by Sophie Love
Just then, Emily heard the sound of the back door opening and in strolled Parker Black. She glanced over at the clock, her eyes still bleary with sleep, and saw that it was six o’clock on the dot. Emily couldn’t help her surprise; she’d been certain he would turn up at least five minutes late.
“Parker?” Emily said, failing to keep the sound of surprise from her voice.
“That’s me,” he said in the confident manner she expected of him. “And you don’t need to look so shocked. Have I ever given you a reason to have such little faith in me?”
Before Emily had a chance to answer, Parker strolled into the kitchen and helped himself to coffee. Then he hopped up onto the counter, looking very much at home, like he was part of the team. Emily looked from Serena to Daniel to Parker, wondering how she had assembled such a motley crew.
Just then, somewhere through the sound of Vanessa’s vacuum cleaner in the living room, Emily heard something coming from high above her that sounded like a bedroom door being unlocked.
“Someone’s coming down for breakfast,” she said.
Everyone looked at her, frowning.
“How do you know that?” Daniel asked.
“I can hear someone moving around,” Emily replied, straining to hear better.
“I can’t hear a thing,” Parker said.
“Maybe she’s developed that thing that new moms get,” Serena said, grinning widely, “where they wake up if their baby so much as coughs at night, but will sleep through the fire alarm.”
Parker laughed.
“You should ask Vanessa,” Daniel said.
“Shh!” Emily exclaimed. “Listen, will you?” Just then, she heard the creaking of floorboards coming from the second floor. “It’s one of the second floor guests. It could be Gus.” She’d put Gus in the main bedroom, Mr. Kapowski’s room, since if it hadn’t been for him she’d never have gotten any guests at all. “We’d better get ready,” Emily added.
“Get ready how?” Daniel said, raising an eyebrow.
“I don’t know. Smooth down our clothes. Stand up straight.” She waved at Parker, who was still sitting languorously on the worktop.
He leapt down with a shrug. Serena stifled a giggle.
Despite the success of the evening, Emily felt the same fluttering butterflies in her stomach. This was a whole new thing for her, making breakfast for so many people, and she’d managed to make a mess of serving just the one for Mr. Kapowski. Once again she felt that sensation of complete inadequacy, like she was woefully underprepared.
Daniel must have sensed her panic. He came over and rested his hands on her shoulders.
“Are you okay, Emily?” he asked gently. “You seem a bit off this morning.”
She nodded and tried to let go of some of the niggling worry she was carrying around with her. She took some deep breaths. “I just want it to be perfect for them.”
Daniel kissed her forehead. “It is. You’re doing a great job.”
She felt relieved to get some physical affection from Daniel. She knew she shouldn’t doubt him so much, but her parents’ divorce and dad’s disappearance, not to mention all her previous failed relationships, sometimes made her expect the worst from people. Just because Daniel wanted to ride his motorcycle up on the cliffs all night didn’t mean he was about to run off and leave her unannounced.
Emily heard the creaking of floorboards underfoot and could tell that her guest was now on the bottom staircase, heading downstairs. She put on her game face and went out into the corridor to greet them.
It was Sally, the woman who had been woken by the leaking toilet.
“Oh,” Emily said. “You’re up early. Did you sleep okay after I changed your room?”
“Oh yes,” Sally said. “My bed was gloriously comfortable. I don’t think I’ve slept as well in years.”
“That’s what I like to hear,” Emily replied, relieved that the old woman appeared to be in no way disgruntled by the whole debacle. “Your toilet has been fixed now so you’ll be able to return to your room tonight.”
“That sounds most delightful, my dear,” Sally said.
Emily led her into the dining room to make her a coffee while she waited for the others. Despite Cynthia’s advice to remove the table and fill the space with smaller café-style tables so the guests could dine separately, Emily had kept the original layout. Her hope was to one day convert one of the outer buildings into a conservatory, knock through a wall, and expand the dining room outward that way. But for now, she had left everything the way it was, with one large table like the type you’d see in a stately home.
