Chapter 7
J ude took his time before going back inside, checking his watch as the church bell chimed. How could it still be so early when so much had happened? He scrubbed his hands over his face, pausing as his palm rubbed his lips, still hypersensitive from Rob’s earlier kiss.
He had to get a grip and take Rob up on his strictly business offer.
He had to.
It was the only safe way forwards.
Decision made, he went back inside to find Louise in the office, another spreadsheet open on her laptop. Rob came to lean against the office doorway, adding his thoughts on the business plan on the screen until Jude turned and said, “Can you give us a minute?”
“Jude, Rob knows as much about this as I do,” Louise said. “We drew up this plan together. If I’m making changes now that you’re back—”
“For a few months,” Rob interjected.
“—for a few months, or from now on,” she insisted, “it means we need to account for the impact of your work on the figures. An extra pair of hands means I can recalculate the timeline until we can fully reopen.”
Jude’s huffed-out breath was loud enough for Rob to take the hint. He said, “I’ll be in the kitchen when you get over your tantrum, Jude. Come and find me when you’re ready to talk business like a grown-up.” The door didn’t exactly slam closed behind him, but it was a close thing.
“I’m not throwing a tantrum.” It was just all a lot to take in. So many changes to a place Jude had known forever. “I’m frustrated that you had to do this. Any of it. Without me. That’s all.”
“I know. And don’t mind Rob,” Louise said as if almost-slammed doors were nothing new to her. “He gets emotional.” She considered for a long moment. “No, not emotional…” She swivelled in her chair to face Jude. “He’s very invested.”
“I know. I heard.” Jude still couldn’t believe Rob had used his prize-winnings this way, or that Louise had willingly risked her share of their home for what seemed a high-stakes venture.
“You know there’s no guarantee of the business working, don’t you?
Did you even get legal advice before signing? ”
“Yes.” Louise faced front again and addressed an email to him.
She attached a document and pressed Send.
“There. I’ve sent you the agreement. You can read it whenever you want, but it seemed like a no-lose proposition to me.
We either make a go of it, with Rob’s help, or both of us will end up with nothing. ”
“All three of us will, you mean.”
Louise nodded. “You planned to work here all summer anyway, didn’t you? Our agreement doesn’t have to affect you.”
Apart from having to spend so much time around Rob when he was still so attracted to him.
Maybe some of that conflict was visible.
Louise took pity. She clicked back to the spreadsheet.
“Look, I hadn’t factored you coming back this summer into the projections.
” She changed some macros. “It makes a hell of a positive difference.” The graph looked much more healthy.
“With your extra manpower, we could reopen early, and I can cut down on kitchen staff costs.”
The door opened again, Rob in chef whites now, tying his apron. “You can be my kitchen porter.”
“I’m not clearing up after you.”
“I was joking.” Rob walked in to stand behind Lou, both of his hands on her shoulders, his expression conciliatory, at least. “But I’m guessing you aren’t finding much of this funny, right now.”
No, Jude really wasn’t.
“We’ve had a long time to get used to the idea,” Louise said, glancing up at Rob before wrapping her hand around Jude’s.
“I get that it’s going to take you a while to catch up, but I hope you do, Jude.
” Her gaze was as watery as it had been at the crack of dawn.
“I hope you do because Rob’s been wonderful, but having him here didn’t make up for how much I missed you. ”
Those few sips of cognac must have left Jude weak-willed. Rob said, “I missed you too,” and all of his resolve fractured.
“So, what is the plan, exactly?”
Rob deferred to Louise. “You want to talk Jude through it while I get back to the kitchen?”
“Not really,” Louise clicked on a calendar icon.
“What I actually need to do right now is finish working on the bedrooms. You didn’t think I stayed up late last night just in case you decided to come home, did you?
” She nudged Jude, her teasing so much better than her former teary smile.
“There’s still a lot to get ready before our first potential bookings.
See?” White paint spotted the back of the hand she used to click open an online booking system.
“This is when we’re scheduled to reopen.
