Page 8 of Happier Days (Family Life in Somerley #1)

CHAPTER EIGHT

Stella Broadhurst sat down at the kitchen table, popping her mug of coffee on the coaster next to her laptop.

She opened it and set it up in readiness for her call.

In a couple of minutes, she would be chatting to her eldest son online.

Since Noah had fled the nest, she spoke to him at least once a week, making the effort to keep her family in close contact even though there were miles between them.

Home was a converted barn on a quiet lane, three miles from the business she and her husband, Max, had built almost from the ground up.

Sapphire Hotel had been a labour of love from the get-go.

The run-down establishment hadn’t been open for years, and when they’d first stepped inside, the words ‘money pit’ coming to mind, they were overwhelmed with what needed to be done.

There was rain coming into three of the bedrooms upstairs, carpets were threadbare, some windows broken, and a horrible smell of damp throughout.

But, going home that evening, they’d talked it through. A survey came back to say the building was structurally sound, so, after deciding to tackle it bit by bit over a period of years, she and Max had shared a vision that eventually turned into reality. Sapphire Hotel was something to be proud of.

And yet it didn’t feel that way anymore.

She and Max had intended it to be a business to pass down from generation to generation, but since their son, Dan, had died, their family had fractured.

Some days, Stella didn’t see the point of it all now that one of them was gone, and since then another had left to work elsewhere.

Cara, she could understand as she’d always had a love of books, and it made sense for her to live in London where most of the publishing industry was based.

But Noah had been a shock. Two months after Dan’s funeral, he’d mentioned sheepishly that he’d got a similar role in Scotland.

Eliza had told her that he couldn’t take the gloom anymore.

Before Dan’s death, there had been five siblings, four of them working at the hotel.

Noah was the eldest and had been the hospitality manager, looking after the kitchen and restaurant mostly.

Eliza lived at the hotel, while her daughter, Willow, had gone to work in Manchester.

Eliza was one of the management team, too, and the only one relying on an income from the family business.

Dan had been the entertainment manager. Events had suffered as no one wanted to arrange them, nor take part in them.

Some weeks, months even, Stella would give anything not to own the hotel. Other weeks, she relished the challenges it brought to her, and the returning guests made it all worthwhile.

This week, there would be a new girl in town for a month. Well, not exactly new as she’d been to Sapphire Lake before. And she wasn’t a girl but a thirty-eight-year-old woman who Stella hoped would help to turn things around.

Stella recalled the last time she’d seen Ava.

She and Jack had dashed off for a walk on the evening before Ava was due to leave.

Stella had watched them from an upstairs window, running across the grass towards the lake, Jack reaching for Ava’s hand.

She’d laughed because everyone knew how much they liked each other.

It was written on their faces when they were together.

Stella had been sad when the Wilton family hadn’t come back the following summer.

Watching Jack moping around, trying not to show his heart was breaking had been terrible.

She’d told him to search Ava out, find her address from the people who rented the cottage, but he hadn’t wanted to follow it up.

Perhaps he thought she’d moved on from him and was worried about rejection.

Maybe today they would find out. Stella couldn’t wait.

It still wouldn’t bring her family back together, though. Selfishly, she wanted them all in one place. At least she had Eliza and Jack to see whenever she wanted.

The computer gave out its connecting signal, and Noah’s face appeared on the screen. Stella clicked on the mouse to join him.

At forty-three, Noah had the look of a younger Max, although so too had Jack and Dan.

Noah and Jack each had their father’s height and build, the same full heads of dark hair and smiles that lit up a room.

Noah, however, was the joker of the family.

He was also the one his siblings went to when they had a problem. Stella missed him dearly.

This morning he was in his bedroom, sitting on the edge of the bed. He was never in the same place often. Stella had Zoomed with him from the hotel kitchen with all the banging of pots and pans in the background and sizzling of oil as something was being fried.

One time, he was in the library, turning his screen round so she could see the rows and rows of books and the comfortable armchair he was in.

Another, he’d been out in the garden showing her the views.

Often, he’d find a quiet corner in the lounge and chat to her from there.

But not once had he shown her anyone he’d met.

Stella wasn’t sure if he was staying single purposely because he knew he’d be back soon, or that he hadn’t found anyone he wanted to spend time with – or introduce virtually to his mum. She hoped it was her first thought. She couldn’t bear for him to be away for so long.

‘Hi, Mum,’ Noah said. ‘How are you and Dad doing?’

‘Same old, same old, darling,’ she replied. ‘Your dad has to take it easy and won’t, and I’m always nagging at him because of it.’

‘Some things never change.’ He chuckled. ‘I bet he’s loving all the fuss.’

‘I doubt that very much. How are things at your end?’

They chatted about this and that, and Stella drank her coffee intermittently as she listened to what Noah had to say.

She loved Zooming with him, but it wasn’t the same as seeing him every day, feeling his arms around her as he gave her a big hug.

Their family had always been tactile, until suddenly everything seemed false.

‘I meant to tell you that they’re creating a wedding venue,’ Noah said. ’They’re renovating an old barn in the grounds.’

‘That sounds good,’ Stella replied, knowing it was nothing of the sort. Extra capacity meant extra staff, or rather, the fact that her boy might get a promotion that would keep him away even longer.

As she thought it, she knew she was being selfish. If Noah chose to stay away, then she wouldn’t hold it against him.

Her thoughts wouldn’t hurt him if she didn’t speak them out loud.

Even so, it was hard not to tell him how much she missed him. His laughter booming across a room, his terrible dad dancing, and awful karaoke voice. His sense of fun. Was it too much to ask that he come back to share it with her again?

Yes, it was.

Half an hour passed in the blink of an eye. Stella sensed her son was getting restless after he’d looked at his phone a couple of times. She was about to close down their conversation when he spoke.

‘Go on, then. I know you’re dying to ask me.’

‘About what?’ She feigned mock ignorance.

‘ Met anyone nice this week? ’ he mimicked.

Stella clapped her hands with glee. ‘The way you’re teasing me means that you might have?’

Noah roared with laughter. Stella wished she could reach out to him, bring him into her arms. Feel his bulk envelop her.

‘Actually, Mum, I haven’t. But I will tell you as soon as I do.’

‘All I can say is she’d better look after you. You deserve to be happy after that cow, Tara, broke your heart.’

‘Mum!’ Noah cried. ‘Say it like it is, why don’t you?’

‘Well, you know me. If anyone goes out to hurt my family, they have me to deal with.’

The conversation filtered out, and they said their goodbyes. Noah joked about her being overprotective of him, but he was the first of her children to have a broken heart. He had an Australian ex-wife and two children, their marriage lasting eight years before there had been an amicable split.

Everything had been going fine until Tara had decided to go back to Sydney. Noah had gone to pieces, even though he’d known it could be a great opportunity for his children. Now Stella zoomed with Zak and Amber as much as she did with their dad.

Technology was wonderful at times, but it was a poor substitute for the real thing.