Chapter One
There was a slight breeze along the beach when Taya Eldridge stepped outside the Blue Shoal Inn’s back door and onto the large deck that edged the wide, sparkling blue infinity pool. She’d had the pool installed five years earlier to try to keep pace with the developments in Blue Shoal before they put her quaint seaside destination out of business. And for a while, she’d succeeded. Keeping the building updated but retaining the rustic, retro appeal of the place had made it a must-visit destination for returning families and romance-inspired couples. But times were changing.
There were no guests in the swimming pool area, since it was the end of autumn and the weather had turned cooler. The afternoon sun set the ocean ablaze as Taya slipped out of her towel and into the pool. The water was cold, but the sun still warm enough that it was pleasant to be out of doors and spending some time relaxing. She hadn’t relaxed much over the past twenty years. Caring for her sick husband, then managing their affairs and running the business after his death, had occupied all her time. But lately the inn had been quieter, with fewer guests every week. She’d had more time to herself. More time to think.
Mostly what she thought about was how to save her business and whether it was what she wanted. She’d never have believed that would be a question. It’d been her and Todd’s dream to renovate the old place when they’d bought it two decades earlier. But now that she was in her mid-forties, she was tired. It was such a struggle to keep the inn afloat. There was always something broken or needing an update, some customer complaint to follow up on. And she’d lost the zest she had for it all.
She dipped beneath the surface of the water and swam a few laps up and down the length of the pool. Her body glided through the water, her arms curving in arcs. She spun with a somersault at either end, letting the water cascade over her, the tiredness seep from her muscles and the kinks from her neck. She spent far too much time these days perched in front of her computer doing accounts and running through ledgers. What she missed was having a chance to interact with people, to get out and about and enjoy her life. She’d become something of a hermit since her husband’s death, and if it wasn’t for her girlfriends, Beatrice, Eveleigh and Penny, she’d likely never do anything fun now that her daughter Camden had left home.
Out of breath, she paused her swim to stare at the ocean. Balancing her arms along the edge of the infinity pool, she watched tourists walking the length of the beach. A few children swam near the ocean’s edge, splashing and playing. Some built sandcastles. There was a retired couple lying on towels on the sand. She seemed to recall them being in the same place hours earlier and wondered if they’d fallen asleep there. No doubt they’d be very red tomorrow.
At the other end of the beach was the resort her father had built. It was finally operational. They’d been constructing the modern white condos that stepped down the tree-covered hill for over a year, but now it was truly a thing of beauty. Taya couldn’t help admiring it even as irritation flashed through her chest. She shook her head slowly as she took in the glimpse of blue pools, the perfectly shaped palm trees, the tasteful tile roofs tilting against the hillside to help the resort fade into the bush landscape around them. She hadn’t walked through the completed resort yet— was still too angry that he’d chosen to build his latest resort only two hundred metres from her business. He knew how much the Blue Shoal Inn meant to her.
When she’d pointed out this oversight, he’d smiled and embraced her. “What’s the matter, sweetheart? Afraid of a little competition? I’m not worried—I know you have it in you. You’re an Eldridge, after all!”
His words had aggravated her beyond anything else he could’ve said because he was right — if the inn was such a good business, as she’d asserted when she reprimanded him, it should be able to stand on its own two feet, even with more competition in Blue Shoal. The tiny town couldn’t stay small forever. Gradually people were discovering it, and the more they did, the better she should profit from her tourist business, surely. That’d been her experience over the past two decades as she built a solid returning guest list — people who came back every year or two, who said it was their favourite place to holiday. She had guests who’d raised their families spending every summer at the inn and now returned regularly as grandparents. It was what she loved most about her business— she, the staff and her guests were like one big happy family.
When Dad built his insanely romantic, luxuriously appointed and extremely tempting “Paradise Resort at Blue Shoal,” their happy haven began losing guests. There were Paradise Resorts dotted all up and down the Queensland coast and around the world. Why did he have to build one here?
