Page 31 of Never Too Late

“You’ll be telling me next that sex in France doesn’t involve three sheep and a grandfather clock.”

Laurent flicked a hand at me. “Do not use humor to avoid answering the question. You were the one who came to me withthe sad face and told me Cillian was returning to London today. If you didn’t want to talk about it, you would have stayed silent.”

“All we did was kiss,” I admitted. “Nothing else.”

“But the first time you were together, you were at it like badgers, yes?”

“I wouldn’t put it quite like that. And I think you mean rabbits.”

“Rabbits. Badgers. Squirrels. Hedgehogs. It is much the same.”

“Never work for the RSPCA.”

“And what happens now?” Laurent asked, his gaze sharp.

“Honestly?” When he nodded, I fixed my gaze on two children playing at the opposite side of the park. They were laughing as they ran around in what looked like a game of tag. I didn’t know what the French name for it was, and I suspected Laurent might blow a gasket if I chose this moment to ask him. “I expect he’ll try at first, but that it’ll tail off as he becomes embroiled in his work. Out of sight, out of mind, and all that.” Admitting that felt like we’d failed already, but it was better to be realistic about the chances of it working.

“And what about when he breaks your heart again?”

Laurent getting straight to the crux of the matter had a lump forming in my throat that made it difficult to swallow. I took a deep breath in, filling my lungs full of fresh air and then releasing it in one smooth, controlled movement while I got myself together. All the while, Laurent’s dark eyes bored into me as he waited for an answer. “Then… I guess you get to tell me I told you so, and that I could have avoided it if I’d just gone along with your dastardly plans.”

“You think I am that poor a friend? That I would mock your trusting nature, and take delight in your poor fortune?”

I lifted my gaze from the loose thread I’d been plucking at on my trousers to find Laurent looking genuinely wounded. “No!Of course not. You’d be within your rights to say it, though. You were the one who tried to save me with the sacrifice of your lips.”

Those same lips quirked slightly. “Kissing you was not so terrible.”

“Glad to hear it. Although, you may want to work on your chat up lines. ‘Not so terrible’ isn’t exactly what every man dreams of hearing.”

“Chat up lines?”

“Your wooing technique,” I explained. Laurent’s English was so good that I frequently forgot it wasn’t his first language. In fact, I usually only remembered when we ate out and he chatted to people in rapid French that I didn’t have a hope in hell of keeping up with.

“Ah, wooing,” he said, looking thoughtful for a moment. “You may also want to remember that I was the one who urged you to give your Irishman another chance.”

“Cillian,” I said. “He has a name.”

“We will see. He has yet to earn one with me.”

Despite the seriousness of the conversation, I laughed. “My relief that you’re on my side grows and grows.”

Laurent smiled. “As it should.”

“And in answer to your earlier question,” I said. “I don’t know what I’ll do if he breaks my heart again. I never admitted to him he broke it in the first place.” I shrugged. “He may have worked it out, but we never discussed it.”

Laurent contemplated my words for a moment. “I think you broke his as well.”

“Yeah?”

“He followed you here, didn’t he?” I gave another shrug, my shoulders feeling tight. Laurent studied me for a moment. “If he breaks your heart again, you will be okay. We will get a place together—”

“I have a cat,” I interjected. “I forgot to tell you. Cillian’s fault. It only has one ear and half a tail.”

Laurent frowned, but didn’t let the news derail him. “We will get a place. You, me, and the ugly cat.”

“He’s not ugly. Quasimodo has just had a rough time. I need to take him to a vet and find out how old he is, and if he needs any injections or anything. I was going to ask if you’d accompany me and translate. I think the conversation might get a little more complex than telling the vet what my favorite lesson at school was and why.”

“We will visit the vétérinaire,” Laurent said with a nod. “Now, can I finish what I was saying?”

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