The Next Always

“I’d love to see it.”

She loved it all, but she knew better than to leap into something without refining the details, negotiating terms, thinking it through.

This would be a major change—in geography, in lifestyle, in career. She couldn’t make a decision like this without giving it a great deal of thought.

“It’s going to be amazing.” She stood in The Lobby again, taking one last look around. “Every room is special, or will be. And the building has such character, such a good feel to it.”

“Could you love it?” Justine asked.

On a half laugh, Hope shook her head. “I think I already do.”

“Do you want the job?”

“Mom, we really have to—”

Justine simply waved Owen aside.

“We should both . . . Yes.” Saying it felt terrifying, and absolutely right. “I really do.”

“You’re hired.”

Avery let out a whoop, grabbed a shell-shocked Hope, and danced in a circle. Then she grabbed Justine and did the same. When she started for Owen, he threw up his hands.

“That’s a girl thing.”

So she punched him in the arm.

“I’m so happy. I’m so excited. Hope!” She grabbed Hope again, bounced.

“I—Mrs. Montgomery, are you sure?”

“Justine. We’re in this together now. I’m sure. Owen and his brothers will catch up. Now, why don’t you and I meet for lunch over at Vesta, say, about twelve thirty? We’ll have some wine and talk some more.”

“Yes, of course.”

Clare tapped on the door, pushed it open. “I wasn’t sure you’d still be here. I got hung up. If one thing didn’t go screwy this morning, three other things did. Did you already go through?”

“Every room,” Avery said, grinning like a maniac.

“Oh well.”

“I’ll take you through what you haven’t already seen if you like.” Justine set a hand on Hope’s shoulder. “But first, say hello to our innkeeper.”

“You—Really? Really? Oh, Hope!”

Hope told herself she felt giddy because Clare was squeezing the air right out of her. And not because she’d just made one of the biggest decisions of her life more on the basis of emotion and instinct rather than analysis and intellect.

Since the women were talking a mile a minute, Owen slipped out and headed back upstairs.

He found his brothers discussing the logistics of the sink counter in The Penthouse bath.

“Mom hired her.”

“Aesthetically, it plays better if we . . .” Beckett stopped in midstream. “Huh?”

“I said Mom hired Hope Beaumont.”

“What do you mean, she hired her?” Ryder shoved his measuring tape back in his tool belt. “She can’t just hire her.”

“Well, she did.” Owen raked a hand through his hair. “On the spot. I couldn’t get a word in with all the squealing and dancing, especially after Clare came in and joined the chorus.”

“Clare’s here?”

“Mind on the target,” Ryder snapped. “How the hell did you let this happen?”

“Hey, don’t blame me. Plus side, Hope’s more than qualified, but—”

“She’s qualified to flounce around some fancy hotel in D.C., where she’s got staff and money to burn. Jesus, she climbed a couple flights of stairs and looked like she was going to keel over.” Disgust laced Ryder’s voice. “Probably because she’s walking around a damn construction zone in shoes with five-inch spikes. She was wearing a suit, for Christ’s sake.”

“Well, it was an interview.”

“She’s city. The innkeeper’s going to be key to whether this place gets off the ground. You and Mom talk to her for five minutes, and she’s on the fucking payroll.”

“I interviewed her for damn near an hour today, not including the phone call from the other day. I read her resume, checked it out.” The more Ryder objected, the more Owen sided with their mother. “She’s smart, and she knows the business. She brought up details we haven’t even thought of yet, and had suggestions.”

“Suggestions are easy. Making them work’s different. What’s going to happen the first time somebody spills their coffee on the floor? Is she going to call housekeeping? We don’t have housekeeping.”

“Did you even read her resume?” Owen shot back. “She’s been working since she was sixteen. She waited tables when she was in high school.”

“Big fucking deal. That’s high school. This is now. What happened to discussing key elements of this place and voting?”

“Ask Mom,” Owen suggested. “But if it came down to a vote, I’d add mine to Mom’s.” The argument solidified his stand.

“That’s just great. What about you?” Ryder stabbed a finger at Beckett.

“Yes, Beckett,” Justine said from the doorway, “what about you?”

Everybody froze, including Clare, who’d come up with Justine. Even as she tried to step back and make herself scarce, Justine clamped a hand on Clare’s arm. “No, that’s fine. This won’t take long. Ryder has objections to my choice of innkeeper, apparently. I take it Owen doesn’t.”

“I maybe would’ve . . . Not really,” Owen decided. Wisely.

“Beckett?”

Stuck, Beckett looked from his mother to Clare, and back again. “I really only talked to her for a second. It’s a key position, like Ry said. It’s the key position. But I did read her resume, and I agree with Owen that she’s more than qualified. She obviously made a strong impression on you or you wouldn’t have hired her. So . . . I guess we’ve got an innkeeper.”

“Then that’s settled. Now, before I take Clare out to see W&B, I’m going to tell the three of you morons you’re damn lucky Hope didn’t come back up with me. She might have changed her mind about working for a trio of rude, bitchy men. And you.” She pointed at Ryder. “I’ll give you six weeks after she’s worked here to apologize for questioning my judgment.”

“Mom—”

“That’s all I have to say.” She cut him off with another point of the finger. “Come on, Clare.”

After one apologetic glance, Clare followed in Justine’s steaming wake.

“Great,” Beckett muttered, scrubbing his hands over his face. “That was just great.”

“ ‘I guess we’ve got an innkeeper,’ ” Ryder mimicked. “You only went along like that because you want to get lucky with Clare.”

“Jesus, shut up. And it has nothing to do with Clare.” Or hardly. “She’s qualified; Mom likes her. That’s that.”

“We don’t even know her.”

Though he was fairly steamed himself at this point, Beckett nodded. “So we’ll get to know her. We’ve got that apartment across St. Paul. It’s vacant right now. We put her up there, have her work with Mom and Owen for a while. Ordering supplies, organizing the inventory, whatever. She gets a taste of small-town living, and we get a better sense of her.”

Ryder opened his mouth to protest on principle, then rethought. “That’s actually a pretty good idea. If she bails, or is just a screwup, we’ll know before it’s too late.”

“And if I could toss some of the phone calls, the lists, the grunt work to her, I’d have more time here and in the shop. We give her the apartment and a small hourly wage.” Owen nodded. “This could work. If she’ll agree.”

“Tell Mom,” Ryder suggested. “She’ll get her to agree.”

“I’ll go run it by her. My idea,” Beckett added, and took off.

He caught them at the base of the outside steps. “Hey! Hold on a minute. Did you get the full tour this time?”