Hotel Vendome (15 page)

“That sounds like fun.” She smiled at him, finishing the last of their lunch. “I’d love to find you a new painting for the lobby, something strong,” she said pensively, and explained to him exactly where, as he glanced at her with a pleased expression. He had the feeling that she was falling in love with the hotel, just as he had. She was, but she was falling in love with him as well.

“I can’t wait till Heloise sees the new suite,” he said with a delighted expression.

“I can’t wait to meet her,” Natalie added, “although I have to admit I’m nervous about it. She’s a legend in this hotel, much more than even Eloise at the Plaza.”

“Everybody here loves her,” Hugues admitted. “They’ve seen her grow up since she was a baby, and they were wonderful to her when she was a little kid. They still are. She used to push the carts around with the maids, and she was always in the basement hanging out in the kitchen, or following the engineers. I used to worry that she’d want to be a plumber when she grew up. You have to be a jack of all trades in this business and wear a lot of different hats.” Natalie knew he did.

“How do you suppose she’ll feel about our seeing each other, aside from just decorating the suite?” It had crossed Natalie’s mind several times in the past month, since he had started asking her out. It hadn’t gone further than dinner and some very enticing kisses so far, but his daughter was so much a part of his life, and so much of a central focus for him, that she knew whether or not his daughter liked her would matter to him a great deal. And Heloise had had her father to herself for a long time.

“I think we just need to let that develop over time. She’s a big girl now, with her own life, and this French boyfriend I’m worried about. I think she’s ready to let me have my own life.” Heloise had never stopped him. She just hadn’t known about the women he went out with. But it would be different if he introduced Heloise and Natalie to each other. It was a big step for him.

“I don’t think you have anything to worry about,” Natalie said as she leaned toward him, and he kissed her. She slipped into his arms then, and they kissed for a long time. The bond between them was slowly deepening and the attraction growing stronger, but they both wanted to let things happen naturally. Neither of them was rushing it, and both had been burned before, so they were cautious about who they got involved with. And she was a very different woman than the casual encounters he had had for many years. She was becoming important to him. And Natalie wanted to take her time and let things unfold, which was comfortable for Hugues as well. They were in no rush, and they both felt that if this were meant to be, and a relationship were to develop, it would blossom at the right time. She knew his resistance to marriage and commitment. They were having fun with each other and discovering new things about each other every day. She wasn’t asking for anything more, and Hugues liked that about her too.

“I guess I’d better get back to work,” Hugues said regretfully as things started heating up between them. “I’m having trouble with my head sommelier, and I don’t want to lose him. I promised to meet with him to discuss it. Not to mention a disability claim one of the engineers is making, and threatening to sue me.” He looked unhappy about it. He had only been sued once by a guest in the past fourteen years, who had fallen in the bathtub and cut herself badly. She’d been drinking, and the fault was her own, but Hugues had settled to avoid bad publicity for the hotel, since the woman in question was well known.

It was a risk they ran daily with both guests and employees, not to mention with the unions, and the ordinary daily running of the hotel, with a constant flood of reservations and demanding guests. At times it was a heavy burden, and he still hated to have Heloise take all that on one day. He loved what he did, but the hotel’s success and reputation didn’t come easily and had to be constantly guarded and maintained. Natalie was becoming more and more aware of it as she got to know him better. It was not an easy business, and he did his job extremely well and had a gift for handling people, particularly those who were potentially trouble. He put balm on every situation and tended to every detail.

And he was kind to her as well. She thought he was a lovely person, and obviously a devoted father. She thought his ex-wife had been very foolish to have left him, particularly for the man she’d married. Greg Bones was no angel, and nothing Natalie would ever have wanted in a man.

