“Why? Mac is his brother. You’d think he’d welcome him staying with him.”
“He’d have preferred he ask first rather than steal a key to get in. You’ve got to admit that it’s pretty sneaky to wait until he knew we were on holiday.”
“Perhaps,” I conceded.
“Cillian says we need to take Quasimodo to the vet for a check-up.”
“Why?”
“Because Mac has been looking after him when we thought you were.”
I laughed. “You’re not serious. Cillian has that low of an opinion of his brother that he doesn’t even trust him with a cat? What does he think he might have done to him?”
“I don’t know. You’d have to ask him that.”
Finn sounded tired. I guess there were better homecomings when you’d just stepped off a plane than getting caught in the middle of a feud between two brothers. “He’s going to let him stay, though, right?”
“Probably. Once he’s calmed down. Mac has shown no signs of packing.”
“I bet he hasn’t.”
I realized my mistake as soon as Finn went quiet. Sure enough, the next question was a predictable one. “Exactly how well have you gotten to know him?”
“I have to go.”
“Laurent…”
“I’ll see you soon.”
I spent the rest of the day catching up on all the life admin that I’d neglected while spending time with Mac. Exciting stuff like paying bills, shopping for food, and doing laundry. I’d started folding the now dry clothes and putting them away when my phone rang in the other room.
Praying it wasn’t Finn, or even worse Cillian, I sprinted to reach the phone before it went to voicemail. “Ah, the man himself,” I said before answering it. “Have you called to apologize?”
“Yes. But not for what you think.”
“What?”
“Okay, so I kind of did a thing.” I could hear street noise in the background and the sound of Mac walking around. “Things got heated between me and Cillian because… Well, because he’s a control freak and he thinks me coming here is yet another irresponsible thing in a long list of things he already labeled as irresponsible. He tried to tell me there was no reason to stay in Paris, that I’d had my holiday and it was time to go home.”
“Okay…”
“Oh, and they’ve already got a couple more dates lined up for you.”
The dramatic swerve in subject had me reeling for a moment. So much so I switched to French. “Quoi?” I gave myself a mental shake. “I mean… what? How is that possible? They’ve been back for two minutes.”
“Well…” I could hear the smile in Mac’s voice. “One was apparently pre-arranged before they ever got on the plane. And one was some random guy they met while they were in Dubai.”
“How random?”
“I don’t know. I didn’t interrogate them. He’s a historian, apparently.”
“A historian!” There was no keeping the derogatory note out of my voice.
“They think he might know enough random facts to keep you entertained. They made you sound like a child at a birthday party that gets shoved right in front of the magician to keep him out of trouble. I took offense on your behalf. He’s forty-eight, this guy.”
“Forty-eight.” I was aware I’d turned into a parrot, but couldn’t seem to stop myself.
“Yeah, Finn said you had an issue with how young your last date was.”
