Chapter 24

TWENTY-FOUR

Maybe next fall, Emily would offer hand-painted ceramic pumpkins on her website. She’d received a record number of comments on the Instagram post where she shared pictures of the ones on her front porch from people asking where to buy them. She’d even brought a few over to her grandmas’ last night as a housewarming gift. The pumpkins were fun to paint and not that time-consuming, but they might be a headache to ship.

Emily had been brainstorming all week, coming up with new ideas and ways to increase her income. She was determined to get her profits up by the end of the year. Maybe if she channeled Diana’s confidence and decided failure wasn’t an option, she’d succeed.

But she couldn’t help worrying that nothing she’d done with her shop was enough, that the income from her art would remain too little to live on, that Emily would end up having to keep her part-time job at the inn to make ends meet.

With a sigh, she leaned back in the love seat on her porch, watching Jack as he fluttered from perch to perch, chattering to the other birds in the forest. Diana hadn’t even been gone twenty-four hours yet, and already Emily missed her like crazy. She’d heard how lovesick she sounded last night when she told her grandmothers about the new woman in her life.

She hadn’t necessarily planned to tell them—given she didn’t know what would happen when Diana left town—but once she was in their kitchen, and they were begging to know everything they’d missed, she hadn’t been able to hold it in. Naturally, her grandmothers were thrilled for her and already asking when she’d bring Diana over for dinner.

Right now, Diana should be at her meeting at the hotel in Maryland. Tomorrow, she’d be back in Crescent Falls, but in another week, she’d be gone for good. She’d suggested they could still see each other after she was back in Boston, but in her heart, Emily knew she wasn’t meant for a long-distance relationship.

And her heart was a problem, because right now, it ached in a way that meant Diana had already claimed a piece of it. Emily was falling for her. Truthfully, she’d been falling since that night in June. At this point, she’d already fallen, and now Diana was ready to move on and conquer the next thing on her list.

She might be willing to try things long distance, but was there any hope of Diana settling in Crescent Falls someday? Because this cottage was Emily’s home. It would always be her home. What had she been thinking, getting involved with Diana right at the end of her time in Vermont? Now it was only going to hurt even more when she left.

From the table, Emily’s phone started to ring with an unfamiliar Vermont number. “Hello?”

“Hi, is this Emily Janssen?” a male voice asked.

“Yes, it is. ”

“Hi, Emily. This is Nikolai from the Vermont Avian Sanctuary. You’ve been on the waitlist to surrender a rehabilitated song sparrow. Do you still have him?”

Emily blinked in surprise. Jack flew by, twittering so loudly that Nikolai probably heard him through the phone. “Yeah, I still have him. He’s with me right now, actually.”

Nikolai laughed. “Thought I heard a sparrow. Well, I have good news for you. The avian flu outbreak has been contained, and we have room for him in our songbird habitat. You could bring him as soon as tomorrow.”

“Tomorrow. Wow.” Emily swallowed. For the last six months, Jack had kept her company on her back porch. His happy chirps were the soundtrack to her evenings. She was going to miss him so much.

“Is Monday better?” Nikolai asked.

“Yeah. Monday sounds great. Thank you.”

Emily ended the call and sat dejectedly on her porch for a few minutes, watching Jack fly around the space. He deserved this. He’d be so happy at the sanctuary in a huge enclosure full of real trees and other songbirds to hang out with. No matter how much she enjoyed his company, she couldn’t keep him here just to make herself happy.

Just like she couldn’t keep Diana here just to make Emily happy.

Diana and Jack both deserved to stretch their wings and fly as far as they could go. If only Emily could do the same. She wanted to, just like she wanted to make it to the top of the mountain. Maybe she’d stood in one place for so long, she’d become rooted to the ground. She was terrified of what might happen if she set herself free.

What if she spent the rest of her life drifting meaninglessly like her mother?

Emily’s phone rang again, this time with a call from Diana. “Hi,” Emily said as she connected it, trying to infuse false cheer into her tone. “How was the hotel?”

“It has potential,” Diana said. “Overall, it was in better shape than I’d feared. It needs a lot of cosmetic work, new paint, fresh carpet in the guest rooms, that kind of thing. But the property itself has solid bones, and it’s in a great location, plus the existing staff is very competent. The current owners want to stay on to manage it. They just don’t want the financial responsibility of ownership any longer. I think it’s a good investment.”

“That’s awesome,” Emily said. “So you’re going to make an offer?”

“I am. I’ll finish putting my offer together this weekend and send it in on Monday.” She paused. “Are you okay? You sound…sad.”

Emily flinched. She hadn’t expected Diana to notice anything was wrong. “I’m a little bummed out, yeah. I just got a call that the sanctuary is ready to take Jack. So it’s great news, really, I’m just going to miss him.”

“Aww, that is good news. Will you be able to visit him there?”

