Page 41 of Summer on the French Riviera
‘Okay, no drink, although you look as if you could do with one. I’ll walk with you and we can talk.’
Harriet stopped at a crossing and pressed the pedestrian button.
‘I had hoped you’d have been in touch by now with a date for a meet-up,’ Jack said quietly. ‘Learning about Elodie has blown my world apart. I just want to talk about my daughter – surely you can see that?’
The green light flashed and Harriet started to cross the road before she answered him.
‘I haven’t answered your messages because there is nothing more to tell you. I have told Elodie about you and that you are in town wanting to meet her, which came as a massive shock to her. She’s currently thinking about what she wants to do. I do know she’s worried about how our family dynamics will change. Having two parents in her life is not something she’s ever had before.’ Harriet held up her hand as Jack went to speak. ‘Before you say anything, I know that is totally my fault and not yours.’
‘The only thing she needs to do is meet me,’ Jack said. ‘Can you two not go out for a coffee together and I’ll just happen to saunter past all innocent? Would it not be easier to do it that way?’
‘No. I’m not doing that.’ Harriet shook her head. ‘It’s going to take time. Elodie has every right to decide for herself whether she wants to meet you or not.’
‘Or I could just turn up at the villa,’ Jack said. ‘Like I did this evening. Introduce myself.’
‘Are you even listening to me, Jack Ellicott?’ Harriet asked, barely managing to keep her temper. ‘You can’t force her to meet you, any more than you can force her to like you if or when she does meet you.’
Exasperated, Jack thumped his left hand with his right fist several times. Harriet remembered him doing that in the past when he got stressed. ‘All I want is to meet her. To learn what she’s like. Get to know her. Tell her about her American roots. Is that so wrong?’
‘No.’ Harriet sighed. She was starting to feel sorry for him, but there was no way she was going to tell Elodie to hurry up and decide. Jack had probably thought it would all be straightforward once he knew the truth about Elodie. Elodie would want to meet up and… and what? Once they’d met what would happen? Had he made plans for the future? ‘If you don’t pile on the pressure, I think Elodie will agree to meet you soon but…’ she hesitated. Jack was probably going to accuse her of putting up obstacles when she asked the next question, which she truly wasn’t, but things were bound to change after the meeting had happened. Life wouldn’t be the same ever again for any of them. Family dynamics would definitely have shifted. ‘What happens afterwards? You meet up and you go back to America and that’s it? Long-distance father-daughter relationship? That wouldn’t be fair on her if that’s what you’re planning on doing.’
‘I haven’t made any plans,’ Jack said. ‘I don’t intend to until Elodie and I have met. Then we can all sit down and talk the possibilities through as a family.’ He turned to look at Harriet. ‘I really don’t want to fight anyone over this, but I can’t not meet my daughter now I know about her.’
Harriet heard the anguished despair in his voice. She remembered the hurt she’d felt deep down last year when Elodie had been so reluctant to meet her. Her hurt, though, had been different. She was guilty of letting her daughter down, whereas Jack had nothing to be guilty over. Once again she was the guilty party.
‘Discovering that I have another child is a huge and wonderful thing to me. I wish I had been able to play a bigger part in her life.’ Jack ran his fingers through his hair. ‘I know you said no earlier to a drink or something to eat tonight but have dinner with me tomorrow night and talk to me about Elodie?’
Harriet shook her head, the word ‘No’ automatically forming in her head but still unspoken when she stopped. Deep down, she knew the true reason she wanted to refuse to have dinner with Jack was nothing to do with anything she was saying, it was all to do with her own buried feelings about him. Meeting him again had shown her exactly what she had thrown away all those years ago. She was afraid of those feelings showing up and giving her away to Jack.
Which meant that the last thing she wanted to do was to spend an evening with Jack, but if she did, she could tell him some of the things he wanted to know about Elodie. Maybe he’d back off a little then. Wait with a bit more patience.
She looked at him. ‘I’m not sure it’s a good idea, but okay, I’ll have supper with you tomorrow night to talk about Elodie and I’ll tell you as much as I can about her. Book an early table somewhere and text me the details. I’ll meet you there.’
32
Friday evening and Jack was waiting for her when Harriet arrived at the beach restaurant he had chosen, an ice bucket with an open bottle of rosé already on the table. He stood up to greet her, leaning in before she could step back to kiss her cheek.
‘When in France,’ he said, smiling at her discomfort before pouring two glasses of wine and handing one to her. ‘Santé.’
The waiter appeared and placed the customary basket of bread on the table, handing them both a menu before leaving them to choose their food.
Jack gave his menu a quick perusal before looking at Harriet.
‘They don’t appear to have our favourites – scampi and chips for you and spaghetti bolognese for me. Shall we leave?’
Harriet laughed, strangely cheered by the way he’d remembered their favourite pub meals from way back when. ‘How remiss of them. I guess I’ll have to settle for the crab salad with frites please. You?’
‘I think in the absence of spag bog, it will have to be the peppered steak and frites for me, boring, but I’m sure it will be good,’ Jack said.
Harriet was still giggling when Jack asked, ‘Do you remember that time you took me walking on Dartmoor and we got lost?’
‘Yes,’ Harriet said. ‘We ended up in a pub that had a funny name, didn’t we?’
‘The Mucky Duck. I have never forgotten it. It was a wonderful day.’ Jack laughed before giving Harriet a serious look. ‘I’ve never forgotten you either. I see you still wear the silver bracelet I bought you,’ Jack said quietly. ‘I noticed you had it on the other day too.’
Harriet sighed. ‘It’s a favourite.’ There was no point in telling him she never took it off.
‘Jack, please don’t, there’s no point in going over what might have been. Let’s keep our happy memories intact and move on.’
