Home on Apple Blossom Road (Life in Icicle Falls) Read Online Free Page A

taste and texture and camaraderie.
    Mia still liked to play around in the kitchen when she had time. Maybe that was because it brought back such good feelings.
    Beth glanced at the rooster clock hanging on the kitchen wall. “We’d better get going. Dylan wants us all present and accounted for by ten.”
    They put their dishes in the dishwasher, then walked down the street and around the corner to the old Victorian that housed the offices of Dylan Wright, attorney at law, specializing in elder law and wills. He was the attorney of record, and Aunt Beth was the executrix of Justine Wright’s will.
    Uncle Mark wasn’t mentioned in the will, and he had his sand and gravel company to run, so the only ones present were Beth, Dylan, Mia and, yep, here came the awkwardness. Colin. The look he gave Mia as Dylan’s secretary showed them into the conference room said, “What are you doing here?” She was asking herself the same question, but she raised her chin and reminded herself that Grandma Justine had wanted her here and that was all that mattered.
    A long wooden table occupied the center of the room, which had originally been a dining room. A couple of plants took away the severity of the space, and the view outside the window showed them a well-maintained yard with plenty of shrubs and flowers and, beyond that, the mountains that held Icicle Falls in their craggy hands.
    Dylan had set out water bottles, and they all took a seat, Colin slouching in one to his father’s left and Aunt Beth opposite them, with Mia settling in next to her. Right across from Colin. Mia focused on her water bottle.
    “For the most part, this is a pretty straightforward will,” Dylan said. “So.” He adjusted his reading glasses, shuffled the official-looking papers in his hands and then began to read. “I, Justine Wright, being of sound mind...”
    It was pretty straightforward. Tesla stock to Dylan and a hundred shares of Apple to Aunt Beth. The money in savings to be divided equally between the two siblings...
    * * *
    When did Gram get together enough money for stocks and savings? Colin was under the assumption that all she had was her house and her social security. She’d always lived so frugally.
    Dad read on, “The house at 23 Pine Street is to be sold and the profits from said sale divided equally between my children, Elizabeth Ann Mallow and Dylan Hartman Wright.”
    Okay, so what else was there? Why was he here? And why on earth was Mia here?
    The contents of the house were also to be equally divided with the exception of Justine’s jewelry...
    Ah, she’d probably left a necklace or something for Mia. Maybe she had some old ring of Gramps’s for Colin.
    The jewelry went to Aunt Beth.
    “I still don’t get why we’re here,” he grumbled.
    “Because your grandmother has left an unusual bequest to you and Mia jointly,” his father told him.
    “Jointly?” Colin echoed.
    “Jointly?” Mia said faintly.
    Dad sighed. “Yes, and it gets more...interesting.” Dad’s euphemism for weird.
    It sure did. As Dad read, it quickly became clear that Gram expected the two of them to go searching for their inheritance.
    “Searching?” Like in some goofy movie?
    His father pinched the bridge of his nose, and Aunt Beth grinned like a kid about to go on a neighborhood scavenger hunt.
    “I don’t get it,” Colin muttered.
    “Oh, come on now. This is just the sort of thing you kids loved to do at Easter,” said Aunt Beth. “You remember those Easter basket hunts Grandma and I made up for you.”
    Did she think he was still twelve? He frowned. “I’m not a kid anymore, Aunt Beth.”
    “Don’t worry. You won’t be hunting for Easter baskets,” she assured him. “This is on a slightly grander scale.”
    “Grander scale,” Colin repeated dubiously.
    “A treasure hunt,” Aunt Beth said.
    Colin envisioned himself and Mia running around Icicle Falls dressed like pirates, searching for buried treasure. All they needed was Johnny