” Jude couldn’t help but notice that every single room was vacant.
She listed chores on the rest of her fingers, also spattered with paint.
“I still need to decorate the second bathroom, finish making the last few sets of curtains, and paint Dad’s study. ”
“You’re going to turn it into a bedroom as well?” The final room off the upstairs hallway had been lined with books about sailing ever since he could recall, framed photos from his dad’s time in the Merchant Navy hanging from beams like the ones in their bedrooms.
“Yes. Boxing everything up will help speed up that process. Moving all of his stuff to the boatshed makes sense until we…. I mean until I have time to sort through it all, next winter.” She frowned.
“But only making the study habitable won’t be nearly enough, not if we’re going to charge boutique hotel prices for every bedroom. ”
“Boutique?” Jude’s face must have conveyed confusion.
“Niche,” Louise explained. “One-of-a-kind, instead of standard. Boutique hotels have something special about them,” she gestured at the window that framed a perfect picture of the harbour and green glints of Cornish water, “like their location for instance.” Then she included Rob in the conversation.
“Or having a prize-winning chef in residence, supplying fine-dining for a steep price.”
Jude didn’t like the idea of moving the contents of a room that his dad had spent so much time in, his world-tour plans likely still visible in every nook and cranny, but it sounded like Louise had already scaled that mental hurdle.
At least she’d left their parents’ bedroom untouched, thank God.
That, he couldn’t handle. “I’ll pack his study up if you want,” he offered.
“And do anything else left on your list. Tell me what else can I do for you?” Doing something physical might stop him from feeling as if he was shipboard for the first time, constantly needing to rebalance.
His glance over his shoulder was involuntary.
Rob still stood in the doorway.
Him seeming so at home here, leaning casually with his arms crossed, didn’t help to anchor Jude, not since he’d shared a little about what mattered the most to him.
Jude refocussed on the calendar instead of fixating on his surprise that people meant more to Rob than money.
Also, he had to stop staring at his mouth.
He had to. It had been a goodbye kiss, that was all, like Rob said.
“Give me plenty to do,” he got out gruffly. “I’m used to being busy.”
“I can see that.” Lou prodded his upper arm. “You left here a beanpole, but you’ve come back all muscly. Did you notice the difference in him, Rob, compared to when you were both in London? Look at the size of his shoulders!”
Jude kept his eyes fixed on the screen rather than acknowledging Rob’s rough-sounding, “Yeah. I noticed.”
Louise must have been feeling better; her teasing ramped up.
“And to think you could never get a girlfriend when you lived here. Turns out that all you needed to turn into a looker was to spend a while hauling up sails and sunning yourself on a posh yacht. I bet you had a girl in every port you sailed into, didn’t you? ”
“Something like that.” If Jude could have summoned up a storm now to act as a distraction, he would have in a heartbeat. “So, your list, Lou? What do you want me to do first?”
“Give me a bit of time.” Louise clicked out of the calendar and onto what looked like a chore list. “I hadn’t planned on having your help, so I need to think about how best to use your extra manpower.”
“I need to get back to the kitchen.” Rob made to leave, his face shadowed.
“Carl’s bringing his wife for lunch. You can help me prep for them both if you want?
I can talk you through my plans for the summer menu…
.” He was hesitant. “That is if you want to hear about it from me? Or you might want to talk to Lou about it, although I promise there’s nothing on it that she didn’t taste first and then approve.
We’re partners, so anything your sister didn’t like, we agreed to rule out together.
Now you’re back, I guess you should have the same say over what we serve. ”
His acknowledgement of Jude’s worries for Lou went a long way to reassure him, but the changes in the kitchen were still disconcerting. The door swung shut behind him as he said, “I noticed you both agreed to spend some money in here.”
“It didn’t take too much cash. I only invested in the essentials.
Picked most of it up at auction.” Rob opened the new refrigerator door.
“Like this beauty, and the range. They were both parts of a liquidation sale—someone else’s bad luck in catering was good luck for us, I suppose. Sad, but it saved us a ton of money.”