Forever, Plus One - страница 19

“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.

The brothers produced their plans for Emily, Chantelle, and Daniel to consider. The most impressive (and, once again, the most expensive) was to convert the space into a part indoor and part outdoor spa, overlooking the ocean. The barn area in that specific design would have two floors, a spiral staircase connecting the two, and the top floor containing an infinity pool with views of the oceans.

“I can’t resist the staircase,” Emily said. She’d wanted one ever since she’d set eyes on the yacht club’s.

Daniel grew animated then. “We could design it. The team at Jack Cooper’s, I mean. We’ve done spiral staircases before and it would help keep costs down. In fact”—he looked again at the plans and Wayne’s lightly scribbled notes—“we could do this paneling work here as well. The changing area doors. The reception desk.”

He looked excited by the prospect and Emily was glad to see that glint in his eye once more. He’d seemed so stressed recently it was good to just see him enthusiastic again.

“And if we hire Jack Cooper’s for the woodwork then I’ll be onsite, closer to home,” he added. “I can project manage the whole thing.”

“I like the sound of that,” Emily said, thinking of the baby and how much more relaxed she felt knowing Daniel was close by as opposed to the other side of town. Not that she was anticipating going into labor anytime soon!

Chantelle nodded her agreement. “It would make it even more special to know you’d made some of it yourself,” she said.

With the decision made, they bade farewell to the architects from Erik & Sons and went back to the inn. As they crossed the lawn, Emily was happy listening to Chantelle and Daniel’s merry chatter and all their grand ideas. But as they went, Emily couldn’t help notice the disparity between how excited Daniel seemed about the renovation work in comparison to how stressed and muted he seemed about the baby.

When they reached the inn, Emily was so wrapped up in her thoughts she’d become completely distracted. Her main focus in life at the moment was the baby; it was the main source of her excitement, the thing that she thought of last thing at night and first thing in the morning. But she felt like that wasn’t the case for Daniel. He seemed more enthusiastic about making a wooden spiral staircase!

“I think I’m going to head upstairs for a rest,” Emily said, wanting to excuse herself and take some time to sit with her thoughts alone.

She went up to her room and sat on her vanity stool, staring at her reflection in the mirror. Why was Daniel behaving this way? Amy had acted a hundred times more enthusiastic when she’d told her. Amy had wanted to instantly run out and buy things for the nursery, but Daniel hadn’t even mentioned all the things they would need for the baby. Even if he went into his practical, logical, sensible mode and started researching strollers and car seats that would be better than the overwhelmed and slightly stressed state he seemed to be in.