“Gosh, what a wonderful room!” Sally exclaimed. “And all that light,” she added, turning to look at the large open windows that no longer had a view straight onto the chicken coop, but all the gorgeous flower beds that Daniel had created instead.
“Thank you,” Emily said. “This is one of my favorite rooms. Actually,” she added, thoughtfully, “I can’t pick a favorite. They all are.”
Sally laughed as she took her seat at the dining table. Emily left the room to fetch her coffee but bumped into Gus in the hallway.
“Gus,” she said, her voice sounding worried, “I am so sorry about what happened last night.”
“Nonsense,” Gus replied, jovially. “A minor problem which you resolved very quickly indeed. Nothing to worry about at all.”
Emily was beyond grateful for how relaxed he was being about the whole thing.
For some reason, Gus never failed to put a smile on Emily’s face. Perhaps it was his upbeat attitude and the fact that he smiled easily and laughed readily. Emily often found herself drawn to such people, the ones who joked and laughed, who were able to hold a room with their tales. Emily herself tended to stick to the background, to be the observer of situations rather than the leader within them. It wasn’t a trait she particularly liked about herself, especially since it was part of the reason why she ended up in such terrible relationships, letting herself be dragged around by someone else’s whims.
Gus settled in beside Sally, and Emily left to fetch them both a mug of coffee. When she entered the kitchen she found Serena and Parker goofing around.
“Hey,” she said. “Serena, can you go out into the corridor, please? Direct the guests to the dining room. Parker, you should be scrubbed up already and in your apron.”
The two youngsters exchanged a glance before leaping to attention. That was the first time Emily had really had to manage anyone before. It felt very strange to her but at the same time not altogether unpleasant. She wondered whether she really could get used to running a B&B.
Once the rest of the guests had woken up and filed downstairs into the dining room, Serena and Emily took all their breakfast orders. The guests were just as rowdy at seven in the morning as they were at eleven at night and it took quite a while to get everything down. Finally, the two women went into the kitchen.
“Okay,” Emily said, reading off the pad. “We need ten portions of poached eggs with baked salmon and toast, five smoked salmons with scrambled eggs and toast, two eggs benedicts—one with spinach, one with bacon—and three fried eggs with bacon and toast.” She took a deep breath. “Then for drinks we need ten coffees, five orange juices, four iced teas, and one glass of milk for Gus. Let’s go.”
They got straight to work, boiling water for the eggs, toasting and buttering the bread, baking the salmon.
“Why don’t you let us handle this?” Daniel said to Emily when they were well underway. “You should be out there with the guests doing the hostess thing.”
“Good idea,” Emily said. She picked up the coffee pot. “I’ll fill them up while I’m at it. Not that they need any more stimulation, to be honest with you. I’ve never seen such an energetic bunch in my life!”
Daniel laughed, and Emily backed out of the kitchen into the corridor. Vanessa was just coming out of the living room.
“All done?” Emily asked.
“Not quite, I just wanted to gr
ab you to ask whether you’d like me to also help clean the kitchen after breakfast and the bedrooms once the guests have left for the day? I don’t mind sticking around until eleven or so.”
“Wow, it really must be tough being a mom if you’d prefer to be here cleaning than at home!” Emily joked.
“You have no idea,” Vanessa said. “But you’ll get it once you have little ones yourself.”
Emily tried to smile through the anguish that rippled in her whenever Vanessa made suggestions about motherhood.
“Well, if you really don’t have to rush back,” Emily said. “I could definitely do with the extra hands.”
Vanessa shook her head. “Jason has taken Katy and the dogs for a long walk up in Acadia Park anyway. I would just be going home to an empty house.”
“Okay,” Emily agreed. “It would be great if you stayed. Feel free to help yourself to coffee and breakfast if you get hungry.”
Vanessa went back into the living room to finish vacuuming and Emily entered the dining room, coffee pot in hand.
