Seaside Manor Bed and Breakfast - Lilly Mirren Page 0,31
in her throat.
“Hi,” said Ethan.
She huffed. “You scared me!”
She pressed her hand to her chest, breathing deep to slow her heart rate. He chuckled and crossed his arms over his chest. His light brown hair was as perfectly mussed as always, and his hazel eyes glinted with a mixture of what seemed like curiosity and mischief. A twinge of longing ran through her — longing to belong, to be known, to be in Ethan Flannigan’s inner circle. She’d never been part of his chosen crowd, as a kid she was always hanging around the edges. She was certain he wouldn’t understand something like that. People like Ethan were the pied pipers, the ones others flocked to. He couldn’t help it, it was the way he was made — attractive, charming, strong. He knew how to talk to people, put them at ease, made them feel interesting, as though he cared. And maybe he did. She hadn’t quite figured him out. Not yet. She wasn’t particularly good at measuring people, if her ex-boyfriend was anything to go by, and didn’t trust her natural inclination to let herself be drawn to Ethan.
“What do you want?” She found herself slipping back into the clipped tones she often used with Ethan.
The gleam left his eyes. She didn’t mean to speak to him that way, it happened before she realised what she was saying.
“I was checking in, wanted to see what you’re up to. We don’t have any guests tonight either so I thought it might be a good time to do some strategising about the future.”
She picked up the book and returned it the shelf, then sat behind her desk. He lowered himself into a chair and crossed one long leg over the other.
“Great,” she replied. “What were you thinking?”
“There are a few things we could improve around here…”
“Definitely. I’d love to get some painting done. The paint’s a bit old fashioned and in need of an update.” Emily leaned back in her chair. She had a lot of ideas, but how many of them could be done on a shoestring budget? Their first priority was getting occupancy rates up, and any small thing they could do to encourage that was a win.
“We can do that. And I’d like to build a pagoda in the garden. It’s so beautiful out there in the warmer months, I think the guests would like it, and it might attract some weddings.”
Emily nodded. “Good idea.” She only wished she’d thought of it. Weddings were exactly the type of business they should be courting. “And I thought I might get some brochures printed, update the website, visit some local travel agencies. We have to try to increase bookings for the peak holiday season, at the moment we’re looking at about a twenty percent occupancy rate and that won’t get us through the year.”
“I’m glad we’re on the same page. I can do a lot of the work around here—”
“And I can help with painting,” interrupted Emily.
Ethan dipped his head in agreement. “Sounds good.” He stood to his feet. “I’ll head out and get started planning the pagoda. Let me know if you have any ideas for it.”
“Thanks.” She waved him goodbye, then sat for a few moments staring at the empty doorway. Was she imagining things or was he acting a little frostier towards her than usual? He generally made a joke of some kind, got her laughing, but he’d been all business. She couldn’t blame him, she supposed, since every interaction they had usually resulted in her snapping at him.
She flicked on the computer and jotted some marketing ideas on a sheet of paper while she waited for it to boot up. Then, she typed the web address for the Manor’s website into the browser. When it loaded, she groaned and pressed her hands to her head to stare at it in dismay. It was terrible. It looked about twenty years old, was difficult to navigate and seemed to have been designed by an amateur who knew nothing about web design. Emily didn’t have much in the way of technical skills, but she’d put together a web site in the past, and figured they only needed something simple.
The first thing they’d need was some decent photographs of the place. She’d pull out her camera and get to work that day. Photography was a passion of hers, she loved capturing the beauty of a moment in an image and had even take a class on it the previous year.