“London’s great. All of Europe, actually. I’d love to go back, especially to Italy. The food and wine there are so good.”

“That sounds fun, too. Maybe I should do two weeks and fit more in.”

“When are you planning this vacation?”

“Probably not until the fall. It starts to slow down here in October so that might be a good time. Until then, I’ll just take some days here and there, and make long weekends. What about you?”

He hadn’t given vacation a thought. Until Alvin offered this consulting role, David had thought he’d be using some of his vacation time to visit his family.

“I don’t know. I like to ski so maybe later this year I’ll do that somewhere.”

“Paula? Is that you?” David and Paula both turned to see an older, elegantly-dressed woman with a silver-gray bob standing in front of them.

“Mrs. Ferguson? We missed you last year. It’s so good to see you.”

“It’s good to be here. I had some pesky health issues last year but I’m fit as a fiddle now and so glad to be back.” An older man joined her. He was holding a cardboard to-go box.

“Well, that’s good to hear. Did you just have dinner?”

“Yes, and everything was just marvelous, as usual. I ran into your grandfather earlier today and he told us about your promotion. Congratulations, dear. We both think you’ll do a fabulous job.”

“Thank you, both. David, this is Mr. and Mrs. Ferguson. They’ve been coming to The Whitley every year for as long as I can remember. David is consulting with us.”

“Lovely to meet you,” Mrs. Ferguson said. “Well, we’re on our way back to our room. I just saw you and wanted to say a quick hello.”

“Thank you. It’s so good to see you both.”

They left and David smiled at Paula. “You have some fans there.”

She laughed. “They are sweethearts and they have been coming here forever. I worried when we didn’t see them last year.”

“You know a lot of the guests?” David was impressed that she remembered them so well.

“Yes. That’s one of the first things Grandfather taught me. We want to treat these people like they are all guests in our home. It’s easy to do as most of them are like the Fergusons, just nice people. And so interesting. People come from all over the world to stay here.”

“Little things like that, remembering people by name, makes such an impression,” David said. “I think that’s the key to success in any service business. When people feel valued and welcome, they want to come back and tell their friends.”

“Exactly.” Paula smiled and reached for her wine. “How’s your mother doing?” she asked.