For You, Forever. Sophie Love

He looked to be around fifty years of age, with salt and pepper hair and a smattering of laugh lines around his eyes.

      “Paul Knowlson,” he said confidently, holding his hand out for Emily to shake like their meeting was some kind of business transaction.

      She took it and shook. “I’m sorry, Paul, I don’t think I know you,” she said.

      “I’ve booked an apartment,” he said, pulling a slip of paper from his inner suit jacket pocket. “In Trevor’s House,” he said, reading off it.

      “Oh!” Emily exclaimed. He was their first guest in the new apartments! “That’s in the house across the lawn,” she said. “Here, I’ll lead the way.”

      “Fantastic,” Paul replied.

      Emily led him along the pathway. She felt a thrill of excitement knowing this would be the first time of many she’d be doing this. It was wonderful to see all their hard work on Trevor’s House come to fruition, and to know the gift he’d left them was being utilized rather than left to languish.

      “Now, I think I heard a hint of a New York City accent,” Paul said as they walked. “Is that where you’re from?”

      “You’re right,” Emily replied, smiling. “Born and bred. Do you know it well?”

      Paul nodded. “Yes, I grew up there. But I’m based in Florida now.”

      “And you’re in business?” she added.

      Paul laughed, gesturing to his expensive-looking suit. “What gave it away?”

      They reached Trevor’s House and Emily led him inside. The main area downstairs was now completely open plan, with just a hip-high glass partition between the brand new, sparkling restaurant and the route to the staircase that led up to the apartments. The restaurant hadn’t yet opened its doors but it wouldn’t be long now until that happened, Emily thought with excitement.

      “You’re in apartment four,” Emily said, gesturing toward the stairs. “It’s got a lovely balcony looking over the ocean.”

      “Sounds perfect,” Paul replied.

      Emily led him up the stairs to the mezzanine floor, then gestured to a Parisian-style wrought iron gate with a sign in gold reading Guests Only. She showed him the large key that opened the gate, and then they headed along the corridor and stopped outside apartment four.

      Emily remembered the excitement she’d felt the first time she’d looked around the new apartments. They’d been masterfully designed by the Erik & Sons triplets. She hoped that Paul would be as impressed on first sight of the apartment as she had been.

      She unlocked the door and pushed it open, then gestured for Paul to enter.

      “This is fantastic,” Paul said with a nod.

      He seemed like a nice man, but Emily could get the sense of a business-savvy sharpness about him. It was the same quality that Amy had, an almost hawk-like ability to sniff out money and quality, to assess one’s surroundings and make an instantaneous judgment. It was a huge compliment that someone like that would want to even book into her humble inn!

      Emily handed him the key. “Meals are served in the main house at the moment,” she explained. “So please join us whenever you wish. The restaurant downstairs isn’t open yet so everything will be very quiet.”

      They said goodbye and Emily headed back out toward the main house. She caught up with Lois in the foyer.

      “I forgot we had a guest in Trevor’s,” she said. “Is everything arranged for him? Clean bedding, bath robe, coffee pods for the machine?”

      Lois nodded seriously. “Yes,” she said, sounding a touch insulted by the insinuation she might have forgotten something.

      Emily blushed. “Sorry, of course you’re on it.”

      It wasn’t always easy for Emily to remember that Lois wasn’t the flustered, over-emotional scatterbrain she’d once been. She’d really flourished recently, probably due in part to her promotion and pay raise, and Emily knew she could trust her to run the inn perfectly. She’d even taken well to dealing with the suppliers and putting in grocery and goods orders. In fact, Emily realized, she could probably leave the country for a month and entrust the inn to Lois’s capable hands; something she’d once have never thought possible!

      Emily went back into the kitchen. Daniel, Amy, and Chantelle were still sitting around the kitchen table, chatting animatedly. No doubt Amy was using her business brain to force Daniel into planning every last detail of Charlotte’s birth down to a tee, employing the sort of organized precision that babies paid little heed to.

      “There she is.” Daniel beamed when he saw her enter. “I’ve got some news.”

      “You do?” Emily said, taking a seat. “But I was only gone a minute.”

      “Jack called,” Daniel said, referring to his boss at the carpentry workshop where he’d been working for the last year.

      “Oh? And what did he say?” Emily asked, curiously.

      “It’s his back again,” Daniel said. Jack had injured himself at work not that long ago and hadn’t been back to normal since. “You know how it gives him problems. Well, his wife has finally managed to convince him to reduce his hours at work. She’s inherited some money and wants them to take an early retirement, cruise around the Caribbean, that sort of thing.”

      Emily frowned. “Your exciting news is that Jack and his wife are going on a cruise?”

      Daniel laughed. “Yes!”

      “I don’t get it,” she added, looking with bemusement at Chantelle’s and Amy’s excited expressions. “What’s the joke? What am I missing?”

      Daniel continued. “Think about it,” he encouraged her. “He’ll need someone to run the wood store in his absence. Someone to deal with the shop.”

      Emily gasped. “You mean… you?”

      Chantelle couldn’t contain it anymore. She burst out her joyful exclamation. “Daddy’s getting promoted!”

      Emily clapped a hand over her mouth. “That’s amazing!” she cried. “You deserve it.”

      She couldn’t believe the good fortune and hopped off her stool, going around behind Daniel and hugging him tightly.

      Daniel blushed shyly. He wasn’t one to readily take compliments.

      “He’s going to give me a raise and a new title. It will mean longer hours though,” he added, sounding very serious. “I’ll need to be the first in to open up and I’ll need to be the last there at night to lock everything up properly. There’s expensive equipment and products in there and Jack never lets anyone else lock up, so it’s kind of a big deal for him to release the reins on that front. My shift pattern will be really odd as a result. Jack never minded driving to and from the woodshop at all hours, but now that I’ll be expected to do the same it will be an adjustment.”

      Emily didn’t want to think about any of the possible downsides to the good news yet. Long shifts, extra responsibility over safety and security, and the inevitable stress that would cause him were all things she would deal with at the time. Right now, she wanted to ride the high of the good news.

      “I’m so proud of you,” she said, pressing a kiss into the crown of his head.

      “You should do something to celebrate,” Amy said from the other side of the breakfast bar.

      “Definitely,” Emily agreed.

      “I think we should go down to the beach!” Chantelle suggested.

      “Well, while the weather’s like this, I don’t see why not,” Emily said. “We shouldn’t waste it.”

      Chantelle punched the air. She loved the beach, the outside in general. Any opportunity to run and sprint in nature she took greedily.

      “Amy?” Emily asked. “Are you joining us?”

      Amy