Page 38 of Coming Home to Maple Tree Lodge

‘This place needs to reflect you and your family,’ she carried on. ‘It’s not just a hotel, it’s your home. Along with the lake and the woods too. It doesn’t need to be expensive either. We can add a lot of texture with all the stuff your grandmother’s bought over the years. There’s loads of stuff in there. There’s even a few things in here too.’

He looked around and saw that she was pointing at some old crates and lamps.

‘Your ideas were better than mine,’ he finally said.

‘I know,’ she said with a soft smile. ‘I might be rubbish at relationships but I’m a very good interior designer.’

But he found he couldn’t smile back. ‘I really don’t want to have to sell up,’ he confessed. ‘This is our home. I think it would break Grandad’s heart to leave here. Mine too, if I’m honest.’

‘I understand.’

He looked into her green eyes and found that he believed her. But the reality was still burrowing its way through to his heart.

‘Yes, but will it be enough?’ he wondered out loud.

She reached out to take his hand in hers. ‘I think so but we’ll make sure of it.’

He stared down, feeling the warmth of her hand on his. ‘We?’ he repeated, staring at her.

She nodded. ‘If you want me to stay.’

He looked down at their hands and she let go, as if a little embarrassed.

‘I’d very much like you to stay and help us. Please.’ He gulped. ‘And help me too.’

She smiled at him. ‘Thank you. I can’t think of a more beautiful place to spend the winter.’

‘What, stuck here in this boathouse?’ he said, rolling his eyes.

She laughed. ‘Well, I was thinking about the view of the lake, to be honest.’

He found that he liked it when she laughed and smiled. It lit up her pretty green eyes and he had to tear his thoughts back to the present problem.

‘So I guess it’s time for us both to be honest with everyone,’ he told her.

‘I guess so,’ she replied, nodding.

The fact that he wasn’t going through it alone any more took some of the pressure from him, he found. And the fact that it was Lily pleased him even more.

It was going to be tough, that much he knew. But even so, confessing his ideas about the lodges made him feel as if his creative well was filling up again. He felt inspired. The hotel might just come together with her design ideas and a touch of his modernisation. There was hope at last.

Lily was right. The hotel was special. It always had been. And, if they worked together, it might just be enough to save it.

19

In a way, Lily was pleased that she had been stuck in the boathouse with Ben for the past hour as it had forced them to finally be honest with each other and perhaps move forward at last.

The fear of getting sacked was now in the past. They were going to work together to decorate the whole of the hotel and she was excited for the future.

Perhaps she would have to start opening up to Hannah and her best friends as well so as to avoid any further misunderstandings. Maybe it was time to put her trust in the Jackson family as they had done with her.

She looked at Ben as he tried to prise open the front door once more. In a funny way, she trusted him too. They had been entirely honest with each other and rather than being at odds, it felt as if they were becoming friends.

‘So we’ve got a lot to do to get the hotel up and running,’ said Lily, mulling over her now huge to-do list. There were all the bedrooms, the entrance hall, the lounge, dining room and perhaps even the snug as well.

‘I’d still really like to get it open for the beginning of December,’ Ben told her, turning around. ‘That way perhaps we can capitalise on the Christmas holidays.’

Lily nodded, thinking how pretty the hotel would look decorated for the festive period. ‘That’s going to take a lot of work,’ she told him.