Free Summer at Oyster Bay: A gorgeous feel good summer romance by Jenny Hale

without ruining it, but there was something holding her back. A part of her wanted to leave it right there, undisturbed where it had always been.
    “It was my grandfather’s. I called him Papa. We used to go fishing in it. He built it, along with the pier.” She walked up beside him, in disbelief of what she was about to share. She’d never shared it before, and she wasn’t sure why she wanted to now. Perhaps it was their mutual interest in restoring old things and bringing them back to life, or maybe it was the way he was looking at her now, as if he knew her better than he did.
    “When I was young, my parents died in a car crash, and I was devastated. I was only seven—too young to know how to live without them. Papa never had long talks with me or spent a lot of time grieving, but he brought me here, away from our house and everyone, and he let me cry. I cried the whole time he built that pier. After he built it, he brought me here again and began to build the boat. He could’ve easily built it closer to his shed with all his tools, but he didn’t. He chose to build it here where I could cry. I came with him every day until—and I still remember it—one day, I didn’t cry anymore. He asked me to hand him the hammer. I spent the rest of the summer building that boat with him.”
    She ran her hand along the edge of it, the proximity of it making her old emotions bubble to the surface.
    “I feel like that boat represents the love I have for my parents and also for him.”
    She nodded toward the pier and Charlie followed.
    As they’d left their shoes and the tractor, Emily noticed that tension returning in Charlie’s walk. Even though he’d had moments when he’d relaxed a bit, that underlying rigidity was always lurking there today.
    “Are you all right?” she asked finally, unable to keep her curiosity at bay. She hopped onto the pier, the water swishing underneath it. Charlie stepped up to meet her. He hesitated a moment, his eyes restless, thoughts showing on his face.
    “What is it?”
    “Originally, I was thinking that we could discuss how to change Rocky’s mind. If I could get him on my side, I think the planning commission would follow his lead. I was glad to find that you knew him so well, but now I’m afraid that we’ve hit a slight bump…”
    “What is that?”
    “The improvements I’m proposing involve an expansion of the inn. This land that we’re standing on now is part of my suggested plan for expansion.”
    Emily had to cover her mouth with her hand to keep herself from laughing at him. She knew Gram wouldn’t sell it. Gram would never get rid of Oyster Bay. When Emily had regained composure, she said, “It’s not for sale.” There was no way in the world that he’d ever get his hands on Papa’s land.
    Her tone caused him to sharpen his focus on her. He leaned in closer, those blue eyes locking on to hers. “Everything’s for sale at the right price.”
    She stared at him. What a horrible thing to say. He couldn’t possibly believe that, and if he did, he was about to get a shock. If he thought convincing Rocky was difficult, Gram, Rachel, and Emily would be a whole new ballgame. They wouldn’t let him get within a hundred feet of Oyster Bay.
    It had been only a tiny farmhouse when they’d bought it, but Papa knocked down walls, and, nail by nail, he built the house Gram had always wanted. The cement sidewalk outside had Emily’s and Rachel’s handprints imprinted in it with their names underneath, the hardwood floors in the hallway inside had the scratches that she and her sister had put there the morning Papa had bought them roller skates. It had rained, and he let them go inside, moving all the furniture just so they could skate. It was the weekend after their parents’ funeral, and it had been the first time since then that they’d laughed. Outside, under the maple tree was a large rock that still had remnants of red paint. That paint had spelled “Farley,”