Page 73

“I loved the Eiffel tower.”
“The cruise on the river was the best.”
“I met a French boy in Saint Tropez.”
It was a lot to take in all at once. Laughing, I held my hands up. “Hold up, hold up! Let’s slow down. First, Florian, I want to hear about your favorite ride at Disneyland. Belle, I want to know what the view was like from the Eiffel Tower. Tee, you’ll have to tell me what you saw on the river cruise. But you, missy,” I pointed my finger at Ariel, “All the details on this French boy. Stat.”
Blushing and giggling, Ariel said, “He didn’t speak very good English, and I don’t know any French. But Esme and Wolfe just let me get snapchat, so I gave him my snap and he said he’s going to teach me French.”
“Ooh la la, that is exciting. Now, everyone keep talking, while I make the coffee.” Of course, they all went off, chattering and talking over each other, and I loved every second of it.
Until Ariel said, “And then we found out you were really sick and Esme was so worried. She was almost ready to fly home, ‘til Wolfe rang Grayson and found out all about it.”
“She was very mad at you, actually.”
“Thanks, Florian,” Esme put in, rolