We’re going on a road trip to a village by the Swiss border. I’ll let you know about the falling part.
She could practically see Ella’s face, and when the little bubbles appeared to show her she was typing back, she chewed on her lip and kept staring at the screen.
There’s something about those little wooden boxes, Mia. I swear, it’s like they’re some kind of magic love charm.
If that was the case, then she wished she’d brought hers with her. But it had been empty, and Mia’s connection had never been with the box—it was with the bottle and the notebook.
She was about to text back when a car horn sounded outside, but she quickly glanced down when her phone vibrated again.
Go for it, Mia. Find all the answers, but have fun along the way. Trust me, sometimes it’s worth letting your guard down, especially when there’ s a gorgeous man involved.
She dropped her phone into her handbag and picked up her duffel, hurrying out to the car when she realised that Joe was holding up traffic where he was parked. His car was shiny and cute, and she thought that if she were a car person it would probably be a big deal, but she had no idea.
He leaned over from the driver’s seat and pushed the door open for her, and Mia jumped in, waving to the cars waiting behind them and throwing her bag in the back.
‘Hey,’ he said.
‘Hey,’ she replied, her heart racing the moment she was seated beside him.
He waited until she’d buckled up, ignoring the honking from behind, before accelerating down the narrow, cobbled street.
‘Joe, if you?—’
‘Mia, I don’t?—’
They both laughed, and he glanced over at her, taking his eyes off the road for a second.
‘You go first,’ he said.
She angled her body so that she was facing him. ‘If this is weird, you don’t have to do this. I’m sure your mother will forgive you for not accompanying me.’
‘Have you not met my mother? There’s no way she’d forgive me,’ he said with a chuckle. ‘I think her words this morning were, whatever you do, don’t let this English rose slip through your fingers.’
Mia laughed. ‘She knows,’ she said. ‘You know that, right? She completely figured out that this was all a charade.’
‘Maybe,’ he said, before glancing at her again and giving her a look that was hard to read. ‘But then maybe this was never a charade in the first place. Maybe we were only fooling ourselves.’
Mia swallowed.What did he just say?
Joe glanced at her for a third time, but this time he didn’t say anything. This time he made her heart stop for a completely different reason, taking her hand and covering it with his own on the gear stick between them. But when she looked at him, he just smiled, one hand on the steering wheel as he navigated the insane Paris traffic, looking like he hadn’t just said something that was so damn sweet he’d stunned her into silence.
When they finally got to the Jura Mountains, it was late afternoon. The drive had been lovely, with the soft-top down for most of it and the sunshine on her skin, and now they were wandering along a pretty little road in search of their hotel. She was in awe of the landscape and wished she’d brought herrunning shoes so she could have explored the trails through the mountains and surrounds on foot.
‘My mother offered to make the booking for us, but I figured she’d book a room with one bed,’ he said, as he nodded for her to go ahead. He was carrying both their bags, despite her insisting she could carry her own, and she held the door for him to pass through.
Mia just shook her head, smiling as she thought about his mother and how much fun she seemed to be having trying to set them up. But she didn’t have time to thank him for being so thoughtful because a bellhop came running over to take their bags, and she let Joe organise everything as she went to the window and stared out at the pretty garden.
‘Mia?’
She turned and found Joe watching her. He almost took her breath away, standing in his white T-shirt and jeans that hugged his waist, his aviators caught on the front of his tee. She glanced away, finding that she couldn’t stop thinking about what he’d said in the car, and wondering whether she should have come with him at all. Because she was torn between wanting to steer completely clear of him, and wishing that something more might happen between them.
‘Shall we go up to our rooms?’ he asked. ‘We can freshen up and then find somewhere close for dinner.’
Mia took the old-fashioned brass key that he was holding out, and they stood there for a long minute before he let go and she walked ahead of him up the stairs, letting herself into her room. She immediately went to the window and stared out at the mountains, and it reminded her of her trip to Canada, when she’d lost Ethan. It was a very different landscape, but it gave her the same feeling inside as she looked out at the endless blue skies.
But the best part of all was that she didn’t feel sad. Instead, she felt a yearning to be part of nature again, with her camera hanging from her fingertips.
‘So tell me. What is the plan tomorrow?’ Mia asked Joe, as they sat in the early evening sunshine with half-drunk glasses of wine on the table and the remnants of a platter full of local delicacies.