“And here’s the liquid black energy!” Gus cried. He pumped his fist against the tabletop. “Fill me up please, Emily!”
Emily still didn’t understand how the old man had such exuberance at this time of the morning, let alone at his age, but she topped up his mug nonetheless.
“Excuse me, young lady,” one of the guests said to Emily as she topped up her coffee.
“Yes, it’s Georgia, isn’t it?” Emily said.
“Yes, what a splendid memory you have,” Georgia replied, the steam from her mug coiling around her. “Now, this may seem like a strange question, but I couldn’t help wondering whether you might be related to Roy Mitchell?”
“Yes,” Emily gasped, surprised to hear her father’s name. “I’m his daughter. Did you know him?”
The woman seemed delighted to have made the connection. “Oh yes! Well, I lived in Sunset Harbor for many years before moving out of Maine about, well, it must have been thirty years ago now. We were in the same hiking group, you see. I was much more of an avid enthusiast. Your father was more of the occasional ambler.” She laughed.
Emily took the new slice of information about her father’s life and tried to slot it in next to all the other things she was discovering about him.
“Your father just loved it here,” Georgia continued. “Well, here and Barcelona, of course.”
She chuckled, but Emily felt a sensation like ice sweep through her. This was the second person who had mentioned that her father had a love of Barcelona. Just a few weeks ago she hadn’t even been aware of this particular interest of his at all. Even after having looked through so much of his paperwork she hadn’t found any evidence of it!
Emily didn’t want to get lost in her speculative thoughts but she couldn’t help it. She’d found so much stuff belonging to her dad—from bank statements to credit card bills to old address books to receipts for lawn seed—how could she have missed something as significant as his love of Barcelona? It must have been an important enough part of his life for an acquaintance from his hiking group to know about it, so how could it not have been evident, somewhere, amongst his things? There was nothing, not a boarding pass for an airplane, not a booking reservation for a hotel, not even a fridge magnet. Could it be there was no evidence because her dad had specifically disposed of it? Because he was planning on running away to Barcelona twenty years ago and hadn’t wanted anyone, not even her, to ever find a trace of him?
Emily became suddenly aware that Georgia was still speaking.
“You will tell him hello from Georgia Walters next time you see him, won’t you?” she was saying. “Say, where did he move to in the end? I assume he moved house because he suddenly stopped coming on our walks.”
Emily shook her head. “I… um—”
“Oh,” Georgia said, looking at Emily’s pale face. “Have I said something out of line?” She touched Emily’s hand lightly with her cool, soft hands.
Emily tried to get a grip on herself, but the thoughts were swirling. She felt as though the mystery of her father’s disappearance had acquired a whole new facet in the last few weeks and she was trying to wrap her head around the fact that there was another place her father used to disappear to that wasn’t Sunset Harbor. Could it really be that one day he’d just decided that he wanted to live out his life on the beach in the sunshine and leave his daughter behind?
“Excuse me, please,” Emily said breathlessly, drawing her hand out from under the woman’s and rushing away.
She went into the kitchen, shoving the door hard. The room was a flurry of noise and activity. Steam permeated the air and the smell of cooked salmon wafted up her nostrils. The heat was almost suffocating.
“Hey,” Daniel said, turning as she entered. “I thought you were out there hostessing.”
“Serena,” Emily said, ignoring him, “can you take over, please?”
Serena looked concerned. “Sure,” she said, wiping her hands on her apron before pulling it over her head and handing it to Emily.
Daniel came over to her, spatula in hand, dripping oil onto the tiles. “What’s wrong?”
Emily shook her head and took the spatula out of his grasp. “Nothing. I’m just… I’m freaking out a bit.”
“You’re doing fine,” Daniel reassured her.
Emily grabbed some paper towels from the counter and began mopping up the oil spills. “It’s not that,” she said as she worked.
“It looks like that to me,” Daniel replied, bending down and taking the paper towels from her hands before taking over wiping up the oil. “Looks like you might be overworking yourself.”
