“Before you start?—”
“You can’t give me the B&B,” I tell her.
“I can, and I am. My signature is already on every page. All you have to do is sign, and it’s yours. Don’t wait until I die to make this place yours, Wendy.”
“We can’t?—”
She takes both my hands again and holds them tight. “Listen to me, honey. I am financially secure, and I have been for years.Your grandfather left me more than this building. He left me millions of dollars in investments that I’ve secretly managed for decades. Smart, boring ones that grew while I slept.”
I place my hand on my heart, not knowing how much of this I can take. “What?” It comes out somewhere between a laugh and a sob.
“The struggle was real. The bills were real. The stress was real. But I was never in danger of losing this place. I can withdrawal as much money as we need.”
My brows furrow. “Then why did you let me nearly kill myself, trying to rescue it, if you had the money to fix everything?”
“Because you needed to know you could do it.” Her eyes are steady. “And so did I.”
I pull my hands away. “You watched me work eighteen-hour days. You let me believe we were going under while you drank mimo?—”
“I watched you save this place with your own hands. I watched you turn the numbers around and fill every room and fight off a corporation without anyone’s help. You managed and took responsibility for this place like you were the owner. And you should be.” She reaches forward and takes my face in both hands. “I could have written a check and fixed it all, but there are lessons to be learned in the struggle. You earned this.”
The tears come again. My emotions are waging a war inside of me.
“I love you enough to let you be strong.” She wipes my cheeks with her thumbs. “Sign the papers. This place is yours. It always has been, and now it’s official.”
She sets a pen on the desk beside the documents.
“But Josie?—”
“I’ve already spoken to Josie about it. She agrees, Wendy. Her heart isn’t in Seaside. Yours is.”
I pick up the pen, and my hand trembles as I sign every page where the tabs are placed. When I’m done, Gran takes the stack and slides it back into the envelope.
“There,” she says. “I’ll have this filed this afternoon to make it official.”
“I think I’m going to be sick,” I tell her.
“Sit here. Breathe.”
She goes to the kitchen, and I stay on the couch with my hands in my lap.
The B&B is mine. The man who helped save it is gone.
Every place I look, I think of him. The front desk, the dining table, the spot by the stairs where he kissed me after Darren Calder left.
I can’t be down here.
I go to my room, close the door, and climb into bed. The sheets still smell like him from last night. I pull the comforter to my chest and let the exhaustion take me. My body and brain are done for today, and it’s not even eight. Every emotion I’ve experienced since I woke up has left me hollow, and now I’m shutting down. I sleep hard, and it’s dreamless.
When I wake up, the light in the room has changed. It’s softer, coming through the window at an angle that tells me it’s afternoon. I reach for my phone on the nightstand. It’s just past six. I’ve been out all day.
I stare out the window at the cloudless blue sky. I’m done crying, but the shock hasn’t faded. I check my phone for a text from him, but I only see one from my sister, telling me she has the worst hangover of her life. I think about texting him, but I won’t.
I climb the stairs to the third floor and walk into the Captain’s Room. The ocean fills the balcony view the way it always has. I open the door and step outside. The railing is warmfrom the late sun, and the view is the same I’ve admired all my life.
I sit in the lounge chair and close my eyes. The breeze carries the faint sound of waves, and I try to understand what went wrong.
That’s when I hear it.