“I think so, yeah.”

“Good. Listen, my cab’s pulling into the airport, so I’m going to have to let you go. Call me later?”

“Yep. Safe travels.”

“Bye, Emily.”

She ended the call, watching as Jack landed on top of his cage, chirping at the top of his little lungs. In a week, both he and Diana would have left Crescent Falls behind. Everyone around her was succeeding, and Emily wanted that for herself too. She wanted it so much, but it still felt beyond her grasp.

On Monday, Diana accompanied Emily to the bird sanctuary. It was an interesting facility, with various enclosures housing owls, hawks, eagles, and other birds. She’d never seen a bald eagle before and was awed by its size and elegance. Jack had fluttered right into his new cage when they arrived, already calling out to the other birds at the facility.

“He can go into the songbird enclosure after he completes a thirty-day quarantine period,” Nikolai had explained. “But you’re both welcome to visit the enclosure today to see where he’ll be living.”

So now they sat side by side on a bench inside a large building similar to a greenhouse. Trees grew throughout, and a manmade stream ran through the middle of the enclosure. All around them, birds chattered and sang. It looked like bird heaven to Diana. If a bird couldn’t be released into the wild, surely this was the next best thing.

“This will be a wonderful home for him,” Diana said.

Emily smiled, but her eyes were sad. “It will be. I can’t wait to come back and visit him once he’s in here with the other birds.”

“He won’t be hard to spot.” Diana had never seen a bird fly in spirals the way Jack did.

Emily managed a small laugh. “No, he won’t.”

“And now that you don’t have a bird at home to take care of, maybe you’d like to spread your wings too?” Diana asked, testing the waters. “Maybe visit me in Boston?”

“I’d like that,” Emily said with a soft smile.

They sat in the bird enclosure for a few more minutes before walking back to the car. Diana kept checking her phone, even though she knew it was probably too soon to have heard back from the current owner of the Cornflower Hotel. She’d sent in her offer first thing this morning, so at any moment, she could be the owner of two boutique hotels.

She couldn’t wait.

It had taken her some time to adjust to this new life, to mourn the dream she’d given up and embrace a new path for herself, but she’d done it. She was so excited about Aster’s future, about her future. It might be a decade or more before Aster reached its full potential, but this would be a more fulfilling career trajectory for her than being the CEO of Devlin Hotels.

With Aster, Diana could focus on the boutique hotels she loved the most. She would create the corporate culture she wished she’d had at Devlin Hotels. She wanted to fill her company with individuals as diverse and unique as the hotels she purchased. Now that she was taking the next step, purchasing her next hotel, she felt reinvigorated.

With Emily at her side, Diana felt like taking on the world.

On Tuesday afternoon, Diana and Emily were curled on the couch in Emily’s cottage together, kissing, when Alex texted to say that Thursday’s hike to the summit had been postponed because the weather forecast called for pouring rain. They probably wouldn’t be able to take their group hike until sometime next week, and by then, Diana would have left Vermont.

“I’ll come back for the hike,” she told Emily. “I want us to do this together.”

“Promise?” Emily asked, something unexpectedly vulnerable in her tone .

“Of course,” Diana told her. “We’re going to hike to the summit together.”

Emily blew out a breath. “I just worry about what’s going to happen once you?—”

She was interrupted by Diana’s cell phone, which was ringing with an incoming call from Andre Winters, the owner of the Cornflower Hotel. Excitement burst through Diana’s system. This was it, the call she’d been waiting for. “Hang on. I’ve got to take this.” She connected the call. “Diana Devlin.”

“Diana, hi. It’s Andre Winters from the Cornflower Hotel.”

“It’s great to hear from you, Andre.” Her stomach twisted, anxiety overtaking excitement as she registered his tone, which sounded vaguely apologetic.

“I wish I was calling with better news, but I wanted to let you know that we accepted an offer that unfortunately wasn’t yours.”

“Oh.” Her mind went blank, her skin numb. She’d thought she had this in the bag. “I’m sorry to hear that.”

“To be frank, Devlin Hotels offered more money,” he said.

Diana sucked in a breath. Devlin Hotels? She’d lost this purchase to her own family? The Cornflower Hotel should have been too small to be on their radar. She’d had no idea they even put in an offer. Was it an unfortunate coincidence, or had they done this to spite her? Harrison’s angry phone call last week echoed in her ears.

“We were also concerned that your business is just too new,” Mr. Winters continued. “We were afraid that in the long run, you wouldn’t be able to deliver on all the things you promised. It felt risky. This hotel is important to us, and we feel more secure with a trusted name like Devlin Hotels.”

“Right,” Diana murmured. “Well, thank you for letting me know. I appreciate your time and consideration.” She ended the call, staring blankly out the window.

“Bad news?” Emily asked.