They left his apartment together after kissing one last time, before stepping out into the hallway, and they looked professional and businesslike as they took the elevator downstairs. She got off on the floor of the suite she was working on, and he was going down to the lobby and back to his office. And a few minutes after Natalie checked on how the painters were doing, and was satisfied with their work, Jennifer came upstairs to see how things were going. Hugues had raved so much about the fancy paint job that she wanted to see how it looked for herself. And she was impressed with the artful job Natalie had gotten out of their ordinary hotel painters. It looked like a fancy first-class decorating job to her, and like everyone else, she could hardly wait to see it complete.

“The light in here is so good that it really helps,” Natalie said modestly, and Jennifer liked that about her too. She wasn’t full of herself or a diva. Despite her obvious talent, she was a very unassuming person. Jennifer had brought a box of the hotel chocolates upstairs for her, and they sampled them together, commenting on how irresistible they were. “If I worked here, I’d weigh six hundred pounds. The food is so good every time I eat here,” Natalie said as she ate a chocolate.

“Tell me about it,” Jennifer said with a woeful expression. And since they were alone, Natalie decided to ask her something that she was wondering about increasingly.

“What’s Heloise really like? Everybody here talks about her like she’s five years old in pigtails, and her father is so crazy about her, it’s hard to get a reading on who she is.” Natalie wondered if she was horrifically spoiled or really a sweet kid.

“She’s a lot like her father,” Jennifer said thoughtfully. “She’s very bright, and she loves this hotel as passionately as he does. It’s the only home she’s ever known, and the people who work here, and have for a long time, are her family. She has no one else except her father, and he thinks she walks on water.”

“I know.” Natalie smiled at her, helping herself to another chocolate. They really were impossible to resist. And they had little gold flecks on them for decoration, and a chocolate V. They were made exclusively for the hotel, yet another of the many touches that Hugues had insisted on from the beginning, even when he couldn’t afford them. People bought them and sent them as gifts by the caseload from the shop downstairs, which was actually a lucrative part of the business.

“It sounds like they have a very special relationship, which is understandable since she grew up without a mother. I imagine she must be very possessive about him. It sounds like there’s been no woman in his life for a long time.” She was snooping, and Jennifer knew it, but she didn’t mind. She would have done the same herself, and it was obvious to her that something romantic was happening between her employer and the interior designer he had hired to work on the hotel. She liked Natalie a lot, and thought she might be just the kind of person Hugues needed. And Natalie wasn’t jealous about the hotel, she was coming to love it too, which Jennifer knew was important to him. But Heloise’s approval would be more than important to him, it would be essential and a deal breaker for him. Natalie had correctly sensed that.

“Possessive?” Jennifer said, laughing. “She
owns
him. She’s had his heart in her pocket from the day she was born. And she was a mighty cute kid, with red hair, big green eyes, and freckles. She’s a beautiful young woman now. And her father and this hotel are her whole life. It’s pretty much the same with him. I’d be very careful with her, if I were you. If she feels you might take him away from her, she’ll be your sworn enemy forever.”

“I’d never do that to her, or to him,” Natalie said quietly, and meant it. “I respect the special relationship they have. I just wonder how she’d feel about his having anyone in his life, even without stepping on her toes.”

“It’s hard to say,” Jennifer said honestly. “It’s never really happened before, not in a serious way.” And Natalie was beginning to think they were, or could be in time. “I’ve always thought it would have been better for her if Hugues had had a woman in his life while she was growing up. She needed that, and it’s a little late now. She’s nineteen years old and pretty much an adult. But she’s also never had to share him. I don’t think she expects him to find someone now, and I don’t think he expected that either. It’s a new concept for both of them.” Jennifer looked pensive as she said it.

“I think it would be a big adjustment for Heloise if he had a serious relationship with a woman. It would be good for them both. But Heloise would have to get used to the idea, and it might take some time and a lot of diplomacy to get there.” It was good advice to Natalie and what she thought herself. “She has a good heart, like her father,” Jennifer reassured her. “She’s just very much a daddy’s girl, and this is her world. Any woman who falls in love with him will have to be mindful of that.” It was a clear warning, and Natalie was grateful for her wisdom and candor. She knew all the players involved and had for a long time.

