Forever and For Always

by Sophie Love

  She went into the kitchen to find everyone slumped at the kitchen table. She clapped her hands and they all flinched up.

  “Right, we have twenty bedrooms to clean. Twenty sets of beds to make. Twenty lots of bathroom supplies, toilet rolls, and towels to replenish. We need to vacuum and dust twenty bedrooms, mop twenty en suites, and scrub twenty toilets. And we’ve only got until after lunch to do it.”

  “When they’ll be back to mess it all up again,” Serena added wryly.

  “Well, at least they only get room service once a day,” Emily added. “Come on. Let’s go. We can rest once everything’s done. Except you, Vanessa,” she said. “You just go whenever you need to.”

  “That’s not fair,” Parker said. “How come I can’t go whenever I want?”

  “You can,” Emily said. “Work for as long as you want to earn for. That’s the deal.”

  Parker shut his mouth and everyone went off to complete their assigned tasks. All, that is, except for Daniel.

  “Emily,” Daniel said the second they were alone. She could hear the warning in his voice.

  “Yes?”

  “Do you need to slow down a bit? Maybe take some time to rest?”

  Emily shook her head. “Nope. I think I need to do the opposite. Work hard, party hard.”

  Daniel gave her a worried look, but Emily was having none of it. Not this weekend. She strolled out of the kitchen, leaving Daniel behind.

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  Emily watched the second hand of her clock as it ticked closer and closer to midnight. “Three… two… one… Happy Fourth of July!”

  Daniel swept her up in his arms and planted a kiss on her lips. “You did it.” He beamed. “The Inn at Sunset Harbor is still open for business.” He set Emily down on her feet. “Now, can I please have you to myself for a little while?”

  “I’m sorry I’ve been so busy,” Emily replied. “But I promise I am all yours. Until six a.m., that is.”

  “Good,” Daniel said, grabbing her hand. “Then you’d better come with me.”

  Emily flashed him a curious smile as he led her out to the porch. It was a balmy evening, and the sky was bright with color from the fireworks being set off around town. As she stood there gazing up at the sky, Emily felt herself being transported back to another time.

  “Happy Fourth of July, Emily Jane,” her father said. He swept her up in his arms and placed her on his hip. “Let’s go upstairs. There’s something amazing I want you to see.”

  He carried her up the long staircase to the second floor then up again, all the way to the third floor. They never came up here, and it felt unfamiliar to her with its cobwebs and old furniture. Then her dad carried her all the way along the corridor to a small door at the end. He pulled the door and it opened with a creak. Behind it was a small spiral staircase. Emily held on tightly as he began to ascend the dark staircase. Then suddenly a blast of air hit Emily’s face and she gasped.

  “This is the best view you’re going to get in the whole of Sunset Harbor,” her dad said.

  They were standing on the rooftops, on a platform with a metal railing. Emily clung even more tightly around her father’s neck as she looked down at the wide ocean. Emily could also see all the people on the beach and little glowing bonfires burning on the sand. Just then there was a loud squealing sound. Emily screamed as the squeal turned into an enormous bang, and she buried her face against her father.

  “Hush,” he said in her ear, rocking her gently. “There’s nothing to be afraid of Emily Jane.” He tried to remove her hands from her eyes but Emily stubbornly refused. “Come on, sweetheart. Look. It’s noisy but it’s very pretty.”

  He finally managed to coax her out of her fear. The next boom made her flinch but she didn’t cover her eyes this time. She gasped as colors exploded across the sky.

  “Fireworks,” her dad said as he bounced her on his hip. “They’re pretty, aren’t they?”

  All Emily could do was gasp in wonder as the beautiful colored lights cracked and fizzed against the black sky, their beauty reflected in the dark ocean water. She snuggled against her dad, laughing merrily and clapping at every burst of color.

  “They’re beautiful, aren’t they?” a voice said in her ear.

  Not her father’s anymore, but Daniel’s. She was back in the present time, her childhood memory fading away.

