Danielle Steel - Hotel Vendome

And as she climbed into her new bed, thinking about everything that had happened that day, the ceremony, the dancing, all the people she had met, dancing with her father, catching the bouquet, and meeting Brad, she decided that it had been a very special day, and a turning point for her as well as them.

And on a plane headed for Los Angeles, the bride and groom toasted each other with champagne and kissed as they sailed through a star-filled sky and held hands. And the captain announced over the PA system that there were honeymooners on the plane. “Good luck to Hugh and Natalie,” he said, shortening Hugues’s name, and everyone on board cheered, as the newlyweds beamed.

Chapter 20

WHILE HUGUES AND Natalie relaxed in the lap of luxury at the fabulous Palmilla Hotel in Baja, Heloise worked seven days a week at the hotel and kept an eye on everything for her father. Two assistant managers were in charge in his absence, but Heloise was an excellent additional pair of eyes to see that all was going smoothly and people were behaving. She was working double shifts at the front desk in his absence, but she managed to take time off to have dinner with Brad Peterson the week after the wedding. He was taking summer classes so he could finish law school sooner. At the moment he was torn between becoming a tax attorney or an entertainment lawyer. Both fields interested him. But Heloise intrigued him even more when he had dinner with her. They went to a Chinese restaurant near Columbia that was full of students, and they talked about her experiences at hotel school and the George V again. And he was fascinated hearing her stories about their hotel. It sounded like an exciting place to grow up.

“Do you think you’ll take over for your father one day?” he asked with interest. He got the feeling that she was capable of it, or would be in time.

“I don’t know. I want him to run it forever. I’d rather be number two under him. I can’t imagine the Vendome without him. He put it all together himself, and it’s just a perfect little hotel. We offer all the same services the big hotels do, just to better clients and with fewer rooms.” He could see how proud she was of her father’s hotel, and how loyal she was to him. She talked about her mother a little bit, but only superficially. She said her parents had divorced when she was four, and her mother was married to Greg Bones, the rock star, which sounded interesting to Brad. Everything about her interested him, and he was powerfully attracted to her. She was American, but she looked very European, and he liked the way she dressed. She managed to look young, sexy, and chic all at the same time. She was much more exciting than any of the girls he’d met.

He invited her out again the following weekend. He took her downtown to the Cafe Cluny, and she invited him to watch movies and have room service in her new apartment on Sunday night. They saw each other again twice the following week, and by then he kissed her, and they were falling all over each other like two puppies.

By the time Hugues and Natalie came home from their two-week honeymoon at Palmilla, Brad and Heloise were definitely an item, and he was becoming a familiar sight at the hotel. Everyone thought they looked cute together, and they liked Brad a lot. And so did Heloise.

She was thrilled to see her father and Natalie when they got home, suntanned, happy, and rested, and she mentioned Brad casually when she had dinner with them on their first night back. Her father noticed that she had moved most of her things downstairs.

“It would have been too lonely up here without you,” she said simply. “Besides, you guys need some privacy, and so do I.” He thought it was a powerful statement and wondered what she’d been up to while they were gone, other than working. And then she mentioned Brad in an offhanded way, and her stepmother smiled.

“So is this a big deal?” Natalie asked her, and Heloise shrugged with a mysterious smile. Her father was startled to see it. They had been gone for two weeks, and suddenly she had a new romance. But she was twenty-one after all, and Natalie had told him before that her nephew was a great guy and she wanted him to meet her. Heloise hadn’t dated anyone seriously since Francois, in nearly a year.

“I don’t know. It’s too soon to tell. It might be,” she said cryptically. She hadn’t slept with him yet and wasn’t ready to. But Natalie had the feeling it wasn’t far off.

“Well, that sounds interesting.” Natalie smiled at her and was happy for her. She needed more than just work in her life, and she was so dedicated to the hotel. Everyone had told Hugues that she’d done a great job while he was away, and did much more than just her internship duties at the front desk. She had been all over the hotel checking on things a dozen times a day. And he was pleased by how responsible and diligent she was.

And the honeymooners looked happy and rested and more in love than ever. They were planning to spend August settling into married life. Natalie was giving up her apartment, and moving in the rest of her things, and putting some of it in the hotel storerooms. And in September she was planning to tackle new projects, and a few more rooms to renovate in the hotel. And he still wanted to give her the presidential suite to do when there was room for it in their budget.

She was coming back from her apartment one afternoon a week later, with more of her decorating accessories and belongings, when Natalie got into the elevator and found herself looking at Heloise and Brad. They were on their way up to her apartment. Brad kissed his aunt and looked surprisingly comfortable, as though both the hotel and Heloise were familiar to him now. It was Heloise’s day off. Now that her father was back, she had a little more time to herself.

“What have you two been up to?” Natalie asked, intrigued to see them so happy together. They’d been holding hands when she got in.

“We just went to a street fair downtown,” Heloise said, looking radiant. Brad put an arm around her shoulders, and a minute later they got out on the fifth floor. Natalie asked if they wanted to come up later for dinner, but Heloise was quick to say that they were going out again. And she didn’t know why, but after they got out, Natalie didn’t think she believed her. Obviously they wanted to be alone. She smiled to herself as she got off on her floor and let herself into their apartment. Hugues was working out at the gym as she put her things away, and she mentioned to him later that she had seen Heloise and Brad.

“Do you suppose that’s serious?” he asked, glancing up at her, and she smiled as she shrugged.

“As much as it can be at that age. But it’s sweet anyway. They’re both good kids with good values and their eyes on serious careers. She could do a lot worse.”

“Okay,” he nodded, reassured. He trusted her judgment, even about his daughter. He missed having Heloise in the apartment, but he knew it had been the right time for her to move downstairs. And he liked being alone with his wife. It gave them a lot of privacy and freedom they wouldn’t have had otherwise.

September was extremely hectic at the hotel. It was always a busy month as people got back after the summer or came to New York on business or for social events. And most of their regular guests showed up in September. And to complicate matters, they had a terrorist threat that forced them to empty the hotel. Hotel management had been told that a bomb would go off within the hour. Hugues assessed the threat with the police, and they had called for the bomb squad and evacuated the hotel immediately. The police suspected that it was a false threat, but they couldn’t take the chance.

Employees knocked on doors on every floor, security manned the stairways, and Heloise was racing from floor to floor with her father, to check that all was orderly and to reassure people as they left their rooms with some concern. Jennifer, Bruce, and the doorman were directing people outside, and in twenty minutes they had everyone out and corralled safely two blocks away behind police lines, while hotel employees handed out coffee and tea from rolling carts. It happened in the early evening, when many people had come back from their day and hadn’t yet gone out to dinner. Natalie arrived from her office just as the guests were pouring out of the hotel. And once they got them all out and at a safe distance, Heloise called Brad on her cell phone and told him all about it. They talked to each other constantly now, and sent texts all day.