Heartstrings (Brody Hotel Book 2) Read online

  “We should.” Tabs turned and surveyed the room. When they had cleaned out their office space, they’d sold most of their furniture and brought everything else to Marissa’s apartment. Large boxes were everywhere, filled with envelopes and staples and all sorts of other supplies Tabs wasn’t even sure they needed. “There,” she said, pointing to a box halfway up the stack by the fireplace.

  “Great. Can you grab one and some plastic sheets, and start putting that portfolio together? As soon as I get the curtains and carpet figured out, I’ll put that in Dropbox too.”

  “You bet.” Tabs found what she needed, then held out her arms dramatically. “Now, tell me. Isn’t this better than having a stuffy old office? Who needed all that storage space and to have everything neat and organized?”

  “You’d better get out of here before I start throwing some of these boxes at you,” Marissa said, and Tabs laughed.

  “On my way.” She grabbed her bag from the chair by the door. “See ya.”

  As she drove home, Tabs replayed the conversation she’d just had with Marissa. She’d meant to tell her all about her lunch with Tony—how nice his car was, how delicious the food had been, the way he’d flirted with her, but instead, she’d found herself talking about Griffin almost exclusively. It annoyed her to no end how that man kept creeping into her thoughts. Well, to be honest, she’d all but pushed him from her mind until she’d found out he was the architect for this project, and then it seemed he was all she could think about. Maybe she could go get hypnotized or something and get him shoved back in place where he belonged, or she could forget he existed altogether. That sounded like the very best idea.

  Chapter Three

  “Well, darny darn darn.” Tabs pulled into the parking lot at the Brody and cut the engine.

  “It must be bad if you’re breaking out the swear words. What’s wrong?” Marissa asked from the passenger seat.

  Tabs pointed at Griffin’s beat-up truck. “He’s here already. And Tony’s not.”

  “Yeah, the construction company is sending over some guys this morning, and Andrew asked Griffin to be here. Is that going to be a problem? Should I run up ahead and scout out the location of the offending person and text you when it’s safe to come in?”

  “No, don’t be silly. We’re all adults, and I can certainly behave like one when I want to.” Tabs climbed out of her car, grabbed her bag, and locked the door.

  “Good girl.” Marissa gave her shoulder a light slug. “You’ve got this.”

  When they entered the hotel, Tabs saw that they still had tables and chairs set up in the lobby. She’d really hoped that wouldn’t be the case today, but she understood. Sort of. If they’d just moved over into the parlor instead and kept this front area clear for foot traffic . . . but she couldn’t dwell on that. If Andrew wanted to work from the lobby, he could work from the lobby. He was the boss, after all.

  “Morning.” Andrew gave Marissa a quick kiss. “I’m glad you’re here. The construction team is set to show up any minute, and I’d like us all to weigh in.”

  “Including me, for some strange reason.” Florence, Andrew’s housekeeper who was now taking over as his business manager, spoke up from a chair at the end of the table. “I don’t know a thing about construction, but here I am.”

  “You’re here because I want us working as a unit,” Andrew said. “We should all know what’s going on, and I trust your instincts and common sense.”

  She shrugged. “All right. I’ll see what I can do.”

  Tabs grinned. She liked Florence quite a lot. She was one of those women who called it as she saw it, and she had years of experience to back up her opinions.

  The door opened a minute later, and three men walked in. They all wore jeans and heavy boots, good solid work clothes, and Tabs grinned again when she saw them. “Hey, guys! You’re working this job?”

  “Sure are,” Rob replied, giving her a one-armed hug. “How have you been?”

  “I’m great! How about you?” She gave a quick hug each to Mack and Danny.

  Then Griffin came in the room, and her mood immediately changed.

  Griffin shook hands with the three construction workers, and then they all took seats around the makeshift conference table.

  “I’m really glad you could all make it this morning,” Andrew said, casually bringing the meeting to order. “Rob, your company came highly recommended by Griffin here, and I’m looking forward to working with you.”

  “It sounded like a great project. I couldn’t turn it down.”

  Andrew nodded. “I hope it will be. This hotel has been run by my ancestors since 1875, passed down from father to son until me. It hasn’t always been kept in the best of repair, so our job is to restore it, expand it, improve it, and bring 1875 forward to our time. The main building will retain as much of its old-fashioned appeal as possible, and the new wing and conference rooms will be more updated.” He turned to Griffin. “You sent them over the preliminary plans, I think you said?”

  Griffin nodded. “And I have the complete set here.” He picked up the tube he had set on the table, took off the end, and unrolled the papers inside. Then he glanced over at Marissa. “You got my email this morning?”

  “I did—thanks. Now I can finalize the guest rooms.”

  The construction workers crowded around the blueprints as Griffin weighted down the corners so they wouldn’t roll back up again. “This looks great,” Rob said after a minute. “I can’t wait to get started.”

  Tabs tried hard not to be too bored while they talked about bringing in backhoes and other equipment to rip out the trees, and then it was time to talk about the interior design aspect. “We prepared this for you,” Marissa said, sliding the binder across the table to Andrew.

  He flipped back the cover. “Oh, this looks nice,” he said, turning one page and then the next. “I love it. Especially the carpet.”

  “Tabs found the carpet,” Marissa said. “I was getting stuck.”

  “It’s a talent,” Tabs said modestly. “Some people sing, some people dance—I find carpet. I’m like a bloodhound, really.”

  Andrew laughed. “Well, whatever the case may be, I love it. Let’s go with this. Does anyone have any questions? What else should we discuss today?”

  Florence leaned forward. “When should we start holding interviews for positions? We need time to sort through the applications, but at the same time, we don’t want to keep everyone waiting weeks on end to start work.”

  Andrew nodded. “I’d say, let’s start advertising in two weeks and be clear about the start dates.”

  “I think we’ll want the housekeeping staff to start first so they can help us get the rooms put together, and then the wait staff could start closer to the actual opening of the hotel,” Florence suggested.

  Andrew nodded. “You see? This is why we needed you here today.”

  “You could have figured that out for yourself,” she said, waving a finger at him.

  “Yes, but now I don’t have to.” He grinned, and she shook her head. Tabs could tell that she thought Andrew was incorrigible, but that she doted on him anyway.

  Andrew made sure no one else had any questions, and then everyone scattered to their different tasks. Tony had come in just before the end of the meeting, and Tabs was a little distracted by comparing him with Griffin almost side by side. Marissa was right—they really did resemble each other. Both had dark hair and olive skin—Griffin’s was from working in the sun, and Tony’s was from his heritage—and they were both very easy on the eyes. Speaking of eyes, Tony’s were brown while Griffin’s were blue. But more than brown. Maybe chocolate. Yes, chocolate. Melted chocolate.

  She must have been staring and she must have gotten caught because Tony walked over to her, a grin on his face. “Good morning, Tabs, Marissa,” he said, nodding to each of them in turn. “How are you today?”

  “We’re good,” Marissa answered for both of them. “Did you have a chance to see the carpet T
abs found for the east wing?” She opened the folder, practically shoved it in Tony’s hands, then retreated down the hall.

  Tony watched her go with a smile. “I think someone’s trying a little too hard to give us some alone time.”

  “She’s my best friend. We do that kind of thing for each other.” Tabs nodded toward the folder. “You don’t have to look at carpet. I know it’s boring.”

  “On the contrary. I love looking at carpet. I find it absolutely fascinating.” He looked down, then back up, raising an eyebrow. “Very nice.”

  “Thank you. That’s for the guest rooms. The carpet for the hallways and the conference rooms is coming up.”

  Tony flipped to the next page. “I like this, the colors especially. The browns and maroons look classy.” He studied it for another minute, or pretended to study it, then shut the book. “Is something going on here? I feel like I missed out.”

  Tabs sighed and leaned one shoulder against the wall. “Oh, nothing’s really happened. I told Marissa about my little chat with Griffin and my lunch with you, and she’s obviously decided to help throw me in one direction rather than the other.”