  Daniel wrapped his arms around her from behind. “You just had another blackout,” he told her. There was a tone to his voice that almost seemed to say I told you so.

  But Emily didn’t mind. That was the first happy flashback she’d ever had, the first one that had made her feel warm and loved. It wasn’t an awful one brought on by extreme anguish or stress. It was the sort of memory she welcomed; one that reminded her of the wonderful man her father had been. It was like an antidote to all the troubling thoughts she’d been having about him.

  “I flashed back to the first time I ever saw fireworks,” Emily said, holding the memory in her mind as gently as a fragile gift. She made a mental note to check to see whether there was a concealed door in the attic leading out to a widow’s walk.

  “You don’t seem as upset as usual,” Daniel noted.

  “I’m not,” she said in agreement. “It was a good one. A happy one.”

  She felt Daniel tighten his arms around her and realized how much she’d missed his touch. Over the last few months they’d gotten used to being with each other all the time, following their own routines. Not once since their relationship began had there been such a huge barrier between them. Even if it had only been two days, it had felt so long since they’d touched one another.

  “Come with me,” Daniel said suddenly, grabbing her hand.

  “Where are we going?” Emily laughed.

  But Daniel didn’t say a word as he pulled her along the garden path. Purples and blues exploded in the sky, illuminating the garden, turning the flowers strange colors.

  “Now, wait here just one second,” Daniel said when they reached the end of the driveway.

  He disappeared toward his carriage house and returned moments later carrying a bag.

  “And what is that?” Emily asked, her curiosity mounting.

  “You’ll find out soon enough.” Daniel grinned.

  Then he steered Emily out of the driveway, across the street, and onto the path that led to the beach.

  When they reached the sand, Daniel laced his fingers through Emily’s. They strolled together, hand in hand, as fireworks exploded in the sky above them. Emily took in a deep, satisfied breath, feeling content despite her fatigue.

  “I think this is as good a spot as any,” Daniel said, gesturing to a small circle of rocks.

  He slung the bag off his back and set it down in the sand. For the first time, Emily got a glimpse of what was inside. Chocolate. Marshmallows. Kindling to make a fire.

  “Oh, Daniel,” she gasped, touched by the romantic gesture.

  Daniel cobbled together a small fire and they both settled down beside it on the rocks.

  “So what does it feel like having the house full of guests?” Daniel asked Emily a moment later as he handed her a crisp, toasted marshmallow.

  “Strange,” she admitted. “But I like it. Not the sleeping on the couch part so much,” she added with a smile.

  “Maybe you should stay with me in the carriage house next time,” Daniel replied.

  Emily took a bite of marshmallow. “I wouldn’t want to get in the way of your midnight cliff rides,” she said, struggling to hide her suspicions.

  Daniel gave her a look. “You wouldn’t be in the way. I just need a bit of space sometimes. Space to ride my bike or go for a sail. I need a lot of time to clear my head, that’s all.”

  Emily nodded. She understood that Daniel had such needs but she had needs too—to know where he was, for starters.

  “Do you think you could maybe keep me up to speed?” she said. “Like drop me a text?”

  Daniel laughed. “With what c
ell phone?”

  “Oh yeah,” Emily replied, remembering Daniel’s hatred of all things electronic. “Well, just leave me a note or something. I can’t cope when you disappear on me. What with my past, with my dad. And especially after last time.”

  Daniel grew quiet. “I’m sorry,” he said earnestly. “Truly. I won’t disappear on you like that again. But I need you to trust me.” He reached out and took her hand. “Because what we’re doing here feels really good to me.”

  “Me too,” Emily replied, her voice small and timid. “Which is what makes it so hard when you disappear like that.”

  Daniel nodded, seeming to understand. “So,” he said, getting the conversation back on track, “next time you have a full B&B, will you stay at mine instead of on the couch?” He nudged her playfully with his shoulder. “Because when the B&B picks up you can’t be expected to sleep there every single night. You’re still allowed a personal life.”

