Chapter 4
Chapter Four
A lvin Eldridge had been Grams’s attorney for over thirty years. He was nearly seventy, with plenty of snow-white hair and a neatly trimmed beard. His eyes were cheery as he welcomed the women into his small office on Main Street. It was an elegant old building with a distant view of the harbor.
“Come in, come in.” He ushered them into a conference room and offered water or coffee, which they all declined.
Once they were settled comfortably around the table, he opened a thick manila folder, handed a copy of the will to each of them, and started reading through it.
Everything was pretty much as expected right up until the end.
He paused, and they thought he was finished, but then he leaned forward and said with much drama, “There is an addendum to the will, which your grandmother instructed me to save until the very end.” He handed a single sheet of paper to each of them.
“She has a bit of a surprise for the three of you. I understand that you are not aware that she is—or rather was—the sole owner of Mimi’s Place, one of Nantucket’s finest restaurants?”
“Grams owned Mimi’s Place!” Jill exclaimed, looking up from the sheet of paper she was holding.
“How could that be?” Mandy asked.
“How come she never told us?” Emma looked at Mr. Eldridge for an explanation.
“I was sworn to secrecy. I don’t think many at the restaurant, except for a select few, knew either. Your grandmother wanted it that way. She never actively managed the place. It was always handled through a trust.”
“So what do we do with it? We sell it, right? None of us knows how to run a restaurant,” Jill stated.
Mr. Eldridge cleared his throat. “Well, this is where it gets a bit more interesting. Your grandmother seems to have a plan in place. You can certainly sell the restaurant if you choose.”
“Good, so you can handle that for us? Or put us in touch with people who can arrange for a sale?” Jill sounded relieved and ready to be finished with everything. Emma was also hoping they could wrap this up today and she could be on her way.
“Yes, of course. But there is a catch. You can sell the restaurant, but not just yet. Please see the last paragraph. Your grandmother spells it out in her own words.”
Mandy started reading aloud. “‘My girls, I know this will come as somewhat of a shock, but I am the sole owner of Mimi’s Place and have been for forty-three years, since I won the restaurant in a bet. A game of poker actually, but that’s too long a story to go into here.
As you know, Mimi’s Place is special to me and always has been.
We’ve shared many wonderful times there, and I hope that the three of you will learn to love the place as much as I do.
The restaurant is yours to do with what you will, but before you can sell Mimi’s Place, if that is what you choose to do, all three of you must first work there in any capacity you choose for exactly one year.
“I also left a quarter of it to Paul Taylor, my executive chef for the last twelve years. You must all work with him, running the restaurant together. After a year, you can choose to sell if that is your wish. If you decide not to work together for one full year, then your shares will automatically go to Paul, as I know he loves the restaurant as much as I do. I trust that soon, the three of you will too.’”
Mandy and Jill both glanced at Emma. They all knew Paul Taylor but didn’t realize he was the chef at Mimi’s Place. Emma was shocked and a bit discombobulated to learn this, but she quickly regained her composure and smiled.
“Well, isn’t that a surprise? How nice for all of us and for Paul too.”
An hour later, Jill, Mandy, and Emma settled around a table at Brant Point Grill in the White Elephant Hotel.
It was one of the most elegant hotels on the island with an air of quiet luxury.
It was directly on the waterfront with a lovely view of the harbor, but all three stared at their menus, unable to make a decision.
“Everything looks good.” Jill flipped a page of her menu as her cell phone buzzed again.
The ringer was off, but every few minutes, it buzzed.
This time, she didn’t get to it quickly enough, and it vibrated wildly, slithering across the glass tabletop until it collided with her water glass.
As soon as she saw the number on the caller ID, she stood.
“Oops…sorry, I have to take this one. It’ll just be a second.”
Mandy raised her eyebrows at Emma as Jill started talking.
“Hi, Billy. No, he’s not closed. I can’t close him on a number until we know what the company is able to do.
” She glanced at her watch. “I should be back by four. I’ll see you then.
” She ended the call, and as soon as she set the phone down, it started buzzing again.
She ignored it and turned her attention back to the menu, but less than a minute later, she picked up the phone, checked email, and began furiously typing a response.