  “Do you like being thrown? And what do you think about this direction?”

  “I don’t like being thrown, but I like the direction.” Tony was wearing jeans and a T-shirt that day, just like everyone else on the site, but he still looked expensive. Expensive wasn’t bad when it looked like that.

  “Good. I was worried that you’d changed your mind about dinner on Tuesday.”

  “No. Definitely not. I didn’t know we’d decided on Tuesday, but that works great for me.” Through the window, she could see Griffin and Rob chatting. Griffin was pointing to the trees, most likely giving Rob a few more instructions. She didn’t need to see Griffin do anything. Or to be aware of him at all. Tony was standing right in front of her, Tony was a great guy, and Tony wanted her attention. Well, she’d give it to him. “I’m looking forward to it a lot,” she continued.

  “Good. Because I just found a place that makes tortillas like my grandmother’s, and I want you to try them.”

  Tortillas? That pulled her right back to the moment. She turned away from the window and grinned. “Now I really can’t wait.”

  Tony reached out and gently tugged on one of the curls that lay on her shoulder. “Me neither,” he said softly, then walked away.

  She leaned against the wall and took a deep breath. Wow. That was such a simple touch, but it shot right through her and made her fingertips tingle. Dinner. Tuesday. Oh, yeah. Definitely.

  ***

  Rob nodded while Griffin finished outlining which trees would need to be pulled and which would stay, and then he leaned against the rail fence that marked that end of the property. “So, you and Marissa and Tabs all on the same job, huh?”

  Griffin nodded. “Yeah.”

  “Awkward?”

  “Yeah.” Griffin scuffed his boot in the dirt, then glanced over his shoulder at the hotel. “I think we’re working through it, but I have to say, I’ll be glad when this job’s finished.”

  “What happened with you and Marissa, anyway?”

  “Me being stupid, of course. Same thing that always happens.” Griffin rested against the same fence. “Her feelings were a lot stronger than mine were, and she started talking about marriage and a family and all that. I nodded and said ‘uh-huh’ and just went along with it because I thought we had a good thing going and I didn’t want to rock the boat. But then she wanted to set a date, and I had to tell her the truth. I broke her heart, and she told Tabs, and things just spiraled from there.”

  Rob had been working the job where Griffin and Tabs had run into each other later—the job where Griffin had fallen for Tabs. No doubt he’d caught on to some of the tension. He nodded. “You don’t do things the easy way, do you?”

  “Apparently not when it comes to relationships.” Griffin kicked at the fence post. “It’s just . . . everything Marissa wanted, and I couldn’t give her, I wanted to give Tabs. I could see myself marrying her and having a family and doing the weekend barbecue thing. It wasn’t right for me to be with Marissa, but I ruined all my chances of being with Tabs because of it . . . and women are complicated.”

  “Yeah, they are,” Rob said with a grin.

  “So, any news on that front?” Griffin asked, ready to shift the focus onto someone else. Let Rob sit in the hot seat for a few minutes.

  “Dinah decided to go back to Afghanistan. She wasn’t ready to give up her whole life to move here, and I couldn’t move there. We talked about it for hours and realized that if we couldn’t make those sacrifices for each other, we weren’t really as committed as we thought, and it was for the best.”

  “That’s rough. She was a great girl.”

  “Yeah, she was. She’s doing really well, though—she got her old job at the embassy back and she sounds content, so I’m happy for her.”

  Griffin clapped Rob on the shoulder. “We don’t need women. They’re just distractions, right? Let’s get to work, build a great hotel, make a lot of money, and spend it on pizza and video games, okay?”

  Rob laughed. “Oh, yeah. Pizza and video games are definitely better than long-lasting relationships with people who mean something to us.”

  “You’re catching the vision already. We’ll be fine. You’ll see.” Griffin chuckled as they walked back into the hotel. Of course he didn’t mean it—life was better when it was shared, but until he could get Tabs out of his system and find someone else who lit him up inside like she did, he’d keep telling himself he was better off.

