She delayed the second. “I can’t wait to see upstairs.”

She adopted Todd and Lily proper as much as the highest of the cottage.

Lily opened the door. “Todd has labored magic with cupboard space in right here.”

“Lily was the brains behind it,” Todd stated. “I simply did as I used to be advised.”

The room butted into the eaves and Cecilia noticed immediately that the room had been reworked.

Lily gestured to the window seat. “You possibly can sit on it and skim whereas wanting on the view, it additionally doubles as a bedding storage space—” she lifted the lid, proudly displaying neatly folded spare bedding “—and it may be used as an additional mattress if wanted. Isn’t he intelligent?” She beamed at Todd and Cecilia mirrored that whereas some {couples} discovered it inconceivable to work collectively, that was clearly not true of Lily and Todd.

Her fondness for her granddaughter’s pal was rising by the day.

“It’s excellent. Charming.”

The second bed room was equally charming, with Lily’s newly restored bookshelf taking satisfaction of place below the window.

“We’ve saved the very best for final.” Lily appeared visibly nervous as she stood in entrance of the closed door of the main bedroom. “Are you prepared?”

She’d by no means be prepared.

She’d been dreading this second. Although she’d forgotten many issues over the many years, the picture that had confronted her when she’d opened the door so a few years in the past had stayed along with her.

However Lily was so hopeful and optimistic, and she or he’d tried so laborious to make every little thing really feel completely different for Cecilia that she pushed previous her personal reticence.

What did it matter? It was all so way back. And she or he wasn’t doing this for herself, she was doing it for Lily and for Todd. There was no restrict to what you can do while you beloved somebody.

She stepped into the room anticipating ghosts and reminiscences and for a second felt disorientated as a result of this wasn’t the room she remembered.

The colours and textures have been impressed by the ocean and the pure world, however the design was contemporary and modern. The pale blue paint scheme that she and Cameron had chosen had gone, and now the room had white shiplap partitions, a seagrass rug and glass lamps that mirrored the sunshine.

“We tried laborious to make it completely different—” Lily was watching her each response, her anxiousness palpable “—we purchased a brand new mattress. And moved it.”

“I can see that.” As an alternative of being tucked below the window, the mattress now confronted the balcony. The previous mattress had a heavy oak body and striped linens pale from an excessive amount of washing.

The brand new mattress had a easy white rattan headboard, and the mattress itself had been wearing contemporary white linens and stacked with pillows in firming shades of washed inexperienced and blue. Draped throughout the underside was a pale sea inexperienced throw, excellent for cooler evenings.

The doorways to the balcony have been open, flooding the room with sea air and light-weight, and providing far-reaching views throughout the dunes and the ocean.

Cecilia felt an immediate sense of calm, and likewise aid, as if she’d been let out.

There have been no ghosts right here. No unhealthy reminiscences. Nothing in any respect to remind her of the previous. The room was so tranquil and welcoming she instantly needed to maneuver all her issues from the second bed room to this one.

“I can’t imagine it.” She touched one of many partitions, operating her hand over the road of the wooden. “You probably did this?”

“Simply on the one wall,” Todd stated. “We thought it added texture and a barely ‘beachier’ really feel.”

She by no means would have considered doing that. She by no means would have thought {that a} room may very well be reworked the way in which they’d reworked this one.

There have been bookshelves on both aspect of the mattress, they usually doubled as nightstands full with studying lights.

Cecilia nodded her approval. “Intelligent thought.”

“We needed to maximise use of house. The room isn’t that massive. All the pieces has to work twice as laborious.”

“You possibly can benefit from the view whilst you’re mendacity in mattress,” Lily stated. “I by no means understood why the mattress was dealing with the wall earlier than.”

As a result of at first, she and Cameron hadn’t cared which route the mattress was dealing with.

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