I was full of baguette and salted butter like any good tourist should be, and I was happy.
I missed my family, but I would see them soon.
“Bonjour,” a woman said as she came up to me, smiling.
“Bonjour,” I replied, knowing that my accent was ridiculous.
My French was decent, not great. But I was getting the hang of it, and most people spoke English here anyway. I honestly wanted to give it a try. She didn’t say anything else, just walked past, and I sat up a bit straighter, wondering if I had something on my face.
Then again, with the way her gaze raked down my body before she turned the corner, I knew exactly what she wanted.
I had been in Paris for three weeks, and while I had gone out with a few friends I had made in the program, I hadn’t enjoyed every taste of Paris.
My lips quirked. That would come.
My phone rang, and I finished my latte before answering so I wouldn’t bother people around me. Though there were already people on their phone so they wouldn’t care.
“Hey Mom,” I said as I hit connect on the call.
“Leif. I’m so glad that you answered. I think I got the time zone right.”
“Mom, you are a brilliant woman, you know you got the time zone right.”
“Sometimes I get distracted because my baby boy is so far away.”
I rolled my eyes but kept moving.
Sierra Montgomery wasn’t my birth mother, but she’d raised me since I was ten years old and I called her mom. She was the best of everything in my life, and I was so damn grateful that my father had groveled enough to keep her in his life.
“Is that Leif?” a deep barrel of a voice said from the other line.
I couldn’t help the smile spreading over my face at Austin Montgomery’s voice. While I was tall with broad shoulders, my father was even more so. He had a huge beard, usually a funky haircut so he could show off his latest ink, and was covered in tattoos. After all, he had been in the business longer than I’d been alive. He was also one of the kindest men I’d ever met. Honorable, ruthless when it came to protecting his family, and a good man.
When I said I had more than a few things to live up to, Austin Montgomery just being himself was one of them.
“Hey Dad,” I said, knowing I was on speakerphone.
“How’s Paris?”
“Incredible.” I angled my face up to the sunlight and grinned. “I just had a latte and had a baguette earlier. Now I’m going for a walk and going to hit the market before I go back to campus.”
“And you’re being safe?”
“Mom.”
“What? I would say that no matter where you were. You’re alone. You are making friends though, right?”
My lips quirked into a smile. God, I loved this family. “I am. I promise.”
A younger voice filled the line. “Hey Leif! I miss you!”
“Miss you too, Colin.”
I had three younger siblings, with Colin being eight, and the two youngest being toddlers. Our age gaps were a little ridiculous, but I didn’t mind. It meant that I had been able to be part of their lives from the start, and when I was ready to be a dad, I would at least have some experience in changing diapers. Not that my parents had given me any extra responsibilities when it came to raising their kids. I hadn’t been put in any parental roles, but I had wanted to be part of my siblings’ lives. That’s why it had taken me so long to get here. But that had been on me, and moving my gap year to the end of my college career rather than in the middle of it like I’d planned.
“Tell us everything,” my mom ordered.
I shook my head, knowing she couldn’t see me, and went into detail about the exact nature of my morning.
