The look vanished as quickly as it came, replaced by the beautiful smile I’d grown accustomed to. “You’re having a baby?” she whispered, moving back in her seat, examining Iris’s stomach as if a newborn might pop out of her bellybutton at any second. “Oh, my gosh, I can’t believe it.”
She reached out and took Iris in her arms. “It’s okay to hug you, isn’t it? I won’t break anything?”
Iris nodded eagerly, and at the grin on Chloe’s face, my heart almost burst.
After the longest hug in recorded history, they let each other go.
“I’m so excited for you,” giggled Chloe, sending an extra grin to Esmé. “It’s like I’m going to be an auntie.”
A nudge at my shoulder broke my focus. Fifi stood behind my chair, looking like I’d asked her to press the nuclear button.
“Are you okay?”
Her coiffed hair moved in the breeze. “Not really, but I don’t want to interrupt. Only, I think I need Chloe’s help.” At the sound of her name, Chloe turned her head.
“What’s up?” she asked, a small line forming between her brows.
“I’ve got a coffee emergency.” She looked over her shoulder. “There’s a gentleman over there who’s proposing to his girlfriend tonight, here at the restaurant. He saw Chloe Au Lait online and now he wants something special in his coffee. I’ve only just about mastered the jellyfish you showed me. I don’t think I can handle the pressure. What if I do a terrible job, and she turns him down? I can’t have that on my conscience.”
Chloe stifled a giggle.
I tugged my brows. “Chloe oh what?”
Chloe fixed her high beam smile firmly on me and shrugged her shoulders. “Nothing important right now.”
With a press to the back of Iris’s hand, she stood and turned to her friends. “If you’ll excuse me, I have history to make and lives to change. I’ll be back soon.”
She gestured her arm towards Fifi, encouraging her to move. “Fire up Phyllis and lead on. We’ve got work to do.”
25
MAXIME
As Chloe stepped from the table, a trace of her summery perfume lingered in the air,and I stood, ready to follow her. Sophie was almost asleep, curled up with her kitten on one of the club’s huge wicker chairs. Matteo’s phone drooped from her fingers.
I glanced at Esmé, who looked up mouthing, “I’ll watch her.”
I wondered if she knew my destination, but I nodded at her with a smile. Chloe was lucky to have such good friends. I’d closed myself off to friendships, always considering Fifi enough. But now I’d had a glimpse of something different. Something larger.
Fifi had disappeared, presumably to tell the groom-to-be that she’d bring his special coffee. Me? I tucked in behind the bar, coming to a stop behind Chloe as she stood at the coffee machine.
She turned her head, watching me over her shoulder. The light above caught the freckled tip of her nose.
“Did Fifi tell you to come and help me?”
I slowly shook my head. How could I explain that I just wanted to be close to her?
“I missed you.”
With a smile on her lips, Chloe reached for the metal milk jug on the bar top. Bringing it under one of the machine’s pipes, she reached out, wrapping her fingers around a silver knob. She paused, heat flickering behind her lashes. “Do you want a lesson?”
At her husky tone, something tugged in my stomach, and I stepped closer, drawing in behind her. “Show me.”
At my words, something flashed in her eyes. It was the same thing she’d said to me. Once by the pool and then in my boat.
The slowest, sexiest smile I’d ever seen grew on her lips. “Okay. We’ll start with getting hot.”
I curled a brow, my heartbeat kicking into high gear.
