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First published in Great Britain by HarperImpulse 2016
Copyright © D.R. Graham 2016
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D.R. Graham asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the authorâs imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.
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Ebook Edition © June 2016 ISBN: 9780008145163
Version 2016-06-02
Summer was officially over, and even though all the families who spent their vacation at the Inn had packed up and gone home, the dining room was crowded for our famous homemade breakfast buffet. Thirty-six guests, all excited for a week-long wilderness retreat. It was our first corporate booking, and I was feeling pretty impressed with myself, since they found us through the new Britannia Beach Inn website I developed for my granddad. He originally hadnât wanted the Inn to have an online presence because he didnât have the staff to handle more guests. We needed the extra revenue to afford repairs on the hundred-and-thirty-year-old building, though. When I made the decision to move back to Britannia and promised to help out before and after school, he finally gave me the go-ahead.
Fully aware of how late it was getting, I sped to restock the pastry basket with warm cinnamon buns and poured fresh-brewed coffee for a table of non-outdoorsy-looking women, decked out in expensive hiking gear. It was already seven-thirty. The only bus from Britannia Beach to Squamish in the morning stopped in front of the Inn at seven forty-two. I needed to catch it if I wanted to make it to school. As I rushed to clear another stack of dirty dishes from a table, my granddad stepped up to the buffet table and scooped fresh scrambled eggs into a warming tray. âYou better get going, sweetheart. You donât want to miss the bus.â
âYou mean, you donât want me to miss the bus.â
He chuckled. âTrue. I am a little too busy to drive you into Squamish today.â
I kissed his cheek and removed my apron. âIâm going.â
âDonât forget the meeting with the real-estate agent is at five oâclock today if you want to be here.â
âOh.â I stopped and spun around, surprised. âI thought you were going to cancel that.â
As he stirred the pot of oatmeal with more attention than it needed, he glanced up to gauge my reaction, which he likely knew wasnât going to be supportive. âI want to hear what he has to say.â
âWhy? If I can keep attracting corporate retreat bookings, youâll start making a profit again.â
âThatâs a big if, Derian. I appreciate all the work youâve done on the website, and I couldnât have run things around here all summer if you hadnât moved back, but you only have two more years of high school. I need to plan for when you leave for university. Thereâs no harm in hearing what he has to say.â
No harm? Except that living with my mom in Vancouver had been a disaster, and I had nowhere else to live, and selling the only place that still held good memories of my dad was something I couldnât deal with on top of all that. âWhat if it gets bought by a company that just tears it down and redevelops the entire village?â
âThere might be a buyer who will renovate the Inn and keep the heritage houses in the village.â
I glanced at the yellowed antique clock again. I needed to leave, but I also desperately wanted to talk him out of the meeting before I left. âWe can renovate it just as easily as someone else.â