“Thank you. That helps,” Natalie said, smiling at her, as they debated about a third chocolate. Jennifer decided to indulge herself, and this time Natalie resisted, which explained the difference of fifteen pounds between them. Jennifer always had a box of the delicious chocolates in her desk. “It’s pretty much what I thought. I’ll bet it will be a big adjustment for him too if she has a man in her life eventually, which presumably she will. It must be hard for him to watch her grow up.”

“It’s killing him,” Jennifer said honestly. “He thought she’d be in pigtails forever, and this French kid she’s involved with at school has him scared stiff. All he wants is for her to come home, as soon as possible, and not start a life over there. But we can’t hang on to our kids forever, no matter how much we love them. I’ve got one in Florida and one in Texas, and they’re all I’ve got. And this job. And I miss my kids like crazy.” She was in her fifties, and married to her job, and hadn’t had a man in her life in years either. She’d had a crush on Hugues when she first started working there, but she had gotten over it very quickly when she saw how professional he was with his employees. He always said that she was the best assistant he had ever had, and that was enough for her now. She took pride in what she did and had a warm affection for him and his daughter, which showed in all she said about them. “Try not to worry about Heloise,” she told Natalie, and patted her shoulder as she got ready to leave the suite and go back to her office. “She’s a good kid, and she loves her father. She’s going to love you too. She’ll want what’s best for him in the end. Just give her a chance to get there. It may take a little longer than most. They’ve been through a lot together. Sometimes that makes it hard to add another person to the mix, but it’s what they both need.” Natalie nodded, and went back to talking to the painters after Jennifer left. The wise woman who knew both of them so well had given her food for thought, and Natalie was smart enough to heed her words. What they all needed now was time. She wasn’t plunging into anything blindly, and neither was Hugues. Natalie was proceeding slowly. And Jennifer’s warnings about Heloise hadn’t fallen on deaf ears.

Chapter 9

JUST AS NATALIE had promised, the suite she’d been working on for almost two months was ready the week before Thanksgiving, and it was absolutely perfect. She’d been so sure they’d be finished on schedule that she had told Hugues they could safely book a reservation for Thanksgiving weekend, which worked out ideally for him. One of their regular guests, a senator from Illinois, had wanted to reserve it, and several other rooms, to spend Thanksgiving in New York with his children and grandchildren. And they were able to confirm the reservation.

Hugues stood in the suite with Natalie on the Monday before Thanksgiving and examined every detail with awe and admiration. She had created something warm and elegant that felt more like a home than a hotel room, which was exactly the effect they had both wanted to achieve. And the new paintings were spectacular in the room. She had worked on the installation all weekend and invited him up to see it when she hung the last painting on Monday afternoon. She had done a lot of the hanging and placing herself, as she always did, and she had been a taskmaster about the window treatments, which were beautifully made by a French woman she had used for years. The suite was exquisite. And she had had several pots of orchids placed in the rooms in key locations. Hugues looked at it with obvious delight, and then took Natalie into his arms and kissed her. The relationship they had been developing since she started working for him had been an unexpected bonus for them both, and not at all what he had intended when he hired her to do the job.

“You like it?” she asked happily, looking like a kid and wanting to clap her hands with glee when she saw his thrilled expression.

“I love it!” he confirmed. The final effect was even better than he had expected and she had hoped. He walked all through the suite, examining every detail, and then he turned to her as he held her hand. “And more importantly, I love you … whether or not I like what you did here. But as it so happens, I do. You have an enormous talent.” And she had brought it in way under budget by using so many of the things the hotel already owned. “The last two months have been the happiest in my life,” he said as he pulled her down on the couch next to him. “I loved seeing you every day.”

“Me too,” she said, in awe of what he had just told her. She had fallen in love with him too. He kissed her again, and then called room service and ordered a bottle of champagne.

He opened the bottle of Cristal himself when it was delivered, and the waiter disappeared quickly, after commenting on how great the room looked. Hugues had a plan by then, and he spoke to her gently after they tasted the champagne.