  Emily smiled to herself. It always warmed her when Daniel spoke of the future because it meant he could envision himself in her life for at least the foreseeable future. With Daniel, that was about as much as she could hope for in the way of commitment.

  “I’ll try and balance my work and personal life a little better next time.”

  “Next time or this time?” Daniel teased.

  “Okay, okay!” Emily laughed, relenting. “You can stay over.”

  “Good,” Daniel said, satisfied. He reached over and kissed her deeply on the lips. “Because I don’t want to have to fight Gus for you.”

  At that, they both dissolved into laughter.

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  The next day, everyone was weary, staff and guests alike. Everyone seemed to have been up partying and seeing in the Fourth of July. But despite that, breakfast was another resounding success. In fact, everything seemed to delight Gus and his reunion party, from Parker’s eggs benedict to the Denby coffee mugs. Emily was glad to see her guests so happy and took each of their compliments readily.

  Then Emily waved them off for their next day of planned festivities, feeling a bit like a parent trying to get their children out of the house for the day.

  As soon as they were gone, Emily climbed the stairs quickly, more than ready to slip back beneath the covers and snuggle up next to Daniel. Only, as she checked her phone by the door, she saw she had a notification. She picked it up, scrolling past the numerous missed calls from Ben that had flared up again recently, and saw that there was an eBay alert on her phone. She read it quickly then squealed with excitement before rushing back upstairs.

  “Daniel, I got an eBay alert for the roofing tiles we need,” she said all in a rush. “There’s a place in Portland that’s selling them for a fraction of the price the roofer quoted. If we get them, we could pay him just to replace the beams and do the labor! I’d be able to get the whole roof replaced using the money from the diamond and the guests.” She leaped back into bed next to him, as excited as a kid on Christmas. “I know it’s not very romantic,” she added giving him an apologetic look. “But we can still make a date of it.”

  Emily could sense Daniel’s reluctance. But at the same time, getting the roof repaired for a fifth of the price she was expecting wasn’t exactly something she could turn her nose up at.

  “Let me guess,” he said, finally, yawning. “I’m driving.”

  “Well,” Emily said, “we’ll need to use your pickup truck and I can’t drive a stick shift, so…”

  “Of course,” Daniel replied. “I’ll be driving and you’ll be snoozing.”

  “How dare you!” Emily laughed.

  They both dressed and then headed out of the house and down the driveway to where Daniel’s pickup truck was parked outside his carriage house. Emily could feel tiredness clinging to her like a lead weight as she leaped into the passenger side of the truck. Daniel turned the ignition and the truck rumbled to life.

  Daniel took the coastal route to Portland. Despite her tiredness, Emily couldn’t resist watching the glittering water, and cooing admiringly at the pretty towns that neighbored Portland.

  “It’s really beautiful around here,” Emily said.

  “It is,” Daniel agreed. “But it’s about to get decidedly less beautiful while we detour to this parking lot.”

  He pulled off the pretty coastal road and onto the busy interstate. A few minutes later they were in the heart of the city, with noisy traffic racing past them, making Emily cringe as she remembered her hectic New York lifestyle. Daniel parked, and they both got out of the truck and went up to the door of an apartment building. Emily shivered in the shadow it cast across the asphalt.

  Daniel pressed the buzzer and told the voice over the intercom that they were there to pick up the slate tiles. A moment later the front door of the apartment opened and a guy wearing a white tank top stretched over a portly belly walked out.

  “I picked these up at a flea market,” he said, leading them around to a garage at the back of the block where a black tarpaulin covered the heap of slate tiles. “Figured they’d be worth something to someone. That’s you guys, right?” He grinned.

  Emily couldn’t help but find the whole encounter a little uncomfortable and wanted it over with as soon as possible. The man had clearly gotten lucky with the find, and they in turn had gotten lucky that he didn’t appreciate their full worth.

  There were enough slate tiles for the entire roof replacement. Daniel began lugging them into the back of the truck while Emily exchanged money with the man.

