Lost and Found on Foxglove Street (The Foxglove Street #9)

Chapter 28

28

Grace was piling pastries onto a plate in Ryan’s kitchen and brewing coffee in a cafetiere when her phone pinged with an email.

Her phone was on the opposite counter, and she peered across at the screen, noting the email had come to the address she used for career and work-related matters. She saw the sender was Clive Peters, her manager at the hotel, but the rest of the notification details vanished before she could see what the email was about.

Grace paused before picking up the phone to open the email and find out more. The idea of letting work intrude on this wonderful time she was spending on holiday wasn’t an appealing one. While that notion might have been entirely alien to her until very recently, things had changed during the time she’d taken off, and she wasn’t quite ready to let work matters push their way to the fore once more.

It was her second last day off work, the sunny morning was bright and warm, and she was looking forward to enjoying whatever the day might bring. After several lovely days of visiting tourist spots around the local area, Ryan and Miriam were planning on spending the day closer to home, at Miriam’s request. Grace sensed that the older lady was feeling the effects of the busy days she’d enjoyed this week, and now needed a change of pace.

Once the morning coffee and pastries were consumed, Grace planned to leave Ryan and Miriam to their own devices for the afternoon so they could spend some proper quality time together. It was only right that Miriam should get to have her grandson to herself for a while. Grace figured she could use the time to catch up on chores around the house and take care of the other things she’d put off while enjoying Ryan’s company.

She certainly didn’t plan on using the time at home to dive into any work stuff.

Still, that email on her phone had caught her interest. While the notification details had vanished before she could read them, she was curious about why Clive would contact her during her time off. He hadn’t done so before now, and he’d been the one who was so insistent she take the time off in the first place and spend it doing non-work related things.

Grace might have pushed the email to the back of her mind, but the phone screen flashed again with another notification, and another email from Clive, and this time it was impossible to ignore the details in the title field:

Job Opportunity, in case you’re interested…

More curious than ever now, Grace opened the email app. Both emails sent by Clive had the same title. She opened the first email that had pinged through and read it.

Grace, I know you still have a couple of days of holiday left, but this job opportunity popped up on my radar and I wanted to let you know about it. It’s with the Carlton Forest hotel group, and an old friend there sent me the details in case I knew anyone who might be interested. While I’d absolutely hate to lose you here at the Hamblehurst Manor, I also know how crushed you were about the promotion process being paused, and as I consider you a friend, not just a colleague, I thought it only fair I send these details to you. If you were interested in applying, I’d naturally write you an excellent reference, which I think would carry a great deal of extra weight because of my connections with my old friend there…

The email included a few more comments about the role and the hotel group more generally before Clive signed off. The second email he’d sent included a link to the job advertisement, which he’d forgotten to add to the first email, and he apologised for this oversight with an amused emoji face.

Grace was not only surprised by the unexpected email, but more than a little astonished that Clive had sent details of the opportunity to her. She noticed he’d done so from a personal email address, rather than his work email at the hotel, and understood he was flying under the radar with this. Re-reading his comment about how he considered her a friend, not just a colleague, she found herself touched that he’d done this for her.

She clicked on the link to the job advertisement. When the webpage popped up, she scanned the information. The role was for an events coordinator manager with the Carlton Forest hotel group, a large international hotel chain with a significant presence in city centre locations around the UK. It would involve managing their substantial calendar of lucrative events bookings at one of their prime city centre locations, including weddings, corporate functions, charity nights, entertainment packages…

“Will this coffee be ready yet, do you think?”

Grace looked up and saw Ryan standing beside the cafetiere on the counter, his hand poised over the plunger.

“Gosh, yes, you’d better push the plunger down, or it’ll be far too strong,” Grace replied. “I got distracted by an email on my phone.”

Ryan glanced at the phone in her hand as he dealt with the coffee. “Something important?”

“It could be. It’s about a job opportunity that might be a good fit for me.”

Ryan’s eyebrows lifted and he smiled. “Oh? Sounds exciting. Tell me more.”

“I’ve only just looked at the job ad, so I don’t know a lot about it yet. It’s a full manager role with another hotel chain, running the event management side of things in one of their hotels.”

“Sounds perfect. You want a proper manager role and now one has come knocking on your door.”

“Well, not quite knocking on my door,” Grace laughed. “They’re not head-hunting me or anything like that. It’s just a job ad which is probably doing the rounds amongst loads of different people right now.”

“Do you think you’ll apply?”

“I’m not sure yet. I’ll have to look into the details some more.”

“Where’s the hotel? Maybe we could take a drive there and check it out.”

“I hadn’t got to that part of the advertisement yet.” Grace scrolled on her phone again to find the job location details, and saw them listed at the top of the ad in smaller font, which was why she’d missed it the first time around.

“Oh,” she said, still staring at the screen as the information sunk in.

“What?” Ryan asked.

“The job is at a hotel in York.”

Silence filled the kitchen as Grace stared at her phone and Ryan, in turn, stared at her. When she looked up, his expression was clouded.

“That’s… a long way away,” he said, and then, with some effort, cleared his expression and gave her a smile. “It sounds like a terrific opportunity, though. Do you think you’ll apply for it?”

“I’m honestly not sure,” Grace said. “I just got the email a few moments ago, and I’d have to find out a lot more about the job and whether I might be the right fit for it. Plus, it’s in York . I live here, in Hamblehurst.”

“Is it similar to the job you would’ve been doing if your promotion had gone ahead where you’re working right now?”

Grace thought about it. “It’s in the same ballpark. It’s a full manager role, which is certainly a big attraction. I’d be handling a different hospitality portfolio to the one I would’ve taken on at the Hamblehurst Manor once I got promoted, but it’s still work I’d enjoy very much.”

Ryan nodded and fiddled with the cafetiere for a moment before speaking again.

“In that case, maybe you ought to consider whether moving somewhere new is what you need to do in order to get the career boost you want?”

Grace wasn’t sure why Ryan’s supportive words should leave her feeling so oddly out of sorts, but they did.

“It would be a huge upheaval,” she said. “Moving to York, I mean. That’s assuming I even got the job.”

“You won’t get the job if you don’t apply. I think you should go for it and see what happens.”

His words sounded so simple and straightforward, and he wasn’t saying anything unusual or controversial. Yet his immediate encouragement for her to apply for the job left her wondering…

Left her wondering what, exactly? If he’d miss her if she left?

They’d only known each other for a week, for goodness’ sake. The romance that had sparked between them during that time might have been wonderful, but it’s not as if they’d been together for ages and were now in love and determined to live life as a couple, a couple who had to talk about huge decisions such as relocating to the other end of the country.

Except only part of that is true , Grace thought. Because I am in love with him.

The truth of this realisation hit her like a speeding freight train.

“I thought I’d come and find out what’s happened to our coffee and pastries.”

Grace turned to see Miriam arriving in the kitchen with a warm smile on her face. Relief at the welcome interruption flooded through her.

“Sorry,” Grace said, and pushed away the tumble of thoughts that had just careened through her mind. “We were just about to bring everything through.”

“Good, because those pastries we picked up earlier while taking Stanley for his morning walk are calling to me,” Miriam said with a laugh.

Ryan picked up the tray bearing the cafetiere, coffee cups, and the milk and sugar, while Grace lifted the plate of pastries. She followed Ryan and his grandmother through to the living room on the other side of the house, with Stanley at her heels.

The news she’d just received about that job opportunity should’ve filled her with excitement.

So why did she feel so empty instead?