Page 39 of Forgiving Paris
“Well.” His grandpa laughed. “I have a wild idea. I thought I’d share it with you.”
Cole reached his dorm. He sat on the outdoor stairs. “Okay… tell me.”
“All right. So you know your parents are in Paris for the week.”
“My mom’s show.” Cole stared at the starry sky. Hewould’ve given anything to be there. “I wanted to go. Maybe next time.”
His grandpa hesitated. “Actually… maybe this time.”
For the next few minutes his grandfather explained how he had checked flights, and if Cole could get home by Tuesday, then they could fly to Paris the next day. “We would get there in time for her show. If everything goes just right we would check into a hotel near the gallery, and when the show starts, we walk through the door and surprise her!” He sounded like a kid, he was so excited. “What do you think?”
Cole’s mind raced. He didn’t have more meetings till next week. “You know what… I think I could do it.”
“We’d stay another day and see the sights. Then we’d come home. You could be back at school a week from today.”
“Hold on.” Cole put the call on speaker and checked his calendar. “My next appointment is on that Monday. That would work!”
“So you’ll join me?” Grandpa Baxter laughed. “Come on, Cole. Let’s go surprise her. It’ll be the greatest gift.”
Cole was laughing, too, now. “I love that about you, Papa. You always have the best ideas.”
“This one’s crazy, I know. But why not? Life isn’t a dress rehearsal, right?”
“Definitely. Let’s do it!” Cole talked specifics with his grandpa and after a few minutes the call ended. He couldn’t believe it! He was actually going to Paris!
Cole didn’t know all the details about his mother’stime in the City of Love, except for what everyone in the family knew. She’d had a brief relationship with a married man and come home pregnant with him.
But now he was twenty-two, and he’d never been to the city where he came from. The place where his birth father had lived. No, the man wasn’t a good guy. And he was dead now, anyway. But Cole had always wanted to visit Paris. He had long wondered if a part of him would feel at home there.
Of course, he had always pictured taking the trip with his mother. The woman who had kept him and raised him and loved him with her whole life. But this would be even better. The trip wouldn’t be with her, it would be for her. A gift for the best mom any kid could ever have.
The gift of a lifetime.
ASHLEY LIFTED HERhead from the pillow and blinked. Where was she? She sat up straighter and let her eyes adjust. Then it hit her. She was in their Paris hotel room, she and Landon, here in the Marais.
This was their anniversary trip. Her first Parisian show.
The details were all coming back to her. She put her head in her hands and winced. Her temples throbbed, her headache still holding on like a vise grip. She wasn’t sure if it had been a dream or a long and terrible memory, but she had just replayed every awful detail of her last time in Paris. Right up until the best part.
The part where she kept Cole.
She slipped her feet over the edge of the bed and grabbed her phone from the bedside table. Nine o’clock already. Poor Landon. Had he gone out for dinner, or was he still in the other room? She made her way to the sink and grabbed a bottle from her bag. Tylenol. Yes, that’s what she needed. She peeled the plastic from the hotel glass at the edge of the sink, filled it with tap water, and downed two pills.
There. That would help.
She looked at herself in the mirror and made a face. Her mascara was streaked down both cheeks, so she must’ve actually been crying. Not just remembering the tears from those far-off days. When the water from the sink was warm, she drenched a fresh washcloth and pressed it to her face. Was this how the entire trip was going to be?
Before she could figure out an answer, the door opened and Landon stepped in. “Ashley… you’re awake.”
“How long did I sleep?”
“Four hours.” He came to her and put his hands on her shoulders. “How are you?”
She dried her face and turned to him. Then she slipped her arms around his neck and rested her face on his chest. “I couldn’t stop remembering. It was like… like I was in a trance. Or a coma. I’m sorry, Landon.”
He kissed the top of her head. “It’s okay, Ash. Maybe it was good for you to remember.”
“It wasn’t.” Tears filled her eyes again. She lifted herface to his. “I hate everything about my first time in Paris, Landon. Everything but the most important part.”
