I am so sorry for your loss.” She looked at Junie with a tenderness no training manual could teach.

“Let me find you a proper vase before you go up.

Flowers like these shouldn’t be left to wither in a dark room.”

Danika opened her mouth, but Bea was already walking toward the supply room.

And Wescott, holding his sleeping daughter, understood that in his own hotel, a housekeeper had shown more plain humanity than the people hired to welcome the world.

It was a distinction he would think about for a long time — the difference between service and humanity, which his industry constantly confused and which that lobby had just laid bare.