Chapter 16
Tierney got back from her last trip to the recycling bank to find the reception area buzzing with the weekend’s guests. Kasia spotted her peering around the door and called her over. She recalled from her visits with her granny that guests were always pleased to meet a member of the Walsh family, as if it somehow made their stay at the hotel more authentic. Kasia introduced her, and she greeted them instinctively, all the while wondering how Kasia had managed over the summer season with just a handful of seasonal helpers and no Walsh family members to take control. Tierney was starting to wish she’d asked more questions after her granny had died, instead of putting aside thoughts of the island to avoid her grief. Kasia had been left in a horrible situation, and no one had seemed to care.
The work Tierney was putting in renovating the suite at the hotel was her way of trying to make amends. Kasia had earned comfortable quarters after all the work she put into running the hotel. When Kasia had talked about her granny’s rooms laying uncared for, she’d seen a hint of the same grief she was feeling, and a sense of shame had run through her.
If Peggy had been around to see how her family had treated Kasia, there would have been a lot of people going away with their tail between their legs. Her granny had been able to express the perfect level of disappointment and quiet anger that meant she’d never had to raise her voice if one of her children or grandchildren had acted badly. Her disapproval had been enough to make them instantly remorseful.
She escaped the visitors after giving them her top tips for what to do on the island and ran up the back stairs to inspect her completed project. With help from Joey, she’d removed most of Peggy’s personal items, but left a few of her most loved photographs of the island. A box of old photos and personal effects she couldn’t yet bear to get rid of went to the attic, and everything else went to the recycling bank, or to the community center to be sold in the next charity sale. She’d removed all of the worn furniture and replaced it with the almost unused furnishings from the extra rooms at the holiday cottage. Her dad would never know, and the house didn’t need so much furniture when it was rarely used.
The only thing she’d left in place was her granny’s beloved leather armchair. Old and battered but cozily comfortable, the chair featured in her last memories of her granny sitting there with her favorite blanket over her knees, looking out over the harbor from the floor-to-ceiling window. She would give Kasia the option of keeping it or moving it to the cottage. She lifted the blanket from the back of the chair and inhaled the familiar lavender scent her granny loved so much. Removing the personal items had come with a lot of tears, but she knew she was doing what her granny would have wanted, and that helped with the sense of loss.
Kasia had been banned from the rooms while the work was being done, but now she’d finished, Tierney was excited to see her reaction to her new quarters. She texted Joey. I’m done here. Come over later, and we’ll do the big reveal.
Her phone rang almost immediately. “Hey, sorry, I’ve got plans for this evening.” The line crackled. “I’m still out on the boat. Why don’t you just show Kasia? You don’t need to make a big deal of it. Just invite her to move up there.”
“Aw, we worked on it together. I wanted you to be here when she sees it.”
She couldn’t fathom what plans Joey would have more important than showing Kasia what a great job they’d done.
“I just helped haul furniture up a very narrow set of stairs. You did all the work. Just remember, Tierney, this is about giving Kasia a comfortable living space, not showing off how much work you’ve done,” Joey shouted against the background wind noise.
Tierney lifted the handset away from her face and stared at it while she let the flash of anger fade. Was that what she was doing? It wasn’t what she had intended when she started the work, but the more she’d worked to get it just right, had she lost the point of why she was doing it? She put the phone back to her ear. “Point taken. I’ll just show her and ask if she wants any changes.”
“Grand. I’ve got to go now. Let me know how it goes.” The line went dead.
Tierney wandered back down the stairs, feeling slightly deflated. Kasia was in reception looking at the booking system. “Hey, is everyone…checked in okay?” The operational details of running the hotel were a little hazy. Even when she’d stayed as a kid, it had all seemed too routine to pay much notice. Should she have been helping her granny more back then?
Kasia raised her head momentarily then went back to the screen. “Yes, thanks.”
Tierney took a deep breath and moved behind the desk. “Do you want to show me how everything works? So I can help out a bit more.”
Kasia’s head shot back up, her eyebrows raised. “Yes, of course, if you want to know.” She stood and kicked the wheeled stool toward Tierney.
Tierney didn’t want to know. She was bored at the thought of it, but she sat down at the screen, and Kasia leaned over to take the mouse.
“This overview shows all the rooms and the names of their occupants today. You can scroll through here to view other dates, or you can search by resident, like this.”
Kasia’s breath on her ear as she talked made the experience more tolerable, and she tried her hardest to focus, in case there was a test. But she was so aware of Kasia’s warmth as she leaned over not quite touching Tierney’s shoulder, but so close. A hint of apple scent was crisp and inviting, but Tierney resisted the urge to move closer. She started to imagine the feel of Kasia’s soft breast against her, and memories of their night together came flooding back.
“Are you with me so far?”
Fuck. “Uh, just go back to that last part.”