“One of the guests knew my dad, okay?” Emily snapped. “She just said something that’s messed with my head a bit. I’ll be fine. I just need some air.”
She stood hurriedly, leaving Daniel crouched on the floor looking bemused. She could feel his concerned eyes on her as she walked out of the uncomfortably hot kitchen. She knew he was worried that she was either going to hyperventilate again like she had when her mom had visited or black out into one of her weird memory flashbacks, and she hated feeling so fragile, hated knowing that her past experiences could affect the present moment so profoundly.
Once outside, Emily rested her back against the wall and breathed in the ocean air.
“Did you want a smoke?” someone said, and Emily leapt a mile. She glanced over and saw Boris. He was offering a cigarette to her.
“No, thanks,” Emily said. Then she added in a mocking tone, “I came out for fresh air.”
Boris smirked. “Have we already given you a headache?”
Emily smiled and shook her head. “Not at all. You’re a delight to have around.”
Boris took a final puff of his cigarette before dropping it to the ground and smooshing it under his foot. “Well, I must say, of all the hotels and B&Bs we’ve stayed in over the years, this has got to be one of the best. I can feel the love and attention that’s gone into it. It feels more like a family home than a B&B in a way.”
“It was a family home,” Emily told him. “My father’s, in fact. I would spend my summers here.”
“Lucky you,” Boris said. He smiled and went back inside.
Emily quickly picked up his cigarette butt and reminded herself she would have to get ashtrays. She threw the butt away in the trash and went back inside to help serve breakfast.
“You okay?” Daniel asked when she returned.
“I’ll be fine. Stop worrying about me.” Emily picked up the first two plates of food. “These look really great. Much better than the breakfast I served Mr. Kapowski. Good job.”
She went back into the dining room, where she found Serena taking photographs of the guests as they shouted directions at her. “And now one with Carmel! And this time with the garden in the background!”
“Your breakfasts are ready,” she announced.
Everyone cheered and took their seats again. Emily served the first two plates to Ge
orgia and Gus.
“I’m very sorry if I said anything to upset you,” Georgia said as she took the breakfast plate from Emily.
Emily shook her head. “I was just a little shocked that you knew my father. He’s not with us anymore, sadly. But I’d love to hear any stories you have of him at some point.”
Georgia nodded and Emily left to collect the next set of plates.
Once everyone had some food, Vanessa joined the others in the kitchen so they could quickly fuel up on coffee and toast. Emily could hardly comprehend the level of mess that had been created. She hadn’t really thought she’d need an extra cleaner with the four of them already on board but now she could see she had underestimated the amount of mess that a full B&B could really generate.
Emily checked her watch to discover that 9 a.m. had already arrived and the breakfast shift was over.
“Let’s tidy up their plates,” she said to Serena. “See if that prompts them to get a move on.”
They returned to the dining room and began collecting plates. As they did so, Gus spoke loudly to the group about their agenda for the day.
“A hike in the park and a picnic lunch. Then back here so those of us who need them can have an afternoon nap—I’m looking at you, Boris—before dinner at the yacht club. Then it’s down to the beach for a bonfire and Fourth of July fireworks.”
Everyone let out a cheer of excitement and Emily suddenly realized what date it was. She’d been so wrapped up in her work that she’d forgotten about how she’d needed to fill the B&B by the Fourth of July. Yet here she was having accomplished just that!
Her own excitement bubbled through her as she realized just how close she was to reaching her goal of a maxed out B&B on the Fourth July.
She and Serena finished carrying the plates back into the kitchen as Gus and his group donned their walking boots in their typically noisy fashion. Emily started to feel a bit like she was herding sheep as she watched them chaotically try to get themselves organized for the day trip.
Soon she was waving them off from the front porch, listening to their merry chatter fade away to silence. She walked back into the B&B, struck immediately by the hush that had fallen over it like a blanket of snow. Now that it was quiet, Emily could tell that her ears were ringing.
