Chapter 39
Lily found that the preview evening for the hotel rushed past in a blur.
She had only seen Ben briefly since the beginning of the night, looking particularly handsome in his suit and tie.
He had been standing in the reception when she came down the stairs, watching her.
For a brief moment he smiled at her and the world had closed in so it had felt as if it were just them.
Then he was swallowed up by the arriving crowd and had vanished out of sight.
The crowd had grown bigger by the hour as more and more local people had arrived, to their relief. Wherever she went, there was a crush of people.
The lounge was popular as everyone took advantage of the roaring fires.
They also braved the cold night air to stand on the veranda, taking in the floating lights and oohing and aahing at the view across the lake, lit from above by the full moon.
The night was clear and crisp so the roaring fires in both the lounge and the snug made it feel cosy and warm back inside.
Everyone loved the relaxed vibe of the snug where Frankie’s delicious and thankfully not too strong cocktails went down a treat, alongside several spirited games of snooker and darts.
In the dining room, people helped themselves to the enormous amount of food that Jake had conjured up.
They asked for the chef and Jake generously pointed them in the direction of Faye, giving them the breakfast menus that she would be serving to all the hotel guests.
Hannah’s cakes too were being wolfed down with yet more praise and Lily was pleased to see her smiling and soaking up the acclaim, for once.
Having found out from Hannah that Dodgy Del had managed to bring in most of the local villagers, Lily had been thrilled that so many people were sounding so positive about the hotel.
‘It’s charming,’ they told her.
‘Amazing.’
‘So pretty.’
‘When do you open?’ she had heard someone ask.
‘We’re open as of now,’ replied Walter, in his usual bombastic manner.
Lily grimaced and hoped Ben wasn’t listening as they’d actually agreed that they wouldn’t open the hotel officially until the following week.
But, in the end, she had to agree with Walter.
Why not open the hotel up now? The beds were made, everything was ready.
She was just keeping everything crossed that the guests followed the villagers in their enthusiasm and numbers.
She had hardly seen Ben all night, such was the large number of visitors which had suddenly appeared.
And it wasn’t until he had seen the last guest out and had finally closed the front door that he joined everyone in the lounge.
Lily was sitting on the sofa, barely able to move from exhaustion.
But even then she couldn’t stop her eyes from straying to him when he came into the room.
The man sure could fill out a suit very nicely, she thought.
‘Well, that’s that,’ said Ben, sinking down next to Lily on the sofa.
‘That was an unqualified success,’ said Dotty from the opposite sofa.
‘It really was,’ agreed Lily.
‘Never a doubt in my mind,’ said Walter from his armchair. He and Ben exchanged a nod and a smile. ‘And, Alex, you did a marvellous job highlighting all the health benefits of the place.’
‘It was my pleasure,’ Alex told him. ‘I merely told them how pure the water is here to swim in.’
‘And, Walter, everyone wants to know about your floating candle holders,’ said Beth, taking off her high heels and rubbing her sore feet.
Walter nodded and yawned. ‘I know what I’m going to be doing for the next few weeks then,’ he said.
But Lily could see how pleased he was with the way the evening had gone.
‘Those travel bloggers were all talking us up,’ added Beth, giving Ella a nudge with her elbow. ‘You really got the word out to the right people.’
‘Thankfully I’m not as dumb as Jake looks,’ said Ella in an imperious tone.
Jake merely laughed off the insult.
‘Good job he cooks brilliantly then,’ said Ben, with a grin.
‘Everyone said that the food was delicious,’ added Faye.
‘I’ll never top your breakfasts,’ replied Jake, as ever refusing any praise. ‘Nor Hannah’s cakes.’
Hannah blushed before yawning as she leant against Alex’s shoulder. She had spent the evening clearing the tables of plates and dashing back and forth and was looking exhausted. Lily secretly thought that Alex seemed pleased that she was using him for support.
‘Frankie, your cocktails were delicious,’ said Hannah, before yawning once more.
‘Like I’ve always said,’ Frankie told her. ‘If you combine wine and dinner, you get winner.’
Everyone laughed.
Jake joined in with another of Hannah’s yawns. ‘Man, I’m shattered,’ he declared.
‘Well, I can’t keep my eyes open either,’ said Faye, standing up. ‘We’ll tidy up tomorrow. It’s definitely time for bed.’
‘I agree,’ said Walter.
In fact, everyone stood up apart from Lily and Ben.
‘We’ll close up down here,’ said Ben.
Hannah, Beth and Ella gave Lily a knowing smile and she could feel her cheeks beginning to grow pink.
