AllFreeNovel
Share Us
‘You make it sound like I’m a doormat.’
‘It’s not that. It’s just that you’re always working so damn hard to make sure we’re all happy and okay.’
‘And that’s a bad thing?’
‘Not in itself, no. But Mum and Tom...they expect it now. They can’t imagine it any other way.’
Everything Ben had ever said about giving in to her family, about giving up her life for them, came back in a rush. He was right. He’d been right all along. This was her life, and she needed to live it for herself. And she’d have someone else even more important to live it for when the baby came. She’d have her own little family to be responsible for. She couldn’t let her mother and brother run her life any more.
‘You honestly think they expect me to give up the house?’
Dolly shrugged. ‘Mum and Tom both treat this place like it’s theirs anyway, when it’s convenient.’
‘Not when the roof almost caved in or the stairs needed replacing.’ Funny how they’d been nowhere to be seen when she’d needed money or time to help fix the place up.
‘Exactly.’
‘Exactly...what?’
‘They have no idea what they’d be taking on. But Tom’s so used to you doing whatever he needs I don’t think it’s crossed his mind that you won’t just happily move out into some little flat somewhere while he moves his instant family in here.’
‘That’s crazy!’
‘Luce...’ Dolly put her cup and saucer back on the tray, and leant forwards. ‘You’ve never said no to him before. No one has—except Hattie, and look what happened then.’
‘So you’re saying I should give him my house to avoid his mental breakdown?’
‘Hell, no!’ Dolly shook her head violently, her long dark hair flying across her face. ‘I’m saying it’s time you did say no. Unless you want to get the hell out of this crumbling museum before the baby comes. In which case, make him buy it from you.’
Luce looked around her at the antique furniture, the threadbare rugs and the splintering floorboards. Yes, the place was falling apart. But it was her home—would be her baby’s home. It was all she had left of her grandfather. He’d left it to her, not to Tom or Dolly or their mother, and he’d done that for a reason.
No way in hell she was parting with it.
‘No. It’s my home. I’m staying.’
‘Fine. Then we need to make that clear to Tom. And then we need to go and buy some yellow paint for the nursery.’
Dolly clapped her hands together with excitement. Luce wasn’t sure whether it was the painting or the standing up to Tom that was filling her with glee. It didn’t matter.
‘There’s something else I need to do first,’ she said. ‘I need to tell Ben.’
* * *
Ben was wrestling with the hotel key card when his phone rang. As the door fell open he dropped his suitcase and put the phone to his ear.
‘How did it go?’ Seb asked.
Ben kicked the door shut behind him. ‘It went well, I think.’ Meetings with investors were usually Seb’s domain, but he’d insisted Ben take this one. It was his baby, after all.
‘Good. Full debrief when I get there tomorrow? I got Sandra to book us a meeting room.’
‘Sure. Just need to get some sleep first.’
Seb laughed. ‘Welcome to the world of real work, brother.’
The cell was cut off as Seb hung up, and Ben tossed the phone onto the coffee table. There was truth in Seb’s words. This was real work—trying to expand and transform a hotel chain that had been stuck in one mindset for too long. It was work Ben would never have been allowed to do while their father was alive—work he hadn’t even known he wanted to do until Seb had suggested it to him.
But now? He was good at this. Better than he’d used to be. Because he cared about making these hotels right for their guests. Not just the businessmen or the couples. He wanted a chain of boutique hotels that felt like a home away from home for the families that stayed in them. That made the kids feel safe and happy—not scared of another sterile white room with a too-big bed. Not a free-for-all family hotel with everything in red plastic either, though. This was a hotel for grown-ups, too. It just didn’t exclude or alienate children.
He had a plan, and he had convinced the backers, but he had a hell of a lot of work ahead of him.
But first he needed to sleep.
The phone rang again before he could make it to the bedroom. He intended to ignore it until he saw the name flashing across the screen.
Luce.
