Page 40 of Never Have We Ever
Chapter 10
Thomas knocked over the turrets on the impressive sandcastle the rest of the family carefully built on a sandy French beach. Daniela screamed at her brother, who took off running, his brown curls bouncing in glee and his red and white swim trunks falling down his chubby rump.
“Papa!” She clung to her father, sitting cross-legged in the sand and tapping a plastic shovelagainst his shin. “He did it!” Her exasperated French echoed down the beach. “Thomas did it!”
“He sure did, little pumpkin.” André pulled his daughter into his lap. She was almost too big to fit snugly in his embrace now. Another sign of the years continuing to go by. “Somehow, we will live, even if the citizens of the sands do not. It’s the cycle of nature.”
Behind him, Thomas continued tocackle like the rambunctious kindergartener he had become. Bridget the nanny caught sight of him on her return from the refreshment stand and cried out in an exasperated mix of French and German. Thomas didn’t care to understand either language. He would rather run in circles with his swim trunks around his ankles.
Valeska let the nanny deal with it. She was too comfortable on her beach towelto mind her own children. For once, she had both the nannyandtheir father on hand. They could be the alert ones for once. This was a vacation, after all.
One of the things Valeska had demanded when she first returned to Paris with her husband was that André make an even greater effort to be home more often.“They’ll be adults before we know it,”she had lamented.“I don’t want my children togrow up and not know their father. Tell yours that you will only do one trip a month from now on.”
Oh, Monsieur Dubois made sure those trips counted. The company reassigned André’s work trips so he now took them back to back for about one week a month. At least it created a more stable environment than having him dash in and out of the house like a wayward wind. Valeska appreciated the stabilitytoo.
Like she didn’t want her children growing up without a steady father, Valeska likewise did not want to forget her own husband’s touch. Sometimes he declared she left him more exhausted in the bedroom than he ever felt on his trips.
“Daniela,” Valeska chided with a sigh, “you can always build another castle. That’s what your ancestors did.”
“That’s right. That’s why you find the mostbeautiful palaces in the world here in France.”
Valeska lowered her sunglasses. “What was that?” she barked in German. “That’s it. Next vacation we’re taking a tour of German castles. We’ll start in Austria.”
“Can we go to Granddame’s?”
“Of course.”
That promise was enough to cheer up Daniela. It helped that André suggested they have their Italian sodas (complete with cream) and play witha Frisbee next. Anything to redirect his daughter’s fickle attention away from the mutilated sandcastle.
Valeska had hoped the running around would have knocked Thomas out, but the sugar in the soda transformed him into an engine once more. She remained cozy on her beach towel while her husband played catch with Daniela and Thomas terrorized the nanny.We pay her enough to deal with it.Lenahad understandably refused to return to the Dubois household after Valeska embarrassed her with false accusations. But it had turned out to be for the best, for Bridget was unwavering in her professional demeanor. Neither André nor Valeska could crack her countenance and befriend her beyond what was acceptable for a household servant.
Valeska missed having that kind of companionship, but sherealized she needed to be more aggressive in making her own friends around Paris. So she started a small society for Germanic expats and French aristocrats looking to improve their German. In one year, it had swollen to a healthy membership of over fifty women who started charities and threw parties to entertain themselves. Valeska was guilty of indulging herself with the parties, too.As soonas we’re back from this family trip, I have an appointment to help Madame Schmidt put together a surprise birthday party for Madame Bernard.
Daniela soon joined Bridget and Thomas with shell collecting. André took the opportunity to plop down onto his wife’s beach towel and share with her a sip of his Italian soda. Or what was left of it, anyway.
Raspberry? I much prefer lime.Valeska passedthe plastic cup back and lay behind her husband. She had a grand view of the top of his ass crack poking out of his swim trunks. He probably thought the same thing about her cleavage whenever he glanced down at her through his thick sunglasses.
“We should do this more often,” André said. He could barely take his eyes off his children playing in the surf with Bridget on careful watch. “Even ifthey don’t want to do it. Because they have many years ahead of them to decide to hang out with us or not.”
Valeska laughed. “You mean we should force them to be our children while they’re still young enough to let us? You have a point. Let’s take another short family trip next month, too.”
“But, you know…” André leaned over his wife, their warm, bare skin rubbing together in the sunlight. “It’sgood to give them some freedom too. What if I suggest that Bridget order them dinner in the room tonight and let them choose a movie to rent? Because I think you and I have a date at the restaurant on the corner.”
Valeska perked up. “The Italian one with the Tuscan wine?”
“Yes, yes, that one. It came highly recommended as a romantic place to have a date. So… let’s go. Tonight at seven. I havea reservation.”
She poked him in the small of his muscular back. “What are we going to do about privacy afterward? What? You will give me wine at the restaurant, blow me up with compliments, then take me back the hotel we share with the children and the nanny? It’s closer quarters than in our own house.”
“You’re saying you might be loud after dinner?”
“I’m on vacation and being plied with wineby my husband. If that doesn’t scream that I will be screaming, then I don’t know what planet you currently inhabit.”
He lay down next to her, halfway onto the sand beneath them since Valeska took up most of the towel. “I don’t care what planet we travel to, as long as we’re there together.”
Valeska rolled her eyes. “Your ridiculous poetry sounds better in French.”
“Everything sounds betterin French.”
