Page 53 of Happier Days

‘Birds have to fly their nests, eventually.’

‘I know that, but to a certain point, didn’t we make this into a family business so that our children would want to work there? At the moment, there’s only Eliza. Jack’s in it half-heartedly because he’s working on his books, too, and?—’

‘That’s a bit unfair. Jack wants to put the money up to do the work required, and he’s also said he’ll be there as a project manager. You’d probably see more of him that way.’

‘You don’t understand, do you?’

‘No, I don’t. Sapphire Hotel was our pride and joy long before our children came along. We can’t let what we have, what we built from scratch, go to rack and ruin because Dan isn’t here anymore.’

Stella’s eyes brimmed with tears at the mention of his name. ‘Our family is falling apart.’

‘Don’t you think finishing the extension might bring them back together? If they don’t have to keep seeing the old, and being reminded of Dan in every corner, it might ease their pain.’

‘It wouldn’t ease mine. I need those reminders. I want to see the scratch on the wall and remember how Dan tried to push through a settee that was way too large and got it wedged in the doorway. I want to see the faint stain on the carpet in the lounge where he threw up dramatically after drinking rum and black and we couldn’t get it out of the pile. I want to?—’

‘You haven’t seen Jack’s proposal, have you?’

Stella shook her head.

‘He doesn’t want to change things. He wants to enhance things. Yes, he might want to swap out the carpet in the lounge, but that’s only to make it fresh again. But he won’t want to change the aesthetics, the building itself. Although he does have some great ideas about hiring some of the empty rooms out for meetings and conferences. That wouldn’t take up much time, and it’d bring extra revenue in.’

‘But we don’t need his money. We could do that ourselves.’

‘Exactly. The way I see it is Jack wants to invest in the hotel, even though he isn’t here to run it as much as he used to be. You say the family don’t want to help. Well, I think you turning down his funds, and not even giving his ideas a chance, is giving him no incentive to get involved in anything else. He’s hurting, Stella. He looks into the mirror every day and must see Dan staringback at him. I know, because every time I see Jack, I think the same.’

Max stopped there, and Stella thought he was finished. She was about to reply when he continued.

‘It’s hard for us all, but Dan is dead. Our family are all we have. So what if they aren’t all here? They still think a lot of each other. And maybe in time, things will go back to how they were. But Dan is gone for good, love. I hate to be harsh, and I miss him, too, but he’s not coming back. The least you could do is let his brother help himself forget if it hurts too much.’

Stella wasn’t often stuck for words, but when Max gave her his little nuggets of wisdom, they always ended up as a pep talk. She knew he was right and that she was just being stubborn.

But it hurt too much to think that they would wipe Dan from the hotel. She didn’t want him not to have walked on fresh carpeting, ran a hand over new wallpaper, spotted a different painting or a lamp on a table. She wanted everything to stay the same, so that she didn’t hold her breath every time she saw Jack, hoping that his brother was coming in after him.

Had she grieved long enough?

What a stupid thing to think. Grief affected people in different ways. Some could go on a few weeks later as if nothing had happened. Perhaps they left the tears for when they were alone, but even so. Stella hadn’t stopped searching for Dan yet. She didn’t want to move on.

And yet, no one was telling her that she should. What Jack had offered to do was a kind gesture, one he thought his parents would like. Maybe she should take a look more closely at what he was proposing.

‘Why don’t I put the kettle on, and we can sit and go through it together?’ Max asked.

He stared at Stella with such love that she almost wept.

She smiled. ‘I think that’s an excellent idea.’

Because if she didn’t, her family might fall apart even more. Cara was settled in London, and no amount of talking to Noah would get him to come home.

Well, not yet anyway.

CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE

On Sunday evening, Jack didn’t want to say goodbye to Ava. Apart from for a change of clothes, she hadn’t returned to the hotel since yesterday. It wasn’t enough to have been with her for so long. Still, there were another couple of weeks to enjoy before she went back to London. And even then, he wasn’t planning on leaving it there.

‘Can I see you tomorrow evening?’ he asked at the hotel entrance. ‘After work, do you have any plans?’

‘I’d like to think I was going to be wooed by a tall, dark, and handsome man.’

‘Ah, pity.I’dliked to have taken you out for dinner again. Maybe next time you’re free.’

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