamela M Kelley

  Piping Plover Press

  Copyright © 2021 by Pamela M Kelley

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  * * *

  ISBN ebook, 978-1-963060-26-6

  ISBN paperback, 978-1-963060-25-9

  Cover design by Shaela Kay, Blue Water Books

  Thank you to Jane and Taylor Barbagallo, Amy Petrowich and Laura Horah

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  Contents

  Introduction

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Epilogue

  Introduction

  Charleston native, Taylor Abbott, has just relocated to Nantucket for her dream job as a junior news reporter at the local paper. Ten years ago she was Abby Hodges college roommate and is looking forward to living near her best friend again.

  Until her rental cottage is available, she's going to stay at The Beach Plum Cove Inn, Abby's mother's bed and breakfast.

  Abby meanwhile is dealing with an issue she thought she'd resolved.

  Rhett discovers someone that works for him is a thief and tries to figure out who it is.

  Rumor is there's a celebrity or two on the island and the media (including Taylor's co-worker, Victoria), is in hot pursuit to track them down.

  Chapter 1

  “Do we have someone famous dining with us tonight?” Rhett leaned against the hostess stand and glanced at their reservations page for the night. He didn’t see any familiar names. But a few of their regulars who were having a drink at the bar while they waited for their table mentioned seeing two television vans outside.

  Nantucket didn’t have a television station, so they were from off-island, which usually meant they knew there were celebrities there. Could they be in his restaurant? If they were, Rhett wanted them to be able to dine in peace.

  Elsa, the pretty blonde hostess, was a young college student working at Rhett’s restaurant for the summer. She was friendly and quite good at the job, but she was also easily intimidated, and she looked nervous as she considered Rhett’s question.

  “I didn’t notice anyone. Not at first. But I saw the vans outside too, as people have been coming in and I’ve been trying to figure out who it might be. I think it could be that couple in the corner. She looks a bit like Cami Carmichael, the actress, though her hair is darker. I saw on Instagram that she might be filming something here.”

  Rhett was familiar with the actress and glanced over at the table Elsa indicated. He couldn’t really tell if it was her, though. He debated what to do, if anything—but then the girl laughed and smiled, and he knew. Her smile was famous, impossible to mistake.

  “I’ll take care of it.” An idea came to him as he walked over to the table. The young couple looked up, and he recognized Nick Whitley, who was a chef at The Whitley Hotel.

  “Hi Nick.” He nodded at his companion. “I hope you both enjoyed your dinners?” Their plates were bare, which was a good indication that they had.

  “Everything was great. Bella loved the scallops.”

  That name threw him. But then Bella smiled and Rhett realized it was likely her real name.

  “I’m glad to hear it. I wanted to give you a heads up that there are some media people out front.” He hesitated, hoping he wasn’t wrong about this. But Bella’s reaction confirmed it. Her face lost color.

  “I didn’t think anyone knew we were here,” she said.

  Nick’s irritation was evident. “I have no idea how they found us. They must have followed us here, and we didn’t realize it.”

  Rhett took his keys out of his pocket and removed the one to his truck and set it on the table. “So, here’s what we’re going to do. When you’re ready to leave, tell Amy, your server, to come find me. Take that key and go through the kitchen and out the back door and drive my blue truck home. I can get it back from you tomorrow. I’ll go out front and distract the news folks….they’ll have no idea.”

  Bella looked relieved. “Thank you so much. I think that will work.”

  “Rhett, I seriously owe you one,” Nick said. “I’ll drop your truck off tomorrow morning.”

  Rhett smiled. “I’m not worried about it.”

  Rhett left the restaurant at a few minutes past eleven. His wife, Lisa, was waiting in her car. She’d chuckled when he asked if she wouldn’t mind picking him up.

  “Of course. Did your car die?”

  “Not exactly. I’ll tell you on the way home. It’s a good story.”

  And as soon as he hopped in the car and Lisa headed home, he filled her in.

  “Cami Carmichael. The girls and I love her movies. Is she as pretty in person?” Rhett wasn’t surprised to hear that they were all fans.

  “She’s very cute. I didn’t recognize her right away though as her hair is dark brown now and she was wearing sunglasses.”

  “Sunglasses inside. Hmm. How did you know it was her?”

  “I wasn’t sure. Especially when Nick called her Bella. But then she smiled, and it was obvious.”

  “That’s so exciting. And your plan worked, obviously.”

  “Yes. I went out and talked to the reporters. I asked them why they were there and who they worked for. I asked as many questions as I could think of to buy Nick and Bella some time. I had to laugh, though. They stayed for almost two more hours, before realizing they’d missed her.”

