A Room By the Sea (Coral Sands #2)
Chapter 1
CHAPTER ONE
Elaine Sutton took a step back, carefully wiping a silver curl away from her forehead with her wrist. Her fingers, which she normally would have used for such a task, were coated with sticky splotches of paint.
She smiled at the walls surrounding her.
Before she’d started painting the room, the walls had been a faded white, with noticeable cracks and discoloration.
Now, they had been transformed into a crisp, serene light green.
It was a color that made Elaine think of mint chocolate chips, wind-tossed grass by the seaside, and her own lovingly tended flower garden.
Sunlight streamed in through the large windows, dappling the walls with playful light patterns.
This looks simply fantastic, she thought, with a glow of pride in her chest. I’m sure our ancestors would have loved to see this.
She listened, her smile widening to a grin as she heard the voices of her daughter and granddaughter coming from downstairs.
They were laughing about something—and judging from the sweet aroma that had begun to waft its way about the mansion, Audrey or Michelle had decided to bake a batch of cookies.
Elaine’s heart gave a tug when she thought about her daughter.
Audrey Sutton, formerly Lowe before her messy divorce, had been through a terrible time earlier in the year.
Every day Elaine watched her daughter carefully, wanting to make sure that Audrey was finding the peace and healing that she so deserved.
Their peaceful town of Coral Sands seemed to be giving it to her, however.
Audrey had a spark of life in her eyes that seemed to be growing brighter every day.
Elaine was overwhelmed with thankfulness that Audrey had been healing.
Her daughter had been through an experience that no woman should even have to think about happening to her.
After Audrey’s husband Clark had disappeared, she’d spent frantic days wondering if he was dead or alive.
When the police had finally located him, they’d regretfully informed her that although Clark was perfectly all right, the news still wasn’t good—he’d run away with a much younger woman.
On top of that, it had soon come to light that Clark hadn’t been paying the mortgage, and the house was about to be lost to the bank.
Although Audrey had been stunned and heartbroken, she’d pulled herself together and decided to return to her hometown in Maine.
Michelle Lowe, Audrey’s daughter, had decided to move to Coral Sands along with her mother earlier in the year.
While Audrey had been dealing with the heartbreak of Clark’s betrayal, Michelle had been reeling from the blow of being fired from her job at a travel agency.
Michelle had loved her job, finding it rewarding to be able to help people find a place to relax and find peace, but her company had put forth a lot of misleading advertising.
When she’d called them out on it, stating that it should be changed because it was dishonest, she’d been fired.
Both Audrey and Michelle had wanted to get away from the city and start their lives over somewhere new, and Coral Sands had offered the perfect sanctuary for them.
I know having this adventure of ours helps, Elaine thought cheerfully. Starting our hotel has been a lot of work, but it’s also been a lot of fun. It’s always good to be able to direct your hope and courage toward something, especially after heartbreak.
The three women had decided to turn the Sutton family mansion, which Elaine had been living in alone for the past several years after the death of her husband, into a historical site and hotel.
The mansion was nearly as old as the town of Coral Sands itself, and it was well-stocked with whimsical antiques and special historical items. In addition to that, it was a gorgeous building that had been kept in good repair.
It offered spacious rooms with large windows, a grand staircase, a cozy yet elegant parlor, and a kitchen that was both functional and charming.
Although the hotel was legally operational, they were still putting the finishing touches on many of the rooms. They’d deep cleaned most of the mansion in the spring and started to pick out decorations, but the house was vast and the work had begun to feel a little never-ending.
That hadn’t dampened their spirits in the slightest, but it had served to change the timeline of their grand opening.
Some rooms, like the one Elaine had just finished painting, had proved to be more challenging than others.
They’d found a leak in one of the upstairs bedrooms, a mouse nest in another, and a floorboard that creaked so loudly it could be heard across the house in another.
They’d worked together cheerfully, hiring local handymen for all the jobs they didn’t feel up for handling themselves.
This room is nearly ready, Elaine thought, looking around and taking a deep, satisfied breath. I can’t wait until we can put the paintings back on the walls and cover the bed with that green and white handmade quilt. This room is going to be some woman’s dream vacation oasis.
She thought with a smile of the name they’d chosen for their hotel, The Birchwood House. She felt that it sounded inviting, elegant, and homey all at the same time. She couldn’t wait to have tourists staying in all of the rooms, filling the house with more laughter and conversation.
She grabbed a damp cleaning rag and carefully wiped some of the paint from her hands, looking around the room.
It had been transformed, and the makeover did her heart good.
The mansion had felt so empty for so many years, before Audrey and Michelle had arrived and had the brilliant idea to breathe life back into the old place.
Elaine felt tears of happiness spring into her eyes as she reflected that it wasn’t just the mansion that Audrey and Michelle had breathed new life into.
Their arrival in the mansion had not only brought excitement and joy back into the house, but it had given Elaine a new sense of vibrancy in her own life.
She felt more open to the possibilities of life that she’d formerly felt had long passed her by.
