Page 6 of Brighter Together

Just not exclusively in the professional sense, which is very much the problem.

She is clever, ridiculously organised and somehow remains cheerful no matter what disaster lands on her desk.

She smiles at everyone.

Including me.

Especially me, actually.

Possibly because she’s discovered that excessive cheerfulness irritates me.

Or she thinks it does.

“So instead,” Nick says around another bite of apple, “you’re a grumpy git around everyone else.”

“I’m not grumpy.”

Both men stare at me.

“Was I really that bad?”

Alex considers it. “Gordon Ramsay might have told you to watch your language.”

“Bollocks,” I say, earning me another round of laughs from Nick and Alex.

I zip my jacket.

Alex gives my shoulder a slap. “Think about taking a step back from running the unit.”

“I said I would.”

“And maybe think about whether spending the next however many years glaring at Ella is actually the most sensible solution.”

“I don’t glare at her.”

Nick peers past me towards Chris and Phil.

“It’s safe to come back. He’s stopped shouting.”

Wankers.

The moment Greenview Manor comes into view, some of the tension leaves my shoulders.

It happens every time.

The sweeping drive curves through the grounds before the hotel appears between the trees, old stone glowing pale beneath the autumn sky.

Mine.

Even now, five years after buying it, that still occasionally feels impossible.

I started here at sixteen as an apprentice when Mr Sinder still owned the place. He eventually sent me away to learn the trade properly, which led to ski seasons in Austria, a couple of years working my way through different hotels in England and one truly appalling summer in a supposedly luxurious place in Tuscany where the owner screamed at staff in three languages.

I always came back to Greenview Manor.

First to reception, then duty manager, operations and eventually hotel manager.

When Mr Sinder retired, I used most of the money Dad left me as a deposit and took out a mortgage large enough to make me feel sick every time I thought about it.