Page 34 of The Sugar Maple Inn

“Grace! I just saw Sophie, she said Luke can’t collect you. Are you okay? Is Zach with you? I saw on that Find My app thingy he’s not at school.”

“We’re fine. And yes, we’re stuck on the island until the storm passes, but we’re safe. He—he’s been suspended.”

“No! Why?”

“Fight. I’ll explain when I’m back.”

“You tell him his grandma is very angry at him.” A pause. Then: “How did the presentation go?”

Grace closed her eyes. “Really well, actually. I think they liked my vision for the place.”

“Your vision.” Her mother’s tone carried that particular edge that meant a lecture was incoming. “You know what I think? I think this storm is God’s way of telling you not to try to buy that inn.”

“Mom—”

“Grace, honey, I need you to really think about what you’re doing. Buying an inn is a massive undertaking. The debt alone—”

“I know about the debt, Mom.”

“And what happens when something goes wrong? When you need a new roof or the plumbing fails or—”

“I have contingencies.” Sort of. Kind of. Not as many as Reese had pointed out she should have.

“Do you? Because from what I can gather, you’re putting everything into this. Your savings, a loan that’ll no doubt take decades to pay off. And for what? To serve other people for the rest of your life, just in a different location? Aren’t you the one who said waitressing and cleaning wasn’t what you wanted to do with your life when I mentioned you owning the café one day? Isn’t owning an inn just a more stressful version of that?”

Grace felt something crack in her chest. “That’s not—it’s not the same thing.”

“Isn’t it? You’ll still be the one cleaning rooms and cooking meals and smiling at guests even when you’re exhausted. The only difference is the risk will all be on you instead of on me.”

“I can handle risk.”

“Can you? Like how you handled Zach’s father walking out.”

Grace went very still, putting her hand to her chest, memories of those tear-drenched nights coming back to her as her mother held her. “Mom. Come on.”

“Sorry, darling,” her mother said, her voice gentler now. “I didn’t mean for that to sound like it did, you’re a wonderful mother, truly. And there’s no denying, you’re damn good at what you do at the café, the way you’ve built up the catering business and updated the systems. It’s been quite something to watch. So it’s not that I don’t think you’re capable. It’s just…a whole inn, Grace! If this is about taking control, you’ll have the chance to run the café one day, maybe even open up a franchise. It’s what you know, so you’re bound to make a success of it. Why would you throw that away for something so…uncertain?”

“Because I want something that’s mine,” Grace said. “Because I’m tired of building someone else’s dream. Because I’m thirty-two years old and if I don’t take this chance now, I never will.”

Her mother didn’t say anything. Then she sighed. “I know, darling. But let’s be realistic, you have a billionaire as competition. I did some more goggling—”

“GOOgling, Mom.”

“Googling on Reese Spencer. Forbes did a whole profile on him last year. They called him The Untamed Tycoon. Said he goes after remote places the way other men chase yachts or skyscrapers. When he wants a deal, he doesn’t blink, doesn’t break stride, just keeps coming until he’s got it. Apparently, he’s never lost one yet.”

“Well, I’m a single mom who once fixed Zach’s science project volcano while unclogging the sink. No tycoon can match that.”

Mabel sighed. “Oh, darling.”

Grace heard everything in that sigh. The doubt. The worry. The unspoken you’re reaching too high and I don’t want to watch you fall. Her mother didn’t believe she could pull this off, not really.

Maybe she was right.

“I’d better go check on Zach. You’d better get some help in as I won’t be able to do my shift tomorrow.”

“Already sorted.”

“Good. I’ll call you tomorrow when the weather clears,” Grace said. “Love you.”