He didn’t look particularly convinced by the idea but accepted my words like a gentleman. “Thanks. What about you, though? What’s next?”
“Back to France. Next week, actually. I’m going to find a small town somewhere and open my own place.”
“That sounds perfect for you. Well, what little of you I know.” Daniel grinned, and for once, it didn’t look rehearsed.
I couldn’t help but grin back.
“Good luck, Marie. I mean that.”
“Good luck to you too.”
We hugged briefly, awkwardly, and then he sauntered away down the street. I watched him go, noting how he walked into the first bar he passed.
Some things, apparently, would never change.
But at least now I understood what those things were.
Joni and Nathan’sapartment felt like a sanctuary when I let myself in with the spare key.
“Everything decent?” I called out when I heard them in the living room, talking quietly.
I wasn’t taking my chances after catching them that one day at Lea’s. There had been a few other close calls while I’d stayed here this week.
“Oh my God, you prude, we’re just hanging out,” Joni called from the living room.
I removed my shoes at the door—Nathan was a fastidious man—and hung my purse on the hall rack, then walked in to find them sitting on the rug in front of Nathan’s gray couch. Nathan was looking over some plans for their new house while Joni stretched, allowing him to reach over to help when it suited him.
They looked so perfectly domestic, so in sync with each other despite their obvious differences. It was beautiful, but it also made me feel like I was intruding on their carefully constructed life.
This placewasa sanctuary, I realized. But not for me.
“So, how was lunch with Prince Charming?” Joni asked as she pushed herself into a lateral split.
“Illuminating.” I dropped onto an armchair across from them. “And final. We both figured out we never really knew each other at all. He apologized and went into a bar. I left for my new life. The end.”
“Technically, you left to come here,” Nathan observed, looking up from his plans.
Joni rolled her eyes as she sat up. “She was exaggerating, you goober.”
Nathan looked up, startled, then seemed to warm when he caught my sister’s grin. “Ah. Understood.”
I looked away while Joni rewarded Nathan’s social awkwardness with a thorough kiss. That the more clueless Nathan was about social moments like these, the more my sister seemed to love him for it.
Once again, Lucas came to mind, damn him. His quiet, almost shy watchfulness. And the way he had also seemed to enjoy my own awkward moments. My innocence, as it were.
There was that ache again, right in the center of my chest.
“There’s leftover stir-fry on the stove if you want some,” Joni said. “I made it myself, so you know it’s questionable, but Nathan choked it down.”
“I have a very strong stomach,” Nathan commented dryly. “One that’s become acclimated to Joni’s attempts in the kitchen.”
She kissed him again. “It’s how I know you love me, babe.”
Nathan didn’t argue with her assessment.
“I ate with Daniel,” I said, standing up. “And I told you I’d cook for you guys while I’m here.”
Nevertheless, my stomach was growling after eating so little at lunch, so I went to the kitchen to check out Joni’s latest culinary failure. I lifted the lid off the pot and immediately clamped it back down. The smell was overwhelming. Surprisingly not bad, necessarily, but both garlicky and fishy in a way that made my stomach lurch.
