Finding the One (Lakeside House Hotel Series Book 1)

by MacKenzie Shaw

  She let her head fall back on the pillow and groaned. Is this really what she wanted out of life? Is this where she thought her plan would lead her all those years ago? It was her own fault, she let this happen. She’d built up a nice nest egg from her salary as apart from rent, utilities and food she didn’t have many expenses. Also, she’d made some really good investments so why did she continue to put up with the life she’d created when it was now glaringly obvious she wasn’t happy? She was determined to find answers this weekend.

  Daisy got ready for breakfast and before leaving she fired up her laptop and sent Mark the report he’d requested. She was going to send it before getting ready but the rebel in her made her wait until after. Waiting until she came back from breakfast was maybe a step too far and besides she didn’t want the report hanging over her while she enjoyed her breakfast date with Noah.

  She skipped down the stairs to breakfast instead of waiting for the elevator. Yes, this weekend she was going to let her fun side out and enjoy everything the weekend had to offer. The wedding wasn’t until three pm and she wasn’t meeting Freya and the rest of the bridesmaids until noon which meant she could spend the morning with Noah … if he offered.

  Walking towards the main dining room she saw Noah laughing with the waitress. He noticed her and motioned her over. “Daisy, this is my sister Ashleigh. Ashleigh, this is Daisy my date for the wedding.”

  Sister? Date?

  Ashleigh gave her a huge grin and pulled her into a hug. “It’s so nice to meet you Daisy. Noah has told me absolutely nothing about you so we need to change all that.” She turned to Noah and asked with a raised eyebrow, “Is she?”

  He nodded and pulled Daisy out of his sister’s arms. “I’ve not told Daisy yet about our family and I’m sure she’d appreciate being fed first, not rapid fire questions from my sister.”

  “Your favorite sister,” she replied with a wink. “Daisy, it was so nice to meet you but duty calls. We’ll catch up soon.”

  “Nice to meet you Ashleigh,” she called after her then turned to Noah,“Your sister works here?”

  “My family owns the hotel, has done for generations. My parents, brother and sisters all work here. I’m the only one that doesn’t. I’m just going to warn you, now you’ve met my sister it won’t be long until the rest of the family make an appearance, so fair warning.”

  They made their way into the dining room and sure enough an older man and woman made their way to their table. “Noah, Ashleigh has just told us you’ve brought a date to the wedding and you forgot to tell us.”

  He let out a laugh and stood up to hug, Daisy assumed his mom. “Mom, Dad, this is Daisy and I didn’t bring her, we just met yesterday. She’s Freya’s best friend.”

  She noticed her mom and dad having a silent conversation that seemed to be getting them all excited and she couldn’t work out why. Surely they’d met Noah’s past girlfriends? She knew he’d had plenty of them if the rumors were true.

  “So nice to meet you Daisy. Noah you need to bring Daisy to meet us properly, after the wedding of course. I’m sure Jake and Emily would love to meet you too.”

  “That would be nice, thanks Mrs …” Daisy realized she didn’t even know his last name and felt embarassed. “I’m sorry I don’t even know your last name.”

  “Carpenter, but please call me Isabel and this is my husband, Tom.”

  “Nice to meet you Isabel, Tom. I’m Daisy Yorke.”

  Noah was surprised at how natural it felt for his parents to meet Daisy. He hadn’t missed the twinkle in his mother’s eye either when she’d not so subtly asked him if she was ‘the one’. Even although it had been less than twenty-four hours since they’d first met, he had to admit that there was something to the Carpenter legend and that yes, he did think she was ‘the one’. Now he just had to convince Daisy, without weirding her out and coming on too strong. This was definitely new territory for him.

  After breakfast, where they’d been interrupted by his younger brother Jake and his baby sister Emily, he’d taken Daisy for a trip on the family boat they kept moored at the end of the hotel’s jetty. All too soon it was time to get back and get ready for the wedding ceremony. He found himself thinking about his and Daisy’s wedding, which didn’t freak him out as much as he thought it would.

  Daisy had confided in him that she wasn’t happy with her job and when she got back to San Francisco she would be looking for something else. What she wasn’t sure. She’d admitted that she wasn’t even sure she wanted to stay in San Francisco. She loved the City but she felt lonely there and wanted to start having some fun and making new decisions. He just hoped that included him and this weekend he was going to make sure it did.

  He was now standing beside Charlie and the other groomsmen waiting for Freya to walk down the makeshift aisle. It had been a few hours since he’d last seen Daisy and that had been too long. He couldn’t imagine how Charlie was feeling waiting for Freya to walk down the aisle and become his wife.

  The ceremony and the rest of the festivities went by in blur. Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves and now that Charlie and Freya had headed off to the Bridal Suite, the festivities began to wind down. He stared across the table at Daisy and wondered why, with their mutual friendship with the married couple, had they never met before. It had taken being at his family’s hotel to meet and start to fall in love, he just hoped she felt the same way.

  “Do you want to go up?” he asked her, hoping she’d say no.

  “No, I’m happy to continue enjoying the company,” she grinned, “unless of course you need your beauty sleep.”

