“No,” Ruby told her honestly. “I’m glad to hear your voice.”
“How are things? Feeling any better?”
“I am. In fact, Flynn and I walked down to a little park nearby earlier. It felt so good to get out of this damn flat, but I guess it tired me out.”
“Well, that’s good. Any word yet on when you’ll be able to fly home?”
“Best case scenario is next week,” Ruby told her. “I have a follow-up appointment at the clinic tomorrow to see how my lungs are doing, but I think I’m making good progress. I might just have to be one of those people who wears a mask on the plane and bathes in hand sanitizer to keep from exposing myself to any unnecessary germs during the flight.”
“Oh God, I didn’t think of that,” Megan exclaimed. “We’ll have to fully decontaminate you when you get off the plane. Actually, let me talk to Theo when he and Elle get home from their honeymoon. I’m sure he could send the Langdon jet for you. That has to be more sanitary than a commercial flight.”
“You know, that’s not a bad idea.” Ordinarily, Ruby felt uncomfortable using Theo’s wealth to her own advantage, but having a private jet at her disposal would undoubtedly allow her to come home sooner. But did she want to come home sooner? Or did she want to stay here with Flynn? Of course, he had to leave soon to fly to Dubai.
One way or another, their cozy time together here in Paris was coming to an end, sooner than either of them might be ready for.
“Elle and Theo will be home on Sunday, and I’ll mention it to him then,” Megan said.
“I appreciate it.” She stared up at the vaulted ceiling overhead, watching shadows play across it from the trees outside her window.
“I’ve got to get ready for a photography session, but I’ll check in with you later.”
“Thanks, Meg.” She said goodbye and ended the call, laying for a few minutes while her thoughts swirled in a million different directions. Somehow, after all this, she wasn’t ready for her trip to end, wasn’t ready to go home. But she was getting ahead of herself. She had at least another week in Paris before her lungs would be healed enough to fly.
So, she got out of bed, went into the bathroom to freshen up, and headed into the living room to find Flynn. He was—as she expected—sitting at the desk against the wall, hard at work on his design for Aidan.
“Can I see?” she asked as she walked up behind him.
“Of course.” He stood, motioning for her to take the chair. “Did you have a nice nap?”
“I did. I’ve gotten awfully used to being lazy all day,” she told him with a self-deprecating smile as she sat.
“I don’t think that’s going to be a problem for you once you’re well.”
“No?”
He shook his head. “I get the impression you’re a very driven woman, and I think you’re already itching to get back to your busy life.”
“You might be right about that.” Despite her reluctance to leave Flynn—and Paris—behind, she missed her friends and her life at Rosemont Castle. “It’ll be good to go home. I’ve never been away from my cats this long before. I really miss them.”
“Cats, huh?”
“Simon and Oliver.” She swiped the screen on her phone and scrolled through her camera roll until she came to a selfie she’d taken a few days before she left for London. “That’s Simon sprawled across my lap, and Oliver’s laying next to me. He likes to be close, but he’s not a lap cat.”
“Pretty cats,” Flynn commented.
“They’re Siamese. Littermates. Someone found them in a bag in a garbage can in downtown Orlando. They were the only two to survive.”
“That’s awful.”
“It happens all the time, unfortunately,” she told him. “At least, it does in America. Maybe things are different here.”
“I doubt it. Humanity is what it is,” he said with a frown.
“You’re probably right. Anyway, I volunteered at the shelter on weekends during college, and I was there when they came in. I took them home to bottle feed them, and by the time they were old enough to be adopted, I decided to adopt them myself.”
“That’s quite a story,” Flynn said, leaning a hip against the desk. “I’ve never had a pet, I’m afraid.”
“Never?”
