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After all, there were a lot of cute inns on the east and west coast. He didn’t doubt she could easily land another job. Maybe he should have his assistant do a little research. Perhaps the list of job openings should include larger hotel chains to broaden her horizon. He definitely liked the idea.
The alarm buzzed on his phone. It was time to meet up with Jo to help with the party preparations. He hadn’t been in favor of the bicentennial when he’d first heard it, but now that he had some time to give it some thought, maybe it wasn’t such a bad idea after all. It would give Jo and the other inn employees a chance to say goodbye to the place.
He stacked the inn’s financial papers he’d printed and then stood. He stretched out the kinks in his neck. It was definitely time to get moving.
He headed out the door and made his way along the little path that led to the inn. When he went to enter the side door of the inn, it was locked. He glanced to the side and found it had key card access.
With a sigh, he trudged around the building. All the while he mentally inventoried all the things that needed repairing, from replacing the siding to adding a new deck. Not that they were falling apart, but you could tell they weren’t new.
He passed by a number of couples. They were smiling and talking as they enjoyed themselves. He wondered why they’d chosen the Brass Anchor Inn for their destination. What about this small island and the historic inn appealed to them?
When he entered the lobby, it took his eyes a moment to adjust to the lighting. His gaze moved to the young woman behind the reception desk. He started toward her. He briefly glanced at her gold name tag. “Sara, could you tell me where I can find Jo’s office?”
For a moment, Sara looked at him with confusion written all over her face. “Oh, you mean Josie?”
“Yes.” It was just that she’d started out as Jo to him. Somehow the name seemed to fit her and so it’d stuck.
Sara pointed toward a hallway off to the side of the lobby. “Hers is the last office on the left.”
He thanked Sara and then followed her directions. He easily found Jo’s office and rapped his knuckles on the doorframe. “I’m here to help.”
Jo glanced up from the papers on her desk and stared at him blankly. It was as if she were so engrossed in her work that she’d forgotten about their plan to meet up that afternoon.
And then a smile came to her face, lifting the worry lines on her forehead. “I didn’t realize it was so late already.”
He stepped into the modest office. There was nothing fancy about it. Two royal blue chairs faced her desk. He grabbed the back of one of the chairs, pulling it back in order to accommodate his long legs before he took a seat. When he lifted his gaze, he noticed a personalized glass name plaque. It read:Josephine Turner, General Manager.
He raised his gaze to meet hers. “What do you need me to do?”
“Well…” Her gaze strayed across her desk. “I guess the first thing we need to do is finalize the schedule for the party.”
“You don’t have that done already?” He would have thought with a big party, that much of it would have been planned well in advance.
“We were just about to finalize things when…well, when things happened with Sandra.” She glanced away.
For the first time since he’d arrived on the island, he was able to set aside all his conflicting emotions about Aunt Sandy, and he could clearly see the pain and devastation in Jo’s eyes. His aunt may not have been good to him and his mother, but obviously that wasn’t the case where Jo was concerned.
“I understand.” He had only been close to one person in his life—his mother. “What can I do to help?”
“I’ve decided to make adjustments to next week’s plans. I’ve been working on the details, and I have them pretty much finalized. How are you at making flyers?”
“Actually, I have a lot of experience with them.” When her eyes widened with surprise, he said, “I didn’t always have an assistant. When I started out as a real estate agent, I did a lot of work on my own, and that included taking photos and making flyers.”
“Have you been a real estate agent for long?”
“I started right after I graduated college. In the beginning, it was hard to get sellers and buyers to take a twenty-two-year-old seriously. But I didn’t give up. I told them I’d lower my commission if they’d give me a chance.”
“So you gambled on yourself and your abilities?”
He nodded. “One sale after the other, I gained traction. When someone didn’t believe I could sell their house, I would point them to my website with all of my sold properties. As the number grew, so did my reputation. It didn’t happen overnight. Far from it.”
There was this look in her eyes, but he wasn’t able to define it. Was it possible that at last he’d impressed her? Hope swelled in his chest.
There was something about Jo and her smiling, sunny attitude that mattered to him. Maybe it was the fact she was the only person he knew on the island. Maybe it was the fact she knew what to do with his aunt’s belongings. He wasn’t willing to examine his emotions too closely.
“You’re a self-made man,” she said.
He shrugged. “I guess.”
