Hotel Vendome

Brad and Heloise stood on the sidewalk and waved when her father and Natalie left for the Fourth of July weekend to celebrate their first anniversary. They had their babies with them, and a mountain of equipment. And Brad reminded her that it was their anniversary too, they had met exactly a year before at Hugues and Natalie’s wedding, and so much had happened since then. Their lives had grown and changed, she looked very official in her navy uniform as they walked back into the hotel and he went upstairs to finish unpacking. He had just moved in. And their trip to Europe was a few weeks away. They could hardly wait.

Chapter 25

HELOISE LOOKED AT her watch and decided to run by the ballroom for five minutes. Sally had stunned them all by taking a job at a hotel in Miami and had left a few months before. The salary had been irresistible, and they had a new catering manager that Heloise wasn’t sure of yet. Everyone had been heartbroken when Sally left, and she said she might come back one day. So now Heloise was diligently overseeing all their catering events. And this was an important event. It was her father’s sixtieth birthday party, and they were expecting over a hundred guests for dinner and dancing. He and Natalie had been married for seven years, and the twins had just turned six.

When she got there, the ballroom looked just the way she wanted it to, with topiary trees, and flower arrangements on every table, and the ceiling was covered with balloons. The new catering manager loved balloons, a little too much for Heloise’s taste, and worst of all, Jan had left too. She had opened her own florist shop in Greenwich, but she came to visit often, and she and Heloise had lunch every few weeks. So they had a new florist, Franco, too. He had trained with Jeff Leatham in Paris at the George V, and he was very good. His topiary trees and large arrangements were exquisite, and already causing comment at the hotel.

She checked everything, and once she was satisfied, she went upstairs to dress. Brad had just come home from his office. He’d been working on a strike all week for one of his clients, and he kissed her as she flew through the door, took off her uniform jacket, and pulled out the dress she was planning to wear. They had just updated the uniforms that year, and she’d picked the design. It looked younger, and fresh.

“How does it look?” Brad asked her, knowing she must have just checked the ballroom. She was as attentive as ever to detail, and he knew her well after seven years.

“Perfect.” She beamed at him, and then hopped into the shower, and a minute later popped her head out again. “I meant to call you. I have a guest who slipped in the shower and is threatening to sue.” He still worked for the hotel’s law firm, and he did more and more work for the hotel.

“Your father called me about it,” he reassured her. “I already contacted the guest. They’re coming back for Thanksgiving with their kids. They want three suites and a free stay for four days. It’s cheaper than litigation or a settlement.” Heloise nodded, relieved. The woman had broken her collarbone and arm, and it could have been expensive. Brad had handled it well. He always did. He was terrific with all their labor issues. He was a partner of the firm now.

Brad and Heloise arrived at the ballroom just before her father, Natalie, and their children, and Stephanie looked up at her with a toothless grin. She looked surprisingly like Heloise, except that her hair was blond instead of red. And she said that she wanted to work at the hotel one day. She wanted to be the hairdresser or the florist, and Heloise had told her that there were even more fun things to do if you ran it. Stephanie said she didn’t want to wear a uniform. She wanted to wear pretty dresses to work and sparkly shoes. Julien wanted to be a baseball player and had no interest whatsoever in the hotel. And they both went to the Lycee, just like Heloise. Natalie was working as hard as ever at her design business, although only three days a week, and Jim, her design assistant, had become her partner, which took the pressure off her. She had just redone all their suites at the hotel, and given them a whole new look, although this time Hugues had grumbled at the expense and was constantly looking to cut costs. And she had redone the presidential and penthouse suites too.