When she finished, Mandy reached over, grabbed the offensive phone, and dropped it into her oversize tote bag where the constant buzzing would be muzzled.
Jill opened her mouth to protest, but Mandy cut her off. “You’ll get it back as soon as we’re done here. An hour off won’t kill you, my dear.”
“You’re right. I’m sorry.” Jill picked up a crusty dinner roll from the basket that had just landed on the table. She ripped off a chunk of bread, smeared a bit of butter on it, and popped it in her mouth.
“Is it always like that?” Emma asked. She couldn’t imagine having a job where the phone rang off the hook.
It was unsettling. She preferred peace and quiet and in fact did her best work in complete silence, which allowed her to concentrate so fully that she entered an almost trance-like “zone” that was so familiar to writers and other artists.
Jill laughed. “That’s nothing. You should see what it’s like in the office. It’s crazy, but I do love it.”
She really seemed to, Emma realized, seeing the glimmer of excitement in her sister’s eyes.
Jill was so successful and amazing at what she did and was clearly anxious to get back to it.
Emma shuddered at the very thought of what her sister did for work though.
Not in a million years could she call absolute strangers on the phone and persuade them to consider changing jobs.
Emma had phone phobia. She dreaded calling anyone that she didn’t know very well, for even something as simple as scheduling a doctor’s visit.
Not for the first time, Emma marveled at how very different the three of them were.
She knew that she was the quiet, creative one.
Jill was the aggressive businesswoman, and Mandy was just so polished and organized that she made everything look easy.
Even now, as she took charge to get the three of them focused.
“Here comes the waiter,” Mandy said as he approached their table. “We need to make some decisions. What does everyone want?”
“I have no idea.” Emma was having a hard time deciding until another server walked by carrying two gorgeous leafy salads topped with grilled scallops. “That looks delicious.”
“It is,” the waiter assured them. “The scallops are local, from Nantucket Bay. The chef brushes them with an orange butter sauce before they go on the grill. There’s also sliced avocado, pecans, and crumbled goat cheese with an orange, sesame, and ginger vinaigrette.”
Emma closed her menu. “I’ll have that.”
“Me too,” Jill and Mandy both said at the same time.
“Can you tell we’re related?” Jill asked with a grin.
“It’s an excellent choice.” He smiled and gathered up their menus.
“Okay,” Mandy began. “Seriously, what are we going to do? None of us has ever run a restaurant. And both of you are scheduled to be on a plane home this afternoon.”
“I have quite a bit of restaurant experience actually,” Emma said. She’d been thinking about nothing else since they’d left the attorney’s office, and for the first time in weeks, she felt a bit of excitement building. Maybe Grams was onto something with this strange bequest.
“You worked as a server. You’ve never managed a restaurant,” Mandy corrected.
“True, but I worked as a server for several years. At the Barnacle, some of the waitstaff had been there for over twenty or thirty years. When it was slow, we used to sit out back and discuss how we’d do things differently.
This might not be such a crazy idea after all.
A year goes by quickly, and it’s not like we really have a choice.
” Emma looked around the table, then added, “Unless we’re willing to just walk away and let Paul have Mimi’s Place. ”
“Well, that’s another factor—Paul. How do you feel about working with him?” Mandy asked.
Emma sighed. She’d been shocked at the news initially, but she didn’t see why it needed to change anything.
“That was another lifetime. I’m sure Paul and I could find a way to work together. We both moved on years ago.”
“I don’t see how it’s possible though.” Mandy was always the voice of reason. “Jill runs a multimillion-dollar business in Manhattan, and you live clear across the country, and I’m just a stay-at-home wife and mother. I really don’t see how this could work.”
“First of all, you’re not ‘just’ a stay-at-home mother.
Look at all those incredible charity events you’re always pulling together.
Not everyone can do that. And I don’t have to live in Phoenix, especially now that I’m getting divorced.
” Emma turned her attention to her other sister.
“And, Jill, you’ve said many times that you could work from anywhere, that all you need is a laptop and a phone. ”
“Well, yes, but…”
“So theoretically, you could work from here?” Emma pressed.
“Theoretically, I could,” Jill conceded. “But it would be difficult.”
They were all silent for a moment, and then Mandy leaned forward in her chair. “But not impossible.” She was obviously warming to the idea.