Chapter Fourteen
Saturday, 4 th November
Rico was nursing a sore head – he’d sunk way too much beer last night – when his phone vibrated on the kitchen table. Ah. Dad. He’d been expecting this. It was a text: Will be with you at 10.30. That sounded like a man on a mission, didn’t it? None of your ‘would it be okay if I came for a day or two?’ Of course, Lakeside was Dad’s hotel and he was entitled to come any time he wanted to, but the abrupt announcement was out of character. Change was coming and Dad was feeling it.
He glanced up at Stacy, who was scrolling around on her phone too. ‘Dad’s approaching at speed. ETA half an hour, so he’s well on his way. I had a feeling he might want to see the place again before we start knocking walls down.’
‘I guess it’s his last chance for that. Is he okay?’
‘Not sure, to be honest. Shall we all have lunch together? You might be able to distract him.’
Stacy shook her head. ‘Make it coffee when he arrives. I guess Ralph needs to say his goodbyes to the hotel and his old life. He can do that best alone with you, so I’ll leave you to it. Kim and I are going to St Gallen later, anyway, and I won’t be back until latish.’ She smiled vaguely and left him alone with his coffee.
Rico slumped over the table. Heck. That hug after the lift incident had a lot to answer for. He’d been stupid, grabbing her like that. He stared into his coffee cup. She’d let Martin hug her. That rankled, though admittedly Martin hadn’t scooped her into his arms in the quite same way he had. And now Dad was coming for a day or two of nostalgia and memories and somehow, that sounded like a major challenge. But maybe it would do him and Dad good to spend some time together before the Lakeside Hotel vanished forever and the Lakeside Hotel and Spa was born.
Ralph arrived punctually, and Rico met him at the front door.
‘Welcome to the building site. You’ll notice a few differences already.’
Ralph stepped in and they exchanged their usual man-hug and slap on the shoulder. ‘It’s good to be back, son. And yes, I see.’ He gazed around the empty hallway, his face sombre, then lifted the weekend bag he’d dropped to greet Rico. ‘Let’s go up before you give me the grand tour.’
Rico took the bag from him. ‘First off, you’ll be pleased to hear you can improve your health at Lakeside already. The lift’s dead and they won’t be here to fix it until Tuesday. Poor Stacy got stuck in it yesterday.’
Ralph rolled his eyes. ‘And you think I wouldn’t manage to carry my bag up?’
At least Dad was still joking. Rico bridged the tramp up to the flat by asking about Ralph’s brother Guido and his wife Julia, who ran a boatyard just outside Lugano. The family had originally come from the Ticino, so Dad had returned to his roots.
Upstairs, Stacy was in her room with the door firmly shut. Rico showed Ralph into the spare room and left him to unpack.
He tapped on Stacy’s door on his way back to the kitchen. ‘Coffee in five?’
‘Lovely.’
He and Ralph were sipping cappuccinos when she appeared in the kitchen doorway, her face apprehensive.
‘Good to see you again, Ralph – I hope you don’t mind me being in the room that used to be yours?’
Rico hid a smile when his father rose and gave her an oddly quaint and typically continental bow. ‘Of course I don’t mind. My room – my home – is in Lugano now.’
Stacy accepted a mug and sat down opposite Rico. ‘I’m sure part of you is still here at Lakeside.’
They chatted for a few minutes about the renovations, then Stacy left them to it. Rico wilted. Well. She hadn’t been kidding about leaving him and Ralph alone to say goodbye to the old hotel. They’d had twelve minutes of her company.
Ralph drained his mug. ‘Come on. You can give me the pre-build tour, and you can tell me what the hell’s going on here, too.’ He strode to the door, leaving Rico gaping after him.
He clattered downstairs after Ralph. ‘What do you mean, what’s going on?’
They emerged in the front hall, and Ralph gave him a look. ‘I mean why you’re moping around like a kid that Santa forgot, and why Stacy’s barely looking at you. What happened?’
They went through to the small conference room and perched on the windowledge, as all the chairs were gone. Rico stirred a dust bunny on the floor with one foot.
‘I really like her, Dad. Problem is, it’s not reciprocated.’
Ralph frowned. ‘She broke her engagement before coming here, didn’t she? It’s early days for her to be thinking about someone else, Rico.’
‘I know, but…’ He swallowed, then continued with the story of the malfunctioning lift, his attempted hug of Stacy, then Martin’s.
Ralph was silent, then he slapped Rico’s shoulder. ‘Okay. For what it’s worth, here’s what I’d do. First of all, I’d forget trying to change Stacy’s mind for the moment. You’d only push her further away, as you’ve seen already. Secondly, I would apologise for that hug, it sounds as if you stepped over a line there. And thirdly, I’d be very neutral – in a friendly way, of course – with her for the foreseeable. And if her feelings for you don’t change over the next year, I would give up altogether and let her go. She’ll either be interested at some point or she won’t, but you can’t rush anything. Now, let’s have a look at the rest of this place.’
‘Okay. Thanks, Dad.’ Rico went to the office for the newest set of plans, and started the tour. Let Stacy go altogether? Impossible. But the rest of what Dad had said sounded like good advice.
***
Kim tucked her hand through Stacy’s arm. They were walking through the old town in St Gallen, where she was pointing out the projecting alcoves attached to the front of some of the traditional old buildings. Stacy was obligingly fascinated, and stopped several times to take photos.
