“We can always go back to the drawing board,” Wayne said. “Find a compromise that’s somewhere between your two ideas.”
“Like what?” Emily asked, not sure that there could be a compromise to satisfy both her desire to keep the inn feeling personal while making it as luxurious as possible with Daniel’s wish for a more stable income.
“We could make six smaller apartments on the second floor,” he said. “Then you can get a range of prices as well.”
“But what about the ocean views?” Emily asked. She desperately wanted every room to look out over the gorgeous sea.
“We could try to design them so that as many as possible had a view. But it would be impossible for all of them to. Probably three. Four at the most.”
Emily knew that it would make things a little more complicated when it came to the booking forms on the website, but Bryony would probably relish the challenge so that shouldn’t be too much of an issue.
Wayne spoke again. “Why don’t we create the new designs over the next few days and you can see what you think?”
Emily looked at Daniel for an opinion. He just gave a little shrug. She turned back to Wayne.
“We may as well try some new designs,” she said.
“Sure,” Wayne replied. “The rest of the work we can get started on right away, though.”
“When do you think we’ll be able to get all the work done by?” Daniel asked.
Wayne Erik looked down at the plans spread on the table and pondered. “Considering we’re going to redraw this floor,” he said, pointing at the second floor, “we’re probably looking at Labor Day for the whole thing to be complete.”
“That soon?” Emily asked, surprised. She’d been expecting years of work.
“Yes, for this place,” Wayne explained. “For the spa over at the inn it may take a little longer as you’ll need different constructors in there. Pool specialists and the like.”
Emily had quite forgotten about Chantelle’s spa plan to transform the empty old swimming pool. She realized then that they hadn’t yet looked at the brothers’ options for converting that place
“Can we look over those designs now?” Emily asked.
“Of course,” Wayne said.
“We should fetch Chantelle,” Emily said to Daniel. “It was her idea, she should be involved.”
They left Trevor’s house and collected Chantelle from the inn. Then they all went into the dark, unused outhouse that stood on the inn’s grounds. It was cold inside, despite the warm weather, dark and filled with shadows. Emily was glad for the sensation of Chantelle’s warm hand in hers, and drew comfort from it.