Sophie Love - For Now and Forever

“I am prepared to grant Emily the permit to convert the house into a B&B.”

A cheer went up from the audience. Emily gasped, hardly able to believe what had just happened. Trevor Mann sat back in his seat, stunned into silence.

People came over to Emily, shaking her hand, kissing her cheek, clapping her on the shoulder. Emily bit her bottom lip, overwhelmed with emotion. Birk and his son Jason, the fire fighter Emily had met, came and congratulated her. Raj Patel reminded her about the chickens he was trying to rehome.

“If you need some help with plumbing or electric, I’m eager to get on board,” a man said, handing her his business card.

“Barry,” she said, reading the name. “Thank you. I’ll be in touch.”

Karen said that if she used the general store for all her goods she’d be able to work out some kind of wholesale deal. Emily was overwhelmed by everyone’s generosity and encouragement.

“When you open your B&B, I’m going to be resident artist, right?” Serena said, giving her friend a big hug.

Emily replied with a laugh.

Daniel made his way through the crowd, then swept her up into his arms and held her close to him. “I’m so proud of you.”

“I can’t believe it!” Emily cried, throwing her head back and laughing as he twirled her around. “We got the permit! I bet you never thought I’d get this far when you first met me.”

Daniel shook his head. “To be perfectly honest, I thought you were going to do something ridiculous like leave the gas on accidentally and blow up the house. Helping you was only ever out of self-interest,” he added, jokingly.

“Is that so?” Emily said, leaning in and planting a gentle kiss on his lips.

Daniel kissed her back tenderly. Emily breathed in the scent of him, thinking about how unpredictable life could really be. It hadn’t been that long ago that she’d been kissing Ben, thinking she was going to marry him. How stupid she’d been. How completely different Daniel’s kisses felt.

When he set her back down on her feet, Emily glanced up at him and took his hand. Amy’s words were ringing in her mind, about how difficult it really was to start a business. That the majority of them failed in the first year. “Now the serious stuff starts,” she said to Daniel. “The planning. The financial investment. It’s a big, big risk.”

Daniel nodded. “I know. But why don’t we celebrate first? Just enjoy the moment.”

“You’re right,” she said, smiling. “This is a victory. We should celebrate. But you’d better not drink too much. You need to be up early in the morning.”

Daniel frowned, confused. “I do? Why?”

Emily gave him a look. “I know where you’ve been disappearing to,” she said. “The marina.”

“Oh, that,” Daniel said, suddenly awkward. “What about it?”

“I’ve arranged for someone to deliver a new engine for your boat.”

Daniel’s eyes widened with surprise. “You have? But you don’t have the money!”

She smiled. “You didn’t have the money when you bought me the toaster but you did it anyway, just to pick me up when I was down on my luck. So I wanted to do something for you, to say thank you.”

Daniel looked thrilled, and Emily knew the small financial sacrifice was worth it just for the look on his face.

“Right, this calls for Gordon’s bar!” Daniel said.

Emily raised an eyebrow. “Really? You want to go out into town? What about all those busybodies and their whispering?”

Daniel just shrugged. “I don’t care about them anymore. You’re what’s important to me.” He pressed a kiss into the crown of her head.

Emily looped her arm around his waist.

As they turned to leave, she spotted someone standing at the door watching. It was Amy. Emily paused and braced herself. But instead of starting any kind of confrontation, Amy gave Emily the thumbs-up sign. Then she blew her a kiss and left.

“Who was that?” Daniel asked.

Emily smiled to herself. “Just someone from my past.”

The house was alive with people, buzzing in and out. There was lots of work to do now that the permit had been granted and it had begun immediately. So many people came forward offering their services to Emily – plastering, sanding, even window cleaning – in exchange for a company endorsement, and she was more than willing to accept their generous offers. It felt odd having so many people traipsing through the house after months of just her and Daniel. But Emily knew that she’d have to get used to it; she’d signed up for daily life intrusions when she’d decided to go ahead with the B&B.

She oversaw the delivery of the front desk Rico had donated to her. It looked incredible in the foyer. Then Barry the electrician worked downstairs installing the new till system that would sit upon it. Then Raj arrived in his white van.

“Flower basket delivery!” he said, smiling.

“Great,” Emily replied.

No sooner had Raj gotten out of his van than another drove up the drive.

“We have a rug, a corridor runner for one Miss Emily Mitchell,” the delivery man said, looking down at his clipboard. “Where do you want it?”

“This way,” Emily replied, leading him in through the house.

Daniel was in the kitchen making coffee for everyone; she could hear him chatting with the dogs from the kitchen. Emily had managed to find homes for all the puppies except for Rain the runt and Mogsy the mother. Cynthia was taking one for her son Jeremy, Raj had agreed to give her the flower baskets for free in exchange for Thunder, the most boisterous of the puppies, Jason the firefighter was going to take one as a gift for his new baby daughter, and the final one Joe from the diner had asked for. It made Emily feel happy to know the town was once again helping her out, and she knew all the puppies would love their new homes.

Emily led the carpet deliverer up the stairs and to the landing. “Right here,” she said.

She watched as he unfurled the new cream runner. It looked wonderful in the hall, perfectly complementing her gray, blue, and white color scheme.

The house was well on the way to transforming into a proper B&B and Emily began to let herself feel excited about how everything was coming together. Though her nerves were still present, they felt more like nerves of anticipation than fear. It was as though her whole life had been leading up to this moment, that she was finally where she was always supposed to be.

Emily thanked the delivery man and he left. As soon as he was gone, she walked along the soft new carpeting, trying it out like a child with a new toy. She felt thrilled, excited for the future. But then she remembered there was one very important room that she had yet to complete any renovation work on, the one that was in fact the most important. She’d been avoiding it thus far, but suddenly she felt able to go in there, to do what needed to be done.

She walked the length of the new corridor runner, past the myriad of rooms that would one day become part of the B&B but for now were empty, then stopped when she reached the closed door to the room that had once belonged to her and Charlotte. Emily laid her hands against the wood and took a deep breath. She hesitated for a moment, wondering whether she’d made the right decision after all. This was the room that had the most potential to wow, what with the mezzanine and the floor to ceiling windows with their stunning sea views. Plus, it was in the quietest part of the house. It made business sense to turn this room into the guest room. But that meant Emily couldn’t delay boxing it up any longer. The success of the business hinged upon renovating this room.

Bracing herself, Emily opened the door and stepped inside. She took her time, letting it all sink in, letting the memories it held permeate her skin. Then she sat on the floor and carefully packed up all the children’s books, toys, and clothes with a painful jab in her heart. As she did so, she knew that she’d made the right decision. Though boxing up her childhood hurt, ignoring what had been behind that door had been hurting her too, more than she’d realized. Perhaps now she’d be able to put that part of her life behind her and move on.