‘I’ve been here twice before, and I never noticed these. They’re fabulous.’
‘It’s amazing how seldom we look up, isn’t it? A lot of people miss them entirely.’ Kim beamed up at the houses. ‘This is lovely, isn’t it, just the two of us!’
Stacy stopped to look at a shop window. ‘I guess you don’t get much time off, with the boys being small.’
‘I’ll have even less soon. Tobias is going on a three-day training course in London tomorrow, then when he starts in his new position in December, he’ll have days-long visits to the States every few months. I’m not sure I’m looking forward to that.’
‘Well, you’re here with your new babysitter. I’m happy to help.’
Kim squinted at her. ‘No offence, Stacy, but it would be quite nice if you could learn to communicate with them before I leave you in charge of the kids.’
Stacy laughed. ‘I’d better be your fastest German student ever, then! Seriously, are you okay about Tobias’ new job? It sounds as if it’s going to restrict you quite a lot.’
Kim shrugged. ‘We’ll all need to adjust. We’ve agreed I’ll stop doing nail clients for the time being, and that will take the most getting used to, but it’s only for two years. I’ll start again when both boys are at school and kindergarten.’
Stacy was squeaking with indignation. ‘You shouldn’t have to give up your work like that if you don’t want to. Sorry – that was a gut reaction. I guess you do want to?’
‘In a way. Tobias earns so much more, and it’s not as if I have a high-powered job. I’m not losing any chances by staying at home for a year or two.’
Stacy looked sceptical. ‘That’s not the point. You’re giving up work that you love, and Tobias isn’t. It doesn’t seem fair.’
Kim squeezed Stacy’s arm against her side. ‘I’m still available for friends and family, don’t worry!’
‘I was going to ask if you’d be interested in the beauty therapy job going at the hotel.’
Kim sighed. ‘Right job, wrong time. But enough about my woes. Tell me what’s going on in your life.’
Stacy gazed heavenwards, and this time it wasn’t to admire the alcoves. ‘You’d better put your agony aunt hat on, then.’
Kim grinned at her. ‘Agony aunt hat in place. Shoot.’
And oh, if only she could take the job at the hotel. Kim shivered. She was thinking that, but faced with the reality of a job offer, working away from home felt like a step too far for the moment. Eli’s accident had turned both her and Tobias into nervous wrecks, as far as their children were concerned.
***
It was after ten when Stacy arrived back at Lakeside. She and Kim had shopped until they dropped – into chairs at the pizzeria. The pizzas were fabulous and the film they’d gone to afterwards was good too, once you got used to having both German and French subtitles zipping over the bottom of the screen. It had given them an idea, too. When her German was a little better, she could watch a TV film in German with subtitles for the deaf in German – that would help her understand speech.
Upstairs, Rico was watching TV in the living room, but he switched the sound off when she went in.
‘Dad’s gone to bed. He was exhausted after all the stair-climbing he did today!’ He indicated his half-full wine glass. ‘Want one?’
He was more cheerful; having his father here had done him good already. Stacy swerved past her usual corner of the sofa, and went to sit on the armchair. It was awful, the way she felt so uneasy with him now, after yesterday’s OTT hug and her shoving him away like that. But he seemed to have put it behind him, so she should, too.
‘A small one. I had a glass with dinner.’
Rico poured her half a glass of wine, then raised his own to clink hers. ‘Stacy, I’m really sorry about yesterday. You know, grabbing you like that when we got you out of the lift. I let the worry about the project get on top of me, and a dead lift felt like the last straw. It’s no excuse for squashing you half to death, but it won’t happen again.’
Stacy sipped to give herself time to think. That was a bit of an about turn, but it had sounded genuine, and he was leaning back looking pretty relaxed – she would give him the benefit of the doubt.
‘No problem. And at least we don’t need the lift to start the build on Monday. It’ll be good for us, not having it.’
He laughed. ‘It will. How was your film?’
Stacy replied, and they chatted about films, and help – this was like talking to a different person. For a wild moment she felt like saying, who are you and what have you done with Rico? But this was what she’d wanted from him, wasn’t it? Friends only. And she should do her bit too.
She sipped her wine. ‘What did your dad think of the new plans?’
Rico’s face fell a mile and a half. ‘Oh, he approves the plans on paper, but I could see he was struggling with the thought that the place is going to change so much. He and Mum ran Lakeside for decades, and now that part of his life is over.’
‘Do you think he regrets agreeing to the project?’
‘I think he regrets letting Lakeside get into the state it was in, but that was my fault too. If Dad had kept on with Mum’s regime, and if I’d been here more for him, all this might never have happened.’
Stacy was silent. In a way, the spa project was her fault too. She’d been the one to push Rico into considering it seriously last summer. What if it wasn’t successful? What if they all ended up regretting it and hating each other? Hell. But there was no stopping the project now.
She tilted her chin up. ‘We have to make sure the new Lakeside is a success. For your dad, and in memory of your mum.’
Rico gave her a sad smile. ‘That’s a nice thought, thank you. And now I think I’ll go to bed. We won’t see much of you tomorrow – Dad and I are going to our cousins up the Rhine Valley for the day. He’s setting off for Lugano from there, which means I’ll be coming back in the train.’
He gave her one of those new calm-Rico smiles, and exited the living room, taking his wine glass with him.
Stacy was left with a silently flickering television. Well, no sign of him being lovestruck tonight, was there? Which was a good thing, of course. Yes.