  Problem was, he had no idea how to get her out of his system.

  Chapter Four

  Now that the plans for the décor had been approved and they had the measurements for the rooms, Marissa and Tabs could start placing their orders for the new wing. Everything for the upper floor of the main building had already been ordered, and they were just waiting for it to arrive.

  “I feel uncommonly powerful,” Marissa said, holding up a credit card and waving it. “Andrew had my name put on this account—said it was easier than having him go in and pay for it, like we did with the first order. Think of all the damage I could do with this thing.”

  “If only you were that kind of person,” Tabs replied. They were back at Marissa’s apartment, all the information they needed spread out across the desk. “Let’s do some math and place some orders.”

  Just the price on the carpet for the guest rooms in the new wing had Tabs’ head swimming. “And that doesn’t include the hallways or the bathroom tile or anything,” she said, pressing her fingers to her temples. “Does Andrew really have this kind of money to spend?”

  “I told him roughly what we were looking at, and he didn’t bat an eye,” Marissa replied.

  “Okay. I’m just sayin’, it’s his funeral.” Tabs handed over her calculations, Marissa entered them into the wholesaler’s order sheet, and then they moved on to the tile.

  Four wholesalers later, they both sat back and took a deep breath. “Let’s grab some food, and then we can start on the furniture,” Marissa said.

  “Furniture? You mean we gotta furnish this place too?” Tabs pulled herself to her feet.

  “Yeah. You remember how this works, right? It hasn’t been that long since our last client.”

  “We’ve just never done anything so huge before. Seems like we ought to be done by now.”

  Marissa grabbed her purse from the chair by the door. “Well, I think this is just the start of huge projects. Once word gets out about the Brody, we’ll be the most sought-after decorators in the state.”

  “Not the country?” Tabs asked wryly.

  “Okay, the country.” Marissa waited for Tabs to walk out the front door, then pulled it closed behind them. “Pasta? You’re kind of cranky. I think it’s a pasta kind of night.”

  “I’m not cranky. I’m expressing my natural perturbedness at a naturally perturbing situation.”

  “
Perturbedness?”

  “Are you correcting my grammar?”

  “No. Just making sure I understood it correctly.”

  “Well, it’s exactly how I feel, and it’s natural.”

  “I didn’t say it wasn’t natural. I’m saying that it sounds like a good night for pasta.”

  Tabs slumped down in the passenger seat of Marissa’s car. “I think you’re right.”

  Marissa didn’t say anything until they were nearly to the Spaghetti Bowl. “If you have feelings for Griffin, you don’t have to hide them on my account.”

  “What?” Tabs turned her head so fast, it almost made her dizzy. “I don’t have feelings for Griffin! What are you talking about?”

  Marissa put the car in park, then looked at her friend. “I’m talking about how weird you’ve been acting since we started this job. Correction—since we walked onto the site and saw Griffin Baker. If you didn’t have any feelings for him, I don’t think you’d be so . . . squirrelly.”

  “I’m not squirrelly. I’m perfectly fine.” Tabs climbed out of the car and waited for Marissa to join her on the sidewalk in front of the restaurant. “Plus, I had a little moment with Tony earlier, and I think I’m definitely leaning that direction.”

  “A moment?” Marissa reached out and caught her arm. “Do tell.”

  “He touched my hair, and it felt . . . tingly.”

  “Your hair felt tingly? Have you developed electricity in that stuff?”

  Tabs rolled her eyes. “The fact that he touched me felt tingly.”

  “Well, you can’t blame me for asking. I wouldn’t put it past you to come up with some kind of superpower.”

  “You mean besides my ability to find carpet? Because you have to admit, that’s pretty awesome.”

  “It’s extremely awesome. It might even save the world someday.”

  They were seated in a booth in the corner, which would have been cozy and romantic if not for the fact that they were best friends and not dating each other—at all. Instead, it was cozy and private, which was great because Tabs had a feeling that Marissa wasn’t done asking questions, and sure enough, she was right.