  “Ha ha,” he replied. “Let’s take our drinks to the decking. It’s still warm out.”

  They sat on a couple of loungers that were on the decking overlooking the lake. He was all too aware that she was going home tomorrow. He’d taken a few extra days to spend with his family, rather than going back immediately. Wanting to know what she was thinking he knew he had to bring it up first.

  “Daisy, have you thought anymore about what you’re going to do when you get back home?”

  She looked off into the distance and sighed. “I don’t really want to go back. This weekend has been what I’ve needed for a long time and I’m scared to go back and just slip into old habits, y’know?”

  He knew exactly what she meant. For him, after meeting her there was no way he could go back to old habits. He didn’t know what the future held or what that looked like exactly but he knew she was part of it. They just had to work out what that looked like for both of them.

  “Yeah I get that. I think this weekend has been a shakeup for both of us. It certainly didn’t turn out how I expected … in a totally good way,” he grinned. “I’ll be honest, I really want to keep seeing you. What about you?”

  She returned his grin then it started to slip. “I really do Noah, I just don’t know how we would work. I work all the time and you seem to do the same. When would we see each other? I don’t want to start a relationship knowing we’d be ships in the night, especially knowing that going into it. I know I need to make changes in my life and I’m not sure it’s fair on you that my life will be totally up in the air when I get back and I’m not even sure that San Francisco is where I want to live. I honestly didn’t expect this weekend to totally turn my life upside down.”

  He tipped her chin up so she was looking at him, she looked so sad. “Hey, you don’t have to make any decisions tonight. I’m sorry for coming on so strong. Being here with you and my family, I’d forgotten how much I love it here. I moved to the City to escape here and I’m wondering why I ever felt the need to.” Deep down he knew the reason, he did it to escape the disappointment he felt from his parents, although in hindsight it was disappointment in himself, his parents hadn’t shown him anything but love and support. “You’re more than welcome to stay here another couple of days and figure things out, before having to face everything. I’m staying ‘till Wednesday and would love for you to join me.”


  Daisy sucked in a deep breath. That wasn’t what she’d expected him to say. Could she really stay a few more days? She knew she wanted to more than anything, she was just scared that when they both got back to San Francisco that the magic they’d found here would be lost. If she was really going to change her life then she had to start now. She had more than enough vacation time left but if she was honest, she’d rather be handing in her notice than taking vacation time, but where would she find another job?

  She opened her mouth and just let the first thing that came to mind out, “Okay.” There she’d made the first decision for this new life she’d promised herself.

  “Okay?” he asked. “I wasn’t expecting that answer so quickly. I thought I’d have to work on you,” he chuckled.

  She laughed as it had surprised her too. She felt she needed to explain her past decisions so he could understand her more. “I was brought up in a rich neighborhood and we didn’t have much money and well it sucked. I was all too aware of how much money we didn’t have and how much everyone else did. I was teased throughout high school and hated it. I vowed I’d focus on getting good grades and a scholarship so I could get a great job with great pay and never have to worry about being poor again. I guess I just forgot along the way that the whole point was to earn the money so I wouldn’t miss out on all the fun everyone else seemed to be having. Don’t get me wrong, my parents loved me and I had a great childhood but looking back the only thing I could remember was the feeling of missing out. In college Freya used to go to all the parties and I used to stay in our dorm room and study. I missed so much of the college experience and I don’t want to end up regretting any more of my life. It stopped being about the money a long time ago, I just got into a habit of work, work, work and didn’t know what else to do.”

  Noah grabbed her hand and held it tight, “Daisy I can’t understand what you went through but I can definitely help you with your future, and if you’d let it, our future … together. Have you ever thought about what you’d like to do?”

  She squeezed his hand, thankful for his support. “I just know I don’t want to be putting in eighty hour weeks and that’s on a good week. I really like the pace of things here and now that I’ve managed to slow things down, I really don’t want to go back to the never ending hustle. What about you? You’ve never said what you wanted. You’re always asking about what I want.”

  “I’ve been kinda lucky in that I set my own hours and can work from anywhere. I only moved to the City as I felt I no longer belonged here, but being back I’ve realized that’s not true. I love it here, always have and missed it. I’ve actually got my own cabin in the woods back there where I started my consultancy business. I’ll show you tomorrow.”

  “I’d love that. What about the amount of traveling you do, do you enjoy that?”

  “I do. I guess I was using the traveling as another means of escape but I must admit I love it but I may not be doing as much in the future.”

  “Oh, why not?” she looked up at his handsome face with hope in her eyes.

  “Well, there is this certain someone who has recently captured my attention. I think she’ll be keeping me busy and my mind off traveling for a long, long time. Although when I do have to travel next I’m not above sneaking her into my suitcase and taking her with me.”

  “That sounds great, but assuming I’m that certain someone, I think I’d prefer to be on a seat rather than in your suitcase,” she grinned.

  “You’d want to come?” he sounded surprised at her answer.

  “Of course. I’d need to get a passport first but sure, and it would depend on whether or not I’d be able to get time off work.”

  “You’re going back to Fredrickson’s?”

  “Yes, just to hand in my notice but I’ll still need a job Noah. I don’t know where or what that will be.”