“I didn’t get the hotel in Maryland.” Diana swallowed roughly. “They sold to Devlin Hotels instead.”

“Oh, Diana. Goddammit, that’s awful. I’m so sorry.”

“Thank you.” Her mind was already scrambling to come up with next steps. If she didn’t secure a second property by the end of the year, she would fall significantly behind her first quarter goals for Aster. What if this happened again? What if her father’s company kept swooping in behind her to offer more money?

She hadn’t seen this coming. Now she felt blindsided, a feeling that had always been her undoing. This year had already knocked her down so many times. She’d been counting on this win. Her eye twitched with a level of anxiety she hadn’t felt in weeks.

Diana stared at the phone clutched in her hands as if a solution would magically appear. It didn’t. This wasn’t a devastating setback, but it was a demoralizing one. She’d done what she always did and gotten overconfident, already making plans for the new hotel before she’d secured the purchase.

“Hey, are you okay?” Emily rested a hand over Diana’s.

She nodded, then shook her head, reminding herself not to hide her feelings from Emily. “I will be. I just…I need to regroup.”

“Okay.”

Diana had planned to spend her evening with Emily, to enjoy a leisurely dinner on the back porch. She’d hoped it would be a celebratory dinner, but now…she felt uncharacteristically gloomy. Irrationally disappointed. And uncomfortably unsettled. She needed to sit with her laptop and go over the data. She needed to come up with a plan to better position her business to compete with Devlin Hotels. She hadn’t anticipated that they’d go after the same properties, at least not right off the bat. Of course, she’d known it might happen on occasion, but now she had to consider that her family wanted her to fail.

She stood. “I need to look over some things on my computer.”

Emily nodded. “Want to do something tomorrow? Maybe a hike if it’s not raining yet?”

Diana couldn’t think about hiking right now. Everything in her was focused on her business and getting things back on track. “I think I may actually head back to Boston a few days early.”

Emily recoiled, crossing her arms over her chest. “What about me? Us?”

Diana gave her a questioning look. “This has nothing to do with us. I already told you I’d be back next week for the rescheduled hike. In fact, I’d love for you to come to Boston with me for the weekend. Will you?”

Emily’s chin went up. “I’m working at the inn this weekend.”

“Then I’ll see you next week for the summit hike. But right now, I need to go home and regroup. I need to sit in my office and figure out next steps.”

“Please don’t run away from me because you got bad news,” Emily whispered, her eyes glossy.

“I’m not running away.” Diana pushed a hand through her hair. She heard the frustration in her voice, but she didn’t understand why Emily was making a big deal about this. Diana just needed to go home a few days earlier than planned. Right now, she was reeling from what her father had done. She couldn’t focus on anything else. “I told you I’m coming back next week.”

“What if you don’t, though? I just…I thought we had more time. If you leave now…” Emily shook her head. “I’m afraid that once you’re back in Boston, everything will be different. Either we’ll drift apart, or we’ll get frustrated trying to visit each other. I feel like you’re hoping that eventually I’ll decide to move to Boston, and that’s not going to happen.”

Now Diana felt the first prickling of anger, because she couldn’t believe Emily was doing this, right now of all times. “Actually, I was never under any illusion that you would leave this town. I was just willing to take whatever part of you I could have.” Her voice wavered at the end, and she clenched her jaw to keep her hurt feelings at bay. Why didn’t Emily think Diana was worth the effort of at least trying to make this work? Diana was ready to fight for their relationship, and Emily was already throwing in the towel. “I never expected you to move to Boston. If we’re being totally honest here, it feels like you were hoping I’d decide to move to Vermont to be with you, and that’s not going to happen either.”

Emily turned away, mumbling something under her breath as she headed for the back door.

“What was that?” Diana raised her voice. “Dammit, Emily, don’t pick a fight with me and then walk away. If you have something to say, just say it.”

Emily spun, her cheeks glistening with tears. “I said…maybe I was. Deep down, maybe I was hoping you’d stay, and now I realize how stupid that was. ”

“It’s not stupid, but my life is in Boston. It always has been.”

“And mine will always be here.”

“Then what are we doing right now?” Diana flung her hands out in frustration. “We’ve only just started dating. We haven’t even tried long distance yet. I love being with you, and I want to keep being with you, but you have to be willing to meet me halfway here.”

“I just…I want…” Emily’s voice broke, her chin quivering. “I need more than that. I think I need more than you’re willing to give.”

“Then I guess it’s time for me to go.” Pain surged in Diana’s chest. Was this just a fight or were they breaking up? She didn’t have enough relationship experience to know, and she didn’t handle uncertainty very well. Still, she had a sense that if she pushed for an answer now, Emily would end things definitively, and Diana couldn’t face that reality yet.

She took a deep, shaky breath, forcing the pain into a place she could deal with once she was at home. Then she picked up her purse and headed for the door. “Goodbye, Emily.”