Kasia’s intake of breath was almost a hiss as she stood straight. “Why don’t you leave the room bookings to me.”
Tierney swung around. “I can do it, I swear. I just need some practice.”
Kasia’s expression went blank, but Tierney suspected it wasn’t amusement she was hiding.
“Do you cook?”
“I do!” She jumped up. “I love making enchiladas, and my lasagna gets rave reviews.”
Kasia’s expression didn’t change. “I’d need you to make breakfast, Tierney. Can you make a full Irish for twenty people?”
That didn’t sound like Tierney’s kind of cooking at all. She enjoyed a relaxed atmosphere where her friends would tease her when she realized she’d forgotten to cook the rice, and they’d all laugh and have another drink while they waited. “I guess I could give it a go.”
“Forget it. Katy will be back to help next week, anyway. She knows what she’s doing.”
The familiar sinking feeling in her stomach made Tierney question why she craved Kasia’s approval. She moved out from the cramped space, and Kasia’s distracting proximity, and leaned on the far side of the reception desk.
“I really can’t do anything to please you, can I?” She’d been aiming for wryly amused, but was mortified to hear the hurt in her tone.
Kasia’s mask dropped for a moment, and her brow creased. Could that be remorse?
Then her expression turned neutral once again. “Why would you need to please me? You’re the boss.”
Tierney rubbed her head. It was a good question, but Kasia needed to respect her if they were going to work together. “Anyway, when you’ve got some time, I’ll show you what we’ve done upstairs. If the accommodation meets your needs, you’re welcome to use it.”
Two could play at the formality game. It didn’t sit right though. She’d done the work in anticipation of pleasing Kasia, yet they were back to their previous stilted relationship. If nothing else, she’d done something her granny would be proud of.
“Thank you. I’m free now for an hour.”
“Great, lead the way.” She gestured toward the back stairs.
Kasia closed the laptop, secured the hatch to reception, and strode to the stairs, taking them two at a time. Tierney had to hurry to keep up. She nearly ran into Kasia’s back when she stopped dead as she entered the living room. She squeezed past and stood beside Kasia as she looked around wordlessly. “D’you like it?”
Kasia walked over to the large window and stared out over the harbor. A dark front of clouds was heading their way, and Tierney was surprised when her first thought was for the bed linen she’d helped hang out on the line earlier.
Kasia didn’t speak as she looked out at the vista, then she turned and moved to the leather chair, sat, and pulled the blanket from the back. She put it to her face in an echo of Tierney earlier and gave a muffled sob.
Tierney dropped to her knees next to the chair. “Is it that bad?” She cursed herself for trying to make a joke of everything.
Kasia lifted her tear-drenched face from the blanket and sniffed. “I miss her so much.”
Tierney was taken aback by the grief in her voice. “I know. I miss her too.” She wanted to brush away the tears, but that was too intimate, so she rummaged in the pocket of her hoodie and found a crumpled tissue. Echoing their first meeting on the ferry, she held it out. “In the interest of hygiene…”
Kasia cracked a smile and took it to wipe the tears and blow her nose. “Sorry, I’ve barely been up here since she’s been gone, and this…” She indicated the chair and the blanket.
“Hey, you don’t need to keep anything you don’t want to. I didn’t want to erase Granny completely, but this is your space now.”
Kasia turned her face to Tierney. “I love it. It’s perfect, thank you.”
Her nose was red and her eyes shone, but she looked as gorgeous as ever. Tierney wished she could kiss her, but that would be a very bad idea. Kasia’s pleasure at what she’d done with the rooms filled her with warmth. That would have to do. “This is your home now, as long as you want it to be.”
Kasia pulled back and sniffed again. “But only while the hotel remains open. I want to do everything I can to make sure the Waterside continues, but I don’t think it can without some investment. Please be honest with me about how likely that is.”
Tierney used the arm of the chair to haul herself up. “If we can finish off the proposal we started and it isn’t too ambitious, I think Dad may invest for the longer term. We’d need to be prepared to move on the work to be ready for next season though.”
She left out the part about her dad not being sure if he wanted to keep the Waterside. Kasia didn’t need to be worrying about that.
Kasia jumped up from the armchair, suddenly all smiles. “We have to get moving then. More Christmas visitors will be arriving next week. It’s going to be a busy time. But after that, will you still be here to help? We could start with getting quotes for the roof repairs.”
Kasia’s expression was so sincere, Tierney couldn’t help but feel pulled into her need to make the hotel work. “I’ll stay until we get this sorted, I promise.”
“Thank you, Tierney.”
When Kasia wrapped her arms around her, she tensed for a moment, then relaxed into the embrace. It felt good to be trusted, but could she live up to expectations? Could she and Kasia find a way to keep the hotel open and gain her dad’s confidence to make it sustainable for the future? She hoped so, trying to push away her dad’s voice in her head telling her she never saw anything through.