Gulf Coast Wedding by Maggie Miller
Chapter Fourteen
Lilly opened the inn’s front door to greet the magazine folks with a big, gracious smile on her face. She truly meant it, too. The last time she’d been involved in a photoshoot had been…well, it felt like forever ago. Since before her cancer diagnosis, that was for sure. She was thrilled to be putting her skills to use again. And to be healthy enough to do it. “Hello, Susanna. Welcome to the Sea Glass Inn.”
Susanna Goldman-Ingler was a rail-thin woman with a blunt silver bob and big round black-framed glasses. She wore pale gray cropped linen overalls with a white t-shirt underneath and a short black leather jacket. All of her jewelry was bright red and orange vintage Bakelite. And her boots were Doc Martens. The woman definitely had a look. She stuck her hand out. “It’s an honor to be here. And to meet the one and only Lilly De La Garza.”
Lilly shook her hand. “The honor is all ours, I assure you. We’re thrilled Tourist magazine wanted to take a peek at what we have to offer and share it with their readership.”
Susanna glanced up. “That has to be the Emil Enzo. Tell me that’s the Emil Enzo. Oh my, it’s spectacular.”
Lilly followed her gaze. “It is. Both the Emil Enzo and spectacular, that is. The piece was a gift to our great aunt Norma from her husband, Cecil, who was the love of her life. It was purchased during their stop in Italy on their honeymoon trip around the world.”
Susanna clutched at her heart. “I die. How perfectly romantic.” Then she looked at Lilly, her eyes owl-like behind her big round frames. “Now. Business. I know we’re early. And I apologize for that. But here we are. I hope that’s not too much of an inconvenience.”
“Not at all.” Lilly kept her smile bright, even though she knew the kitchen was a frantic buzz of activity as Coffee, Georgia, Mia, and Griffin worked on getting the food prepared and the buffet set up. “Why don’t I take you on a tour of the inn, starting with the most glorious suite upstairs that overlooks the gulf? It will take your breath away.”
“Perfect. Let me get my assistant, Tyrone, and we are yours.” She looked back through the open front door. “Ty, darling, are you coming?”
A young man of no more than thirty hustled through the door. He wore round horn-rim glasses that were vaguely Harry Potter-ish, but that was where the resemblance ended. His dark blond hair was long, but pulled back into a man bun, a style Lilly didn’t think she’d ever really appreciate.
He had a tablet in one hand and a stylus in the other. His skinny ankle pants and bowtie gave him a modern nerd sort of vibe. “Ready, Susanna.”
“Finally.” Susanna smiled at Lilly. “Lead on, madam.”
“All right,” Lilly said. “Follow me.”
She took them straight up to the third floor. The big picture window overlooking the beach and the gulf did its job.
Susanna let out a gasp of delight. “That is everything I’m living for right now. Divine, darling.” With her gaze glued to the view, she waved her hand at her assistant. “Ty, make a note to shoot this suite.”
She narrowed her eyes, crossing one arm over her body so that she could rest her opposite elbow on her hand. “That chair needs to be on the other side. And we need greenery. I want to pull the outside in.”
She looked at Lilly. “You did say you’d have plants on hand.”
Lilly nodded. “We have a generous selection of plants in the breakfast room. Everything from small palms to hanging baskets.”
“Marvelous. We’re going to need them. Do you have anything orange?”
Lilly thought for a moment. “Large or small?”
Susanna’s eyes narrowed. “Small. Possibly medium. Anything will do.”
Summer had brought a couple of her sculptures over. One of them was a sort of sun-starfish combination that had been brushed with coral-colored chalk paint. Lilly wasn’t sure that was orange enough, however. “We have a piece of sea life sculpture made by a local artist. It’s more of a coral color, however.”
Susanna nodded, eyes narrowed in apparent contemplation. “I’ll look at it. Anything else?”
“A bowl of oranges?”
“Might be a little on the nose for Florida, but I’ll keep it in mind.” Susanna smiled as she clapped her hands. “This is going to be brilliant. Show me the next one.”
Lilly led them downstairs to the second floor and gave them the full tour of the five rooms on that floor. She was pleased with how they looked and very glad that they’d gone to the expense of getting new bed linens for each room, along with a few more modern decorative items as well.
The rooms all still had a homey feel while being crisp and coastal in a truly welcoming way.
Susanna did a lot of nodding, complimenting things throughout the tour. She added two more rooms to Ty’s shooting list. As they headed for the stairs, she paused to look out over the foyer. “I want this shot too, but I want to try lighting the Emil Enzo from underneath.”
“We could also turn it on,” Lilly said.
Susanna laughed. “Of course! I was so taken with it as a piece of sculpture, I totally forgot it was a working chandelier. How silly of me. Yes, please, let me see it lit up.”
“Absolutely.” Lilly headed down to turn it on, listening intently to the sounds from the kitchen. She really hoped the tour had bought them enough time to get things closer to being ready.
She stopped at the light switch and looked up at Susanna as she flipped the switch.
Susanna exhaled, clasping her hands in front of her. “Just marvelous. A thing of beauty. It’s almost deadly. Yes, we need this shot.”
Tyrone was busy jotting notes on his tablet as Susanna began her descent. “It’s remarkable, Lilly, that each of the rooms has such a lovely view of the beach and the water. Obviously, the ones facing it directly would have that, but even the rooms on the sides have grand views. Very well done. And they all have a surprising vitality about them.”
Lilly smiled, once again grateful that they’d given the rooms a thorough freshening up. “Norma had a real vision for this place. She knew exactly what she wanted, and she got it. Do you know that there are no other three-story buildings in Blackbird Beach? She obtained a special exemption for that third floor. Interestingly enough, one that’s never been given again, as far as we know.”
“Remarkable. I must put that in the article. She sounds like quite a woman.”
“She was. And a real inspiration to me and my sister, Georgia.”
“Georgia! Yes!” Susanna threw her hands up. “I haven’t even met your sister, the innkeeper.”
“Or her daughter, Mia, who is the inn’s general manager. And then there’s her brother, Griffin, who will be giving paddleboard lessons and shooting the weddings here at the inn. And I can’t leave out the inn’s amazing chef, Coffee Franklin. He’s preparing the breakfast buffet as we speak.”
“Yes, I want to meet them all. Are they ready for us? Why don’t you go check while I run outside and see if the remainder of my crew is done shooting exteriors?”
“Sounds good. I’ll see you in a few minutes then.”
“Perfection.” Susanna went out the front door as Lilly made a beeline for the kitchen.
She stuck her head in. It didn’t look quite as chaotic as it had when she’d left. And she’d noticed that the buffet table in the breakfast room was no longer bare.
Several of the tables were covered with bouquets of flowers, too, so Beach Blooms must have delivered while they were upstairs. One more thing to check off the list.
She exhaled. They were doing just fine. “How’s it going, gang?”
Coffee, Mia, and Georgia all looked at her. Georgia nodded. “Better. How’s it going with the magazine people?”
“Gave Susanna and her assistant, Tyrone, a tour of the rooms, which they loved. She went outside to see how the exterior shots are going, then she’ll be back in to meet you all.” Lilly looked around. “Where’s Griffin?”
Georgia pointed toward the breakfast room with her elbow as her hands were carrying a big bowl of fruit salad. “Kelly just pulled up. He went out to meet her and let her know things are moving faster than expected.”
Lilly smiled. “It’s going to be a crazy day, huh?”
Georgia nodded. “For sure. But I think we’re going to be all right.”
“All right?” Lilly’s grin got just a little wider as her sister went past to put the bowl on the buffet. “I think the inn is about to be famous.”