His gaze drops to my lips. “Good,” he says. “Let’s get you a drink. And then I’d better check back in with Gio. He was about to make me an offer.”
I feel deflated as he goes into his kitchen and grabs me a cider from the fridge before locking us out of the apartment and pocketing his keys. I’m expecting him to leave me to my own devices, butwhen I start to wander off, he catches my hand and draws me to his side, a move that makes me feel giddy. We go together to find Gio.
I soon ease into the company of him and his friends and start to enjoy myself. I notice Étienne’s eyes lingering on my lips when I’m talking, and then I realize that I’m doing the same to him. Eventually he’s called away to deal with something, but I’m always aware of exactly where he is in the room at any given time.
Lise turns up close to midnight. She must’ve come straight from work.
“Hiya!” she exclaims after I’ve approached with caution to say hello. Her smile seems genuine so I relax.
We chat for a bit about the project and I tell her that I’ll drop by La Terrasse with some of the art nouveau postcards this week so she can photograph them.
They’re part of the story of Eau de Sainte Églantine, which begins with Étienne’s ancestors and shows how they continued to inspire the brand, even after a wily Parisian called Pierre Osier won a piece of their land in an underhand game of poker.
I’m not sure Albert, Jackson,orSandrine will allow use of the wordswilyorunderhandin our marketing, but that’s how I’ll present it to them nonetheless.
Lise asks what else I’ve been up to. I almost tell her about how Étienne and I went kayaking, but I decide that it’s safer to talk about our trip to Les Saules instead.
“I’ve never been to his house by the river,” Lise says. “What’s it like?”
Evenshehasn’t been there? Have any of his friends?
“It’s beautiful. Not as beautiful as it used to be, but—”
“How do you know what it used to be like?”
“That’s how I met Étienne. When I was seventeen. I went for a walk and stumbled across it. He saved me from a wolf.”
“A wolf?” She looks alarmed.
I laugh and relay the story. “He’s never told you this?”
She shakes her head, a strange look on her face. “No, he said he knew you briefly when you were younger, but that you were just a tourist, some girl he’d met who was on holiday.”
I mean, Iwas, but it felt like more than that. His description of me to Lise, if that’s what it was, is jarring.
“I keep thinking about what you said about Étienne falling hard and fast for your sister,” I confess. “I can’t imagine him being like that. He seems so guarded.”
“I don’t think he knew how to fall in love any other way, but I guess he’s learned his lesson now. The number of times he sat crying on my couch after Eve returned to Scotland…He was a wreck.”
There’s a pain in my chest at the thought of Étienne experiencing that grief for a second time.
“He said she went back to be with your parents, but I wondered if she also wanted to spare him after what happened with his mum.”
“She did.” Her gaze is discerning. “She tried to cut him loose, but he wasn’t having it. They still spoke on the phone, right up until she couldn’t really talk anymore.”
The backs of my eyes sting. “That’s devastating.”
She’s still looking at me. “Sorry, but I’ve got to ask.”
Here we go.
“What do you see in him?”
I sigh.
“I’m talking about Jackson this time,” she says. “You just seem like old mates. There’s way more chemistry between you and Étienne.”
I frown and avert my gaze.
