Page 36 of Forgiving Paris
“Landon… we haven’t heard from her.” Elizabeth sighed. “I’m sorry. I wish I had better news.”
He stood and paced as far as the phone cord would let him. “You mean… she hasn’t called this week?”
Elizabeth waited a few seconds. “We haven’t heard from her since the day she left.”
Panic welled inside Landon. “The day she…? It’s been three weeks.”
“I know.” Elizabeth sounded tired. “John and I have called every few days. We always leave messages with Anna Martin. We keep it light, so the woman won’t think we’re worried.”
Landon wasn’t sure about mentioning the next part, but he couldn’t help himself. “I guess she’s been seeing the city with some new… friend?”
“We’ve heard that, but we know nothing more. Ms. Martin tells us she passes our messages on to Ashley.” She paused. “But still she hasn’t called.”
The conversation ended and Landon felt sick. Where was the girl he’d known since the fifth grade? What was happening to her in Paris? Could she be in trouble or was she turning into someone none of them would even recognize?
Landon didn’t want to think about the answers, but a few hours later, the anxious feeling had moved beyond fear to something else. Frustration. And by the time he met up with Jalen and Hope that night, he was moreangry than anything else. Fine. If Ashley didn’t want to talk to him or her parents, so be it.
He had better things to do than wonder about her.
And so it was that Landon and Hope began hanging out. They were friends first, but a month later after dinner and a walk across campus, Landon kissed her. He didn’t feel about her the way he did about Ashley. The way he still felt. But maybe he would in time.
Because as far as Landon was concerned, he probably wouldn’t see Ashley ever again. And one way or another he had to get on with his life. Even if he missed her till his dying day.
The memory lifted and Landon blinked a few times. The sun was down, and the lights of Paris replaced the colorful sky. Somehow, tonight he felt like that college kid again. Alone and sad and a million miles away from Ashley Baxter. With no way to reach her.
Even with her lying asleep in the next room.
ASHLEY SLEPT INfits and starts, but she couldn’t find her way out of the memory. Finally she realized she had just one choice. She needed to see her past through to the end. Only then could she open her eyes and make this trip about her and Landon… and not Jean-Claude Pierre.
Spending her days and nights with Jean-Claude made time stand still for Ashley. One afternoon he took her to lunch in the elegant eighth arrondissement. Over vodkaand tonic, she leveled her gaze at him. “You are married, Jean-Claude.”
“Oui, ma chérie. I am committed to another.”
Ashley knew this. But in that moment she felt the floor begin to tilt. “But… you are in love with me. Every night… you tell me you love me. That I’m… all you want.”
“It is true.” Passion blazed in Jean-Claude’s eyes. “I want only you, Ashley, mon amour. We have today.”
What was that supposed to mean?She had given her heart and soul, her mind and body to this man. And now he was telling her they had today? “You mean… only today?”
“Oui. That is all we will ever have.” He slid his chair closer to her and kissed her on the lips. A kiss that rocked her senses. “That is enough, yes?”
She didn’t have to think about her answer. “Yes.” Her eyes were lost in his as she nodded. “That is enough.”
Her time with Jean-Claude was wrong, but it was magical all the same. He would take her hand in his and she would forget her very soul. The affair continued every day when she got off work. And if Jean-Claude talked to Marguerite, then she would have an entire day with him.
And at night… at night the fire between them was otherworldly. He was a temptation she was powerless to resist. It was the same for him. They were hungry for each other, neither could get enough.
Their time might have continued indefinitely if Ashley hadn’t started feeling sick. Not just in the morning butat night, too. A week passed before she realized that maybe, just maybe, she was experiencing more than a stomach bug.
A trip to the local pharmacie and Ashley found a test. She took it the next morning and she had her answer, the one she feared more than anything in all her life.
She was pregnant.
Like that, her passionate, forbidden Paris days with Jean-Claude came to an end. As if somehow he knew about the baby before she said a word. She took a cab to his studio that night, but before she could climb out and head for his front door, Jean-Claude walked out of the building with a young man.
The two were arm in arm like lovers.
Ashley had the driver take her a few streets away, where she threw up in the gutter. How could he cheat on her? How long had he been seeing other people?