  “I may have the perfect solution. You interested?”

  Noah couldn’t believe he was going to offer this but now he’d found ‘the one’ he wasn’t about to let her slip through his fingers. His parents and before that his grandparents had all worked perfectly happy with each other at the hotel, he didn’t see why it couldn’t work for him and Daisy. Not that he wanted to work at the hotel, that was Jake’s position now. However, he had another solution.

  She gave him a wary look, “What do you have in mind?”

  “How about you come work with me. I’ve enough work for both of us and it would mean we could spend more time together. We could even move back to my old cabin as you seem to love it out here so much. What do you say?”

  He’d laid it on the line and held his breath waiting for her answer. If someone had told him two days ago that he’d be in this position he’d have laughed in their face and told them they were crazy. He felt anything but crazy and was totally serious about the offer. The more he thought about it, the more perfect the solution seemed. His parents would be over the moon if he moved back home, especially if it meant Daisy came too. He could see she was going through a multitude of emotions and just hoped it wasn’t too much, too soon for her.

  “I don’t know what to say. I mean I don’t know anything really about the hotel trade.”

  He felt a huge grin appear, “So you’re thinking about it?”

  She grinned back, “I might be.”

  “You have a background in marketing, surely you would work in any market? I can teach you everything you need to know about the hotel trade. You’d pick it up really quickly. We’d set up a partnership agreement …”

  “Woah, what? A partnership agreement?”

  “Of course. You’d be my partner. I’m not looking for an employee Daisy, I want you as my partner. I thought I’d made that perfectly clear and if I haven’t, I apologize. I want you in my life. I want you as my life partner, my business partner and any other partner you can think of. Does that spell it out for you?”

  “I guess it does. Noah you don’t think this is happening a bit too fast do you? I mean we just met yesterday. Oh my god, it was just yesterday and here we are talking about life partnerships and business partnerships as if it’s the most natural thing in the world.”

  “I know what I feel and yes, it’s fast but it also feels right. I know you’re the one for me Daisy and I’m sorry if I’m coming on too strong but I don’t want to lose you. I want to give you the life you’ve always wanted and give you so many fun memories that we’ll always be looking towards making the next one. You’re it for me and I really hope you feel the same, or do I have to do a bit more persuading?”

  “I’m going to trust my feelings on this and say yes. Yes, I’d love to be your partner. I need to sort out my job and my apartment and well everything really but yes, I’d like to take that leap with you. It feels totally crazy to be doing this but it also feels right. I’m in.”

  He pulled her onto his lap and wrapped her up tight. “I’ll help you with everything and if there’s anything you don’t want to do, just say. We can stay here for a few more days and make some plans and then get back to the City and wrap up these old lives. How does that sound?”

  “Wonderful! It really feels wonderful. I haven’t felt this excited or free from worries in such a long time. Thank you Noah and I need to thank Freya too for insisting I come to her wedding.”

  Noah groaned. He’d forgotten about Freya, who wasn’t his biggest fan. “She’s not my biggest fan and may very well try and talk you out of this,” he told her.

  “Don’t you worry about Freya, I’ll handle her. For the first time in my life I feel like my life is finally going in the right direction and you may not believe it but she will be happy for me, for us.”

  Noah let out a sigh of relief. He wasn’t sure what the future held for them but all he knew was that he’d found ‘the one’ and was going to do everything in his power to make her as happy as he was in this moment.

  Six months later and it was Daisy and Noah’s turn to be walking down the aisle at Lakeside House Hotel. They ha
dn’t wanted a long engagement so as soon as Noah had proposed on a trip to Lake Garda, they’d called up his parents to find out when the hotel was next free for a wedding. His mom was delighted to help with the preparations and he was sure she’d squeezed them in quicker than she should have.

  It had taken Freya a few weeks to be happy for the couple but now she was their biggest supporter. She was Daisy’s maid of honor and couldn’t be happier for the couple, believing she was the one responsible for bringing them together and totally forgetting about any of the arguments she’d made for them not to get together.

  They were now living in Noah’s cabin beside the hotel. The ‘cabin’ turned out to be a huge four bedroom cabin with all high spec amenities. He’d teased her when she admitted she’d imagined it being a small hunting type cabin when he’d first told her about it.

  As soon as she’d got back to San Francisco she’d handed in her notice and had refused a fifty percent pay rise that her bosses had offered her to stay. The more she thought about the life she could have with Noah, the more determined she was to start it as soon as she could. Luckily the lease on her apartment was up in a couple of weeks, before Freya’s wedding she’d planned on renewing it, but instead had canceled it so when that was up they’d move in to Noah’s cabin.

  Living beside the lake had given both of them a new lease of life that they enjoyed together. It was at an easier pace than either of them had experienced in a long time but didn’t take too long to get used to.

  Daisy’s parents had loved Noah from the first moment of meeting him. They were grateful to him for helping Daisy step out of the rat race and into a happier lifestyle. They’d arrived at the hotel a couple of days before the ceremony so that they could meet Noah’s parents. They’d got on like a house on fire and the moms were already talking about grandchildren.