  “You guys can handle the loading?” he asked as he thumbed the dollar bills in his hands, clearly not about to offer any help.

  “Yeah,” Daniel said, grimacing with the strain of lifting yet more heavy tiles into the truck.

  “We’ll be fine,” Emily replied as she picked up a stack with a groan.

  The man disappeared back into his apartment building, leaving Emily and Daniel with the arduous, heavy-lifting work.

  “So when does the date part start?” Emily grimaced as she wiped the sweat from her brow.

  Daniel heaped the last of the tiles into the truck and let out a long exhalation. “How about now?”

  Emily smiled, glad that there was no more heavy lifting to do.

  “Great,” she said.

  They got back into the truck and Daniel turned the engine on. “Where do you want to go?” he asked.

  “Why don’t you show me where you grew up?” Emily said.

  “Really?” Daniel asked in a tone that suggested he couldn’t work out whether she was being serious or not. “I mean you just saw that apartment complex. It’s not much better than that.”

  Emily frowned. “I want to see where you grew up. Please!”

  Daniel seemed more than a little hesitant.

  “Please please please,” Emily said. “I want to know more about your childhood. You’ve met my friends and my mom and seen my emotional breakdowns, but I know next to nothing about you.”

  Daniel raised an eyebrow. “You wanna see where I grew up? Fine. Let’s go.”

  He revved the engine and drove them out of the parking lot, back along the busy city roads. After a while he turned onto a small street with some sad-looking houses. It was completely dilapidated, the sort of place where children played barefoot in the street and Rottweilers chained to fences barked angrily.

  “It’s actually looking better than it did when I grew up here,” Daniel said when he saw Emily’s expression.

  “I had no idea,” she gasped, looking around at the signs of deprivation: a trash can on its side, litter blowing in the breeze. “How long did you live here for?” She spoke gently, sensing Daniel’s somber mood and feeling guilty for having been the one to cause it.

  “Not long. My parents divorced when I was pretty young. Five, I think. So yeah, only until then. We lived in a bunch of different places in Maine after that. Dad moved to Sunset Harbor so I started to see that as some kind of refuge, even though he was drunk all the time. But he didn�
�t seem to care too much what I got up to, and when you’re a teenager that seems pretty great. My poor mom, though, when I think back to what I put her through.”

  Emily listened patiently. She knew very little about Daniel’s past; he was usually so stoic and secretive. That he was opening up to her now seemed like a small miracle.

  Daniel pointed through the windshield toward a solitary tree growing out of the sidewalk. It was a birch tree, with a bare, silver trunk pocked with dark whorls.

  “That’s where I was standing when my dad left,” Daniel said, his voice quiet, a wounded tone vibrating in his throat. “For the last time. The final time. He’d gone before, threatened to almost every day.” A sad smile flicked across his lips. “But that time felt different. I was just a kid but I knew that it was the end. I watched him get in his car and drive up the road and out of sight. Then I just stayed there, watching, like I thought maybe if I stood there long enough he’d turn around and come back. Mom couldn’t get me to come inside. I stood there hugging that damn tree all night.”

  Emily watched as he tipped his gaze down to his lap, his shoulders hunched over. She’d never seen him look so resigned, so filled with pain.

  “I’m sorry for making you come here,” Emily said. “I shouldn’t have been so insistent.”

  Daniel reached out and patted her arm. “Actually, I think it was good to come here. Cathartic.” He looked at her earnestly. “I’ve never told anyone that before.”

  Emily could tell that Daniel was telling the truth. Seeing his home and sharing that part of himself with her had actually been good for him. Therapeutic. But that didn’t stop him from clamming up all over again. She could almost see the moment his eyes clouded over again, as though shying away from the pain of his past, blocking it out so as not to get too close to it. Emily understood; she herself had spent years running from the trauma of her own childhood.

  “Why don’t we head back home?” Emily suggested. “Go on a proper date. We could head out in your boat again. We haven’t had a chance to go out in it together since Memorial Day.”