They make me feel years younger, she thought, cleaning the last traces of paint off her hands with the rag. I can’t imagine not having them here. They bring out the best in me, and it seems we’re always getting excited over the little things together.
She chuckled. Audrey and Michelle helped make life feel like a celebration every day.
The three of them rejoiced over new flavors of tea, delicious new recipes, rediscovered paths in the woods by the ocean, and even in the lovely little things that were repeated every day, like the scent of the lavender vanilla soap in the bathroom and the way the lights of the mansion glowed warmly across the garden at twilight.
Elaine noticed that one of the windows of the room had closed itself partially, since the windows were old and didn’t stay lifted as well as they had in the past. Since the room was full of the inevitable fumes of drying paint, she’d opened the windows when she’d started painting, letting in the fresh summer air.
She walked over to the window and lifted it up again, using an old, dried paint can to keep it propped open.
She shook her head, smiling a little as she thought to herself that she would have to add this window to her list of “Not Urgent, But Eventually Should Get Done” repairs. The list seemed to grow every day!
Once the window was propped open, she opened the door of the room and stepped out into the hallway. She could hear Audrey and Michelle’s voices coming clearly from the parlor downstairs.
“Are you sure it’s safe to go up on that rung?”
“Yes, Mom, I go up this high on ladders all the time.”
“Does that mean it’s safe, though? I think a lot of people go up on ladders higher than they’re supposed to.”
Elaine heard Michelle laugh as she descended the staircase.
“That may be true, Mom, but don’t worry about it. I’m being careful. And look, the couch is right there. If disaster strikes and I tumble off this ladder, I’ll just land on those cushions. See? No worries.”
Elaine paused in the doorway of the parlor to watch her daughter and granddaughter. Audrey was standing at the base of a ladder, steadying it as Michelle climbed it with a long curtain rod in her hands.
“Okay, here I go,” Michelle said, almost under her breath as she focused on attaching the curtain rod to its hooks. “And three, two—”
“Don’t you think that end is a little higher than this end?” Audrey asked, wrinkling her nose in concern.
Michelle let out a huff of frustration so exaggerated it was comical. “No, Mom, they’re perfectly straight.”
“But there’s no way you can tell that while you’re up there on the ladder,” Audrey pointed out.
“And there’s no way you can tell either because of how close you’re standing to the ladder—breathing down my neck,” Michelle retorted, letting out a half-playful, half-genuine groan of frustration.
“I’m just looking out for you, honey,” Audrey said. “Just like I’ve always done since you were a tiny girl. I don’t want you to fall off and break something, now do I?”
“Well, of course not, but you know I concentrate better without a lot of interruptions.”
Elaine, who had been leaning in the doorway watching them bicker affectionately, laughed. “Sounds like we’re all getting a bit ‘hangry.’ I know I’m starving after all that painting. Why don’t we go to The Brick Oven for some dinner?”
“Oh yes, please,” Michelle said immediately.
“I would love that,” Audrey said, and Michelle swiftly locked the curtain rod into place while her mother was momentarily distracted.
“There!” Michelle said triumphantly. “Look at that, Mom. It’s perfectly straight. Isn’t it, Grandma?”
Elaine chuckled. “It looks great to me. It’s not exactly perfect, but once we get some curtains on it, no one will ever notice.”
Michelle’s mouth popped open in dismay, but Audrey reached up to squeeze her hand, laughing.
“She’s right. You did a great job, honey. Let’s go get some pizza and celebrate the fact that we’re basically ready to put up those new curtains.”
Michelle descended the ladder, hopping the last two feet with a flourish. “You guys get pizza. I’m getting alfredo with meatballs and garlic bread smothered in mozzarella cheese.”
“Oh, we should all get garlic bread,” Elaine said. “And how about we split two pizzas and an entrée of alfredo and meatballs? Because that sounds amazing to me too, Michelle.”
“Perfect,” Michelle agreed, and Audrey nodded.
“I love this plan,” Audrey said. “Give me five minutes to put on something other than these old jeans and t-shirt, and I’ll meet you outside.”
“Same,” Elaine and Michelle echoed together.
Laughing, they ascended the staircase together, on their way to their respective closets.
Elaine thought with a glow in her heart that Audrey and Michelle had brought so much possibility and joy back into her day-to-day life.
In the past, if she’d wanted to go out to dinner, she would have waited until one of her friends had an evening free to go with her, or she might have ordered takeout and eaten it alone at home.
She knew plenty of people who enjoyed eating out alone at restaurants, but she herself wasn’t one of them.
Being able to go get food with two people she loved on the spur of the moment filled her with happiness—and being able to order multiple options together was a particularly nice bonus.
She paused at the top of the staircase to look out the landing window.
Below her, the grounds of The Birchwood House were dappled with late afternoon sunlight.
Elaine’s heart lifted up and danced in her chest. She couldn’t wait for their dinner that night, and she couldn’t wait for all the days that would come after it.