  “Good. I can’t wait to tell the girls at breakfast tomorrow.” Lisa’s daughters, Kate, Kristen and Abby, joined their mother for breakfast every Saturday at the home they grew up in, which was now a bed-and-breakfast. Rhett was very happy about that as it was how he and Lisa met. He was her first guest and stayed for months while he was getting his new restaurant ready to open. And then he and Lisa started dating and eventually got married. Lisa liked to tease him that he was the guest that came and never left. It was true, and he couldn’t be happier about it.

  This was his second marriage. He’d been divorced for ten years and had thrown himself into his work, which consisted of several restaurants, which he oversaw with the help of good managers. Getting into a serious relationship was something he didn’t think would happen again for him. The Nantucket restaurant, which was simply called Rhett’s, was his main focus.

  “Was it busy tonight?” Lisa asked.

  “Yes. It started early, and didn’t let up until a little after nine. It’s been like this every night for the past few weeks. Which is great, but I was looking over our books this morning and something seemed off.”

  “Off how?”


  “With the volume of people I’m seeing coming into the restaurant each night, the sales don’t seem to always reflect it. The numbers seem a little off. Down somehow and I can’t quite figure it out.”

  “Could it be a mistake of some kind?”

  “It’s possible. Or it could be that someone has found a way to skim some extra money for themselves.”

  “You don’t really think that, do you? Who would do that?” Lisa sounded shocked at the idea.

  “I don’t know. I can’t imagine anyone that works for me deliberately stealing, but you never know. It’s a big problem with restaurants. Not as much now that things are so computerized. It was easier back in the days of handwritten orders. But, something is up and I need to get to the bottom of it.”

  “I can’t believe Rhett met Cami Carmichael!” Lisa’s youngest daughter, Abby, said as Rhett brought his cup of black coffee to the table. Lisa had just finished sharing the details of Rhett’s evening at the restaurant. All of her girls were already there. Kate, her oldest, was by herself for a change. She was planning to go grocery shopping and run some errands after breakfast, so her twins were home with her husband, Jack.

  Kristen, her middle one, had no children and wasn’t married yet, but she was in a serious relationship with her next-door neighbor, Tyler. Abby was also by herself for a change, and was planning to join Kate for some shopping before heading home.

  Abby was the one that was always interested in celebrity gossip. Not that there was ever much of that on Nantucket, but now and then there were famous visitors to the island and sometimes movies were filmed. There was also the Nantucket Film Festival, which grew every year so that now it was a week or so of various events.

  “Rhett, what was she like?” Abby asked. Lisa smiled as everyone waited eagerly for Rhett to speak.

  “She seemed nice enough. Said she liked the scallops. So she has good taste.” He grinned. “We spoke for all of about two seconds. As soon as I told them there were media vans outside, she went as white as a ghost. The poor kid. They managed to get out of there without being seen though.”

  “Thanks to you,” Lisa said. It was so like Rhett to help out like that. Nick Whitley had already come by just before breakfast to return Rhett’s truck and left a box of freshly made cinnamon rolls as a thank you. They were all eating them now with their coffee and they were delicious.

  “It was nothing. I was happy to help.” Rhett took a sip of his coffee. He always had a full cup before eating anything. “I really can’t imagine living like that. With people following you around everywhere.”

  “Bella managed to stay on Nantucket for a few months undetected,” Abby said. “She stayed undercover at The Whitley, and that’s where she met Nick. Though I think if I’d run into her, I would have recognized her.”

  “I almost couldn’t tell it was her with the dark hair and sunglasses. It was the smile that gave it away,” Rhett said.

  “I guess the rumor is true, then. It’s been speculated that she was going to start filming a new movie here,” Abby said.

  “I guess we’ll see more of those vans around, then. Especially if there are other famous people here filming, too,” Rhett said. He frowned at the thought. “I hope they know better than to come back to my restaurant.”

  Lisa chuckled. “Well, if they do, you’ll know how to handle them.”

  “True.”

  “Speaking of the media, Abby, Taylor is checking in today. I’m putting her in your old room.” When Lisa converted her waterfront home into a bed-and-breakfast, her son Chase, who was a builder, put in a dividing wall between the downstairs area and the bedrooms upstairs, which was where her children had all slept once. There was also a guest bedroom, and all rooms had their own bathrooms, so it worked well for a bed-and-breakfast.

  In the morning, guests could come downstairs and access the dining area where Lisa always set out coffee, juice, bagels and a few hot items like quiche or scrambled eggs.

  “How is Taylor? I haven’t seen her in years. And why is she staying here?” Kate asked. Taylor was Abby’s college roommate.

