Paula could see that the catering team had everything under control. She was surprised that her cousin Andrea who was the hotel’s general manager, wasn’t there—though, she supposed that’s why her grandfather had insisted that she stay. Somehow, he always knew everything that was going on, even when he wasn’t around. She guessed that he and Andrea had been in touch earlier.

Of all her many cousins, Andrea was her least favorite. She was much more assertive and bossier than Paula, who was reserved and content in her back-office role at the hotel. Her office was next to her grandfather’s, and she handled all the accounting and financials for the hotel. But because they’d all grown up working there, she’d held just about every other role over the years too, from cleaning the rooms as a teenager to serving in the restaurant and working at the front desk, checking people in.

When she’d graduated from Amherst College with a business degree, she’d spent a few years working at a big hotel in Boston in their finance department, before returning to Nantucket. She’d wanted to work at the hotel right after graduating, but her grandfather had insisted that she work elsewhere for a few years, and experience living in Boston as a young person. She smiled, remembering how firm he’d been about it. She’d agreed, but she’d known even then that she’d return to Nantucket, and to The Whitley. How could she not?

Although she had to admit, as usual, that her grandfather had been right. It was a good experience working in Boston at one of the big hotel chains. Like The Whitley, the hotel she worked for there was focused on offering luxury and superior customer service. She learned a few things during her time there that they then implemented at The Whitley. And after three years of living and working in Boston, she was more than ready to go home.

Boston was fun, but it wasn’t Nantucket. It was hard to explain to people who hadn’t been to Nantucket, but Paula always breathed a sigh of relief when she drove over the Cape Cod canal, leaving Boston behind. And then again, when she boarded the ferry in Hyannis, and they set off to Nantucket. The air felt fresher, cleaner somehow on Nantucket and it was just home.