It had baffled her then. It still did.
Though there was no mystery as to why she was thinking about themnow, she acknowledged. It was December. Christmas was coming. And despite her very real and very hard feelings about the way they’d treated her—and had always treated her—try though she might, Hannah couldn’t bring herself to love them any less.
Especially at this time of year.
“Love doesn’t mean full access,” she murmured to herself. The way she often did because it was supposed to be soothing. “I can love them from afar.”
She called home every Sunday and made herself suffer through the usual stilted conversation, in which her parents acted as if she’d had their grandchild simply to spite them. She’d stopped asking them to come visit, because they wouldn’t. But Dominic deserved to know his family, she reasoned, and to make his own decisions about whether or not he wanted them in his life. She couldn’t make that decision for him.
Maybe, she liked to tell herself, she would stop calling one day. But deep down, she knew that if she did, she would never hear from them again. Something about that continued to hurt too much.
“One day,” Hannah promised herself under her breath, “it won’t hurt at all.”
One day.
But today, there were far more exciting things to think about than tired, old family dynamics.
She smoothed down the front of her dress as she walked toward the entrance to the hotel, swinging around to the front of the main building because she always liked to get a sense of the place as if it was new. As if she was a guest arriving for the first time.
The main building looked like an ancient fort built around a bell tower, though the old stone gleamed these days. The entrance itself was wide and welcoming, with evergreen displays wrapped in lights as a nod toward the season. Even looking at it made her feel peaceful.
This was how Hannah wanted the whole hotel to feel.
This was particularly how she wanted this Christmas season to feel.
And so it will, she assured herself as she walked. She adjusted her flowy, soft wool wrap on her shoulders and gripped the leather folder in her hand tightly.
La Paloma was a woman of many projects and a deep well of boredom. Or so she had told Hannah one night as they sat together in the finest suite in the hotel, which was, of course, the only place she would stay when she visited. She served only vodka gimlets and insisted that anyone who she invited to join her drink up.
And Hannah had never met anyone who argued with La Paloma.
I’ve sold the hotel, her benefactress had told her.
It had been two weeks ago now, out of the blue. But that was La Paloma.
But don’t fret, my dear girl, I have made your continuing employment condition of the sale. To tell you the truth, I think you will be delighted.
Hannah had spent a lot of time working with the older woman over the past couple of years. She was notquiteas overawed by La Paloma as she had been at the start. But that didn’t mean she didn’t maintain a healthy level of respect. This was the only reason that she didn’t respond immediately to express how extremelynot delightedshe was by this development.
This place is special to me for many reasons, La Paloma had continued, waving her gimlet in the air the way she liked to do, for drama and emphasis. Not that she ever spilt so much as a drop.Not least of which is that it was once a prize possession of my ex-husband, upon whom we wish every last thing that he richly deserves. But it is also unique in that it gave me something of a blank canvas, and I find that what I have done here has pleased me excessively. In every possible way.
She had sighed then, as if congratulating herself.I knew that I could not sell it to the typical portfolio-hoarding financier, or any other such person. It could only be a friend.
Hannah had made herself smile.With apologies, madam, but I was under the impression that you did not suffer friends.
Paloma laughed.So needy. So grasping. But no, darling, I’m a great fan of friendships that run precisely as I wish them to run. In this case, we are speaking of a local friend, who I’ve known for some time. I met him when he was very young, brash, and edgy. Now he is… How do I put this? Something of a grumpy hermit who likes his village as it is. Sleepy. Undisturbed.
Another wild swing of her drink, yet still no drop fell.
I informed him that this hotel was only going to grow in stature and desirability, and he could either fume about it, or get involved. He chose the latter.
You are very persuasive, Hannah had said.
Indeed I am, La Paloma had agreed, with a smile that might have appeared demure on someone else. On her it was nothing but an expression of power.You will meet with him when he gets back from whatever trip he’s currently on, doing whatever it is wealthy men do with their time.
But she had laughed as if she knew very well what that was.
I told him you would explain the Christmas Jubilee that you have planned and walk him through the reservations, the festivities, and all the rest. I’m sure he will wish to put his stamp on things, as all men do, but I’m also certain that he will be deeply impressed with you.
