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“Then don’t.” Xander said things like this simply, as though choosing what you thought about was easy.
“Are you really such a master of your own emotions?” Kelli collected her car keys and glanced at herself in the mirror.
“You’re going to be great, Kelli.” Xander gave her a soulful look that told her he meant business. “You and that old hotel are the two greatest things that ever happened to me. I can’t wait to see what happens next.”
As Kelli drove through the gorgeous June morning en route to the Aquinnah Cliffside Overlook Hotel, she could only think back over the previous two years. Back then, she’d been newly separated from Mike, her verbally abusive ex-husband, and had been working as a real estate agent, just like her parents before her. Kerry and Trevor Montgomery had always spoken about the Aquinnah Cliffside Overlook Hotel, which had been destroyed during a hurricane in the forties. Nobody in the family had completely understood the dramatic history that had linked their family to the old place, until Kelli had learned so much more when she’d tried to sell it to the handsome developer, Xander Van Tress, who always purchased old, romantic properties.
What had happened was back in the forties, the luxurious and elegant Aquinnah Cliffside Overlook Hotel had been owned by Robert Sheridan, Kelli’s grandfather. During a particularly strange summer, a very rich man named James arrived on the island with his wife, Marilyn, who would eventually become Kelli’s grandmother. James had come to the island to buy the hotel from Robert, but Robert seemed inconvincible, keeping Robert and Marilyn at the hotel longer. James hadn’t known that his wife, Marilyn, and Robert had fallen in love at first sight and begun an exhilarating affair. Around the time James learned about the affair, Robert sold the rights of the hotel over to him— only a few hours before the hotel itself crumbled beneath tremendous hurricane winds and rain. James had granted Marilyn a divorce and fled the island, taking his ownership papers of the hotel along with him.
Two summers ago, Kelli and Xander had tracked down James’ son, who’d explained the story and eventually passed over the rights of the hotel to Kelli and Xander, who’d decided to keep it in the family. By then, Kelli and Xander had fallen in love, anyway.
Kelli parked her car outside of the hotel and gazed up at it, coffee in hand. The construction crew had done a remarkable job of upholding the luxurious spirit of the old place while adding artistic touches here and there that made it something else, something uniquely Kelli and Xander’s. Kelli had begun to think of her and Xander’s love in a similar vein to Marilyn and Robert’s. It was their second chance, their leap into the ether even after so many other things in life had told them not to hope. They weren’t naive this time, but they were happy and knew how to generate that happiness from nothingness.
Kelli stepped through the double-wide doors of the old and beautiful place, then paused in the foyer to take stock of the artistic design that she had had a hand in creating. On the wall hung several gorgeous paintings of Martha’s Vineyard throughout history: violent storms above sailboats, gorgeous purple fogs around lighthouses, and the jagged cliffs just outside. Each of the paintings had been commissioned by local artists and had cost the hotel an arm and a leg. Seeing them hanging along the beautiful walls, Kelli felt it was worth it.
“Morning, ma’am!” One of the front desk workers, Piper, whipped past with a smile, carrying a box of supplies. “We’re almost set up at the front desk.”
“That’s fantastic, Piper.” Kelli jumped to action, walking past the front desk, through the beautiful combination dining room and ballroom, which had been designed to imitate the old ballroom, then up a back staircase toward her private office. There, Kelli fetched her itinerary, gave herself another pep talk, then returned to the foyer to welcome the fifty-seven members of staff who would be at the hotel over the next week of their “soft” open. Kelli wasn’t sure exactly why this opening was so “soft.” It felt ridiculously heavy, the sort of thing that would destroy her if she didn’t keep her wits about her.
As Kelli stood in the foyer, her staff members gathered and peered at her with a mix of excitement and intrigue. There was joy in being a part of the very first group of employees at a brand-new place. It was up to them to create the magic.
“Good morning!” Kelli began, grateful that her voice sounded confident. “Welcome to your very first day at the Aquinnah Cliffside Overlook Hotel. I’ve hired all of you because I believe you have the singular power to make this place just as elegant as it once was, all those years ago when my grandfather walked these halls.”
Kelli half-blacked-out during her pep talk, congratulating the people before her, their work ethic, and their drive. “The first guests will begin to check in by one. The bar needs to be open and prepped by then, as many guests will want afternoon wine and cocktails after their journey to the Vineyard. Chef Billiard, I assume you’re prepping for lunch?”
Kelli spoke eloquently with her staff, nodding as they explained their plan, as though she hadn’t already pestered them to give her that information before. Nothing could be left to chance. Everything had to be perfect.
By two-thirty that afternoon, the Aquinnah Cliffside Overlook Hotel was swarming with guests. They were well-dressed, often wearing white or cream linen, holding cocktails, and laughing with one another as the late spring sunlight dove through the windows and glinted across the tiled floors of the foyer and the hardwood of the ballroom. Another fifty or so guests were outside, seated beneath umbrellas and taking in the view of the glorious cliffs along the edge of the lush green grass. In only a week, Amanda Harris’ wedding would be set up right here, presenting the newlyweds with a remarkable view of the glittering horizon.
“There she is!” Suddenly, Kelli’s father was before her, smiling gently. He had a cocktail in hand and waved toward Kelli’s mother, saying, “I found her! You’ve been difficult to track down, you know.”
“I have to be everywhere at once,” Kelli explained, hugging her father, then her mother.
“Darling, we’re just so proud of you,” Kerry said. “My father would have been over the moon to see the old place up and running.”
Kelli took a small moment to really feel what her mother told her, then said, “I hate how stressed I am. I wish I could enjoy it.”
Trevor gestured toward a long table a bit further through the crowd, where all of Kelli’s Sheridan cousins and Montgomery siblings sat, enjoying one another’s company. When Kelli spotted them, they all waved. Even Kelli’s children, Lexie, Sam, and Josh, sat at the table, their smiles enormous. Kelli hurried over to them and hugged them as though she hadn’t seen them in years. Because she would always be their mother, she demanded if they’d had enough to eat and if they were drinking enough water between glasses of wine. They rolled their eyes and shooed her away, saying, “You have work to do!”
It was four-thirty, and Kelli already felt like she’d walked one thousand miles in her heels. Perhaps it had been a mistake to wear them, but then again, they gave her the kind of confidence she felt she needed in front of so many guests and employees. She took a moment in the foyer when she thought nobody was watching to close her eyes and take a deep breath. Just her luck, Xander entered the foyer, tracking her down again.
“There she is. The woman of the hour.”
Kelli laughed and opened her eyes.
“Were you napping?”
Kelli swatted him. “I was just thinking about how nice it will be to take off these shoes sometime in the next ten hours.”
Xander winced. “That bad?”
“I’m just exhausted, and it’s only day one,” Kelli said.
“It’ll get easier,” Xander assured her. “And like I said, I think you need to hire someone to pick up some of the slack.”
Kelli hesitated. She’d assumed she could juggle everything herself, the way she’d watched Susan Sheridan juggle motherhood, cancer, new love, and a new law office, seemingly with ease.
“Don’t be a hero,” Xander said. “But hey! I have to run. I have to put out a fire myself.”