‘Goodnight,’ they all said to each other and then it was just Lily and Ben alone in the lounge.
Someone, she suspected Hannah, had switched off the overhead lights as they left and now it was just them in the soft light of the fire, the candles which had begun to burn low and the fairy lights strung around the oak beams across the ceiling.
‘How are you?’ he asked, with a smile. ‘I think I’m still in shock.’
Lily laughed softly. ‘Actually, I’m half exhausted and the other half is totally buzzing about what a success it was. Did you get to talk to that hotel reviewer? The one with the red jacket that Ella managed to contact?’
Ben nodded. ‘Briefly. What about you?’
‘I showed her the bedrooms and she promised to come back for a proper stay very soon,’ Lily told him. ‘She seemed to have a lot of followers on Instagram.’
‘That’s great,’ he said, leaning back on the sofa and closing his eyes. ‘What a relief it went well.’
‘Absolutely,’ she murmured.
She allowed herself the luxury of looking at him, studying the dark eyelashes and handsome face as it relaxed.
She didn’t know how long she looked at him until he suddenly opened his eyes and caught her staring at him.
‘Well, we’d better start shutting everything down,’ she began to say.
But he caught her hand and stopped her from getting up from the sofa. ‘You look lovely tonight,’ he said, reaching out his other hand towards her.
She found she was holding her breath as he held a long lock of hair in his fingertips.
‘Thank you,’ she managed to murmur in reply.
‘I feel like we should somehow celebrate our success,’ he said, sitting up so that they were much closer now.
Her pulse was racing as his hand moved from the lock of hair around to the back of her neck.
‘We should,’ she managed to say.
But she could barely think of anything other than the feeling of the touch on her skin as he stroked her neck.
‘Perhaps we should have had one of Frankie’s cocktails,’ he said, leaning closer.
She shook her head. ‘Too potent,’ she whispered, unable to stop herself from leaning towards him.
‘There’s something to be said for intoxication though,’ he murmured, his face within inches of hers now.
‘There is,’ she agreed.
And just when she couldn’t bear it any longer and was about to pull him to her, he reached for her instead.
Their lips met instantly and she was lost. Powerless to stop herself from kissing him back as she wrapped her hands around his shoulders and pulled him even closer.
It began as a soft, gentle kiss. Then it grew deeper as her senses reeled with the touch of his lips and the blessed feeling of being in his arms at last. It was the kind of kiss that she had never had before. It was a kiss that she never wanted to end.
The kiss was all-encompassing, stronger and more passionate than any that they had shared so far. She didn’t know how long she stayed in his arms until finally he drew back a little.
‘I’ve waited a long time to do that,’ he told her.
They stared at each other for a moment, both a little breathless and wide-eyed, trying to comprehend what had just happened.
‘Me too,’ she replied. She couldn’t stop herself from being honest with him. She trusted him.
He leaned forward as if to kiss her once more but she put a hand on his chest to stop him.
‘Perhaps we should say goodnight,’ she found herself saying. ‘It’s been a long day.’
Despite the glorious kiss and how right it had felt in his arms, she couldn’t stop her self-defence mechanism from kicking in.
He studied her for a moment. ‘What’s wrong?’ he asked, still holding her in his arms.
‘Nothing,’ she told him. ‘I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have kissed you.’
‘It didn’t feel like you had any regrets,’ he replied, pulling back from her. ‘And I certainly haven’t got any.’
She gulped. ‘It’s just that, well, I’m no good at this kind of thing.’
He raised his eyebrows. ‘Kissing? I have to disagree with you. That was incredible.’
She was grateful for his gentle humour but felt that she had to press on. To tell him why this couldn’t continue.
‘It’s just that I’ve managed to get this far on my own,’ she told him. ‘It’s hard for me to let anyone get close.’
‘You let the girls get close,’ he reminded her, reaching out to take a lock of her red hair in his fingers once more.
‘Yes and it took me fourteen years to start to open up and be honest with them,’ she said. Her laugh was only half-hearted and she sighed heavily. How could she tell him that her fear of trusting someone with her whole heart would scupper any chance of a relationship that they might have?
Ben let go of her hair and looked at her for a moment. ‘Come on,’ he finally said. ‘We’re both shattered. But, for the record, this subject isn’t closed.’
He studied her for a moment, his brown eyes almost black in the firelight. Then he got up from the sofa and she did the same.
It didn’t take long to close down everything and soon she was lying in bed, staring up at the ceiling. But despite being exhausted, she couldn’t get to sleep, yearning for more of his kisses despite the warning voice in her head.