His argument had been that he’d always intended to build in the hamlet, since he lived here and was sick of travelling all the time. Also, he wanted the world to experience the Blue Shoal he loved. She often pointed out that the world was already enjoying the town when they stayed at her inn, but he only agreed with her. So instead of labouring the point, she’d said goodbye and taken a long run around the headland to calm her nerves.
Even as she studied the outline of the new resort, burnt pink by the setting sun, a man stepped out through a white gate and descended the staircase from the resort to the beach. He wore long black pants and a blue shirt tucked in at the waist. His shoes were in one hand and he tented the other hand over his eyes to cut the glare.
She watched him traverse the beach, unable to take her eyes off him. There was something very striking about his tall frame, black hair and business attire — he stood out from the crowd of swimsuit-wearing tourists. Who was he? She’d never seen him before. There weren’t many men who looked or dressed like that on the island, and certainly none in Blue Shoal. The local men were generally surfers or fishermen and preferred board shorts and T-shirts.
He strode in her direction, then stopped beneath her vantage point and stared up at the building behind her. She pretended to be looking out at the ocean, but snuck a glance at him every now and then. It was disconcerting the way he studied her hotel, as though he knew everything about it. Perhaps he did. When she looked at him again, she found he was gazing at her with a broad smile lighting up his handsome face.
“Enjoying the sunset?”
Her face flushed with warmth. “Yes, very much.”
“That inn is really something special,” he said, letting his gaze flicker back over the structure again. He had a soft accent and pronounced his words precisely.
She spun halfway around to look at it herself. The paint needed to be redone. The roof was clearly in need of repair, and there were parts that sagged. But the bones of the building were excellent, at least according to the inspector she’d hired to check it over every year. And she loved the intricate moulding around the windows, the steep lines of the roof. There was a character and strength to the place that she found very appealing and always had.
“They don’t make them like that anymore,” he continued. “I’d love to buy it.”
“Really?” Her heart sank. Perhaps he was an investor with an eye on her property. She had no intention of selling it. A developer would be just as likely to tear it down and rebuild a modern monstrosity in its place as they were to remodel it.
“Mmmm…” He rubbed a hand over his chin. “But I bet the owner wouldn’t sell. Apparently, she’s quite a dragon.”
Her eyes narrowed. “Really?”
“So they tell me.”
“And who are you?” She did her best to hide her irritation with a friendly expression.
His eyes met hers. Deep brown that seemed to reach down into her soul and read her very thoughts. “I’m Andrew Reddy. I manage the Paradise Resort. Are you a guest here? Perhaps next time, you should try the Paradise. You might enjoy our twenty-four-hour spa service.”
She wanted to snap that she had no need of his spa service since she had her own, but the two hours per day that she brought someone in to offer massages and facials didn’t seem quite so appealing in light of what his resort could offer. She raised her chin. “Perhaps.”
“Lovely to meet you,” he said. Then marched back up the beach to the resort where he’d come from.
Her nostrils flared. So, Dad had hired a new manager to take over the running of his resort. That had always been his intention—she knew that. He wanted to retire, to have other people managing the various aspects of the business that he’d previously kept tightly under his control. He’d asked her to head up the resort — she’d been his first choice—but she hadn’t been willing to give up on her inn. Partly because he’d scoffed at the purchase she and Todd had made so soon after they were married, telling her that she had a duty to take over the management of the family business. He’d changed his tune since then and had been nothing but supportive in recent years. And when she turned down his offer, he’d been polite and hadn’t seemed bothered by it.
Now, it seemed Andrew Reddy would manage the Paradise Resort. He was to be her competitor, and he had his eye on her hotel as a possible acquisition. But there was no way she’d sell the Blue Shoal Inn to a slick city operator. He wouldn’t understand her guests or the business and its history. No doubt he’d tile the floors and put hot tubs in every room. He wouldn’t respect the integrity and character of the building. And she hadn’t built her business for twenty years only to let someone like him tear it down overnight.
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