  “Taylor’s great. I haven’t seen her in a few years either. She was working down south at a newspaper in Charleston. We talk all the time though and when I heard about an opening at the newspaper here, I let her know about it.”

  Kate looked confused. “If she was working in a bigger city, why would she want to come here? It almost seems like a step backward.”

  “It’s not. She had a small role at a big paper, and only gets to write up weddings, birth announcements and obituaries. Here she can do a lot more.” Abby grinned. “And I may have sold her hard on how awesome Nantucket is.”

  Kristen smiled. “She’s been here to visit you before, too?”

  “She has, a few times over the years, and she loved it. She has a rental lined up, but it’s not available for about six weeks, so Mom is giving her the family and friends discount. I offered to have her stay with me, but she knows we really don’t have the room, and insisted on renting until she can get into her own place.”

  “She’ll be right at home here. I’ll make sure of it,” Lisa said. She enjoyed mothering her kids and their friends. Running the bed-and-breakfast really suited her, as she loved taking care of people and feeding them well.

  “When does she start at the paper?” Kristen asked.

  “Right away, I think. A day or two after she gets here,” Abby said.

  “She’s not going to be one of those people, is she?” Rhett asked.

  “What do you mean, honey?” Lisa asked. The rest of them looked at him in confusion.

  “I mean, like those people in the vans outside the restaurant. Is that what your friend is going to do?”

  “Taylor? No. Absolutely not. Not following people around,” Abby said. At least I don’t think so. I think that’s just the TV people.”

  “Good. I’d hate to see a friend of yours doing something like that.” Rhett refilled his coffee cup and then reached for the last cinnamon roll. “These sure do look good.”

  Chapter 2

  “If you get sick of Nantucket, you can always come to Vermont. We have newspapers up here too.”

  Taylor smiled as she chatted with her father. She’d just spent a week with him in central Vermont, in the tiny rural town that he’d retired to. It was a beautiful area, but there wasn’t much happening there. He liked it that way though and was content to hike his fields and feed his chickens.

  Taylor was happy to visit when she could, and now that she was in New England, she’d be able to get away and see him more often than she had living in Charleston.

  “I’ll keep that in mind, Dad. You should come for a visit once I’m settled in. Have you ever been to Nantucket?”

  “No. I went to Martha’s Vineyard a few years ago. That was nice. And on the way home, we stopped in Plymouth and visited the Mayflower and Plymouth Rock. I just read a book about the Mayflower. It’s fascinating stuff.”

  “I’m sure it is.” Her father was a big reader, especially of history. “When you come here, we can go to the Whaling Museum. You’ll love that.”

  “That sounds good. Are you there yet?”

  “Almost, we should be docking in a few minutes I think.”

  “Okay, I’ll let you go then. I’ll talk to you in a few days.”

  Taylor ended the call and went outside on the deck of the Steamship Authority’s car ferry. It was a slower way to get to Nantucket, a little over two hours instead of the hour it would take on the passenger only ferry, but Taylor wanted to have her car with her. She’d driven it from Charleston to Vermont and then through Boston to Cape Cod. She knew she could probably get by without a car on Nantucket, but it was more convenient to have one. An older model Honda Civic, her car was the longest and most reliable relationship that she’d had.

  She was excited and a little nervous as she saw Nantucket wharf straight ahead. This was a big move for her. The only person she knew on Nantucket was
her former college roommate, Abby. She’d briefly met the rest of her family when she visited Abby a few times, so she supposed she knew them too, but really only as acquaintances. It felt like the right decision, though. She had loved the charm of Nantucket when she’d visited Abby and the opportunity at the newspaper came at just the right time.

  Her mother thought she was a little crazy to take the job, though. When her parents divorced, soon after Taylor graduated from college, her father had moved to Vermont and her mother and Taylor stayed in Charleston. Her mother remarried a year later, to the owner of the real estate firm her mother worked at for as long as Taylor could remember. Her mother lived and breathed real estate and Richard, her husband, was the same, so they were well suited.

  But Taylor couldn’t be more different. Her mother won sales awards every year and was one of the top realtors in Charleston. And she dressed the part and was active in all the best society organizations. She urged Taylor to follow in her footsteps, to at least join the Junior League, but Taylor had no interest. One of the things that attracted her to Nantucket was that it was more laid back and a more natural, less makeup look was the norm instead of the exception.

  When she was younger, Taylor used to love chatting with her mother as she ‘put on her face’, all the layers of foundation and powder, eyeshadow, and sculpting creams. The few attempts Taylor made to do the same had resulted in frustration and melting makeup streaks. She preferred a more minimal approach, a slick of mascara and lipstick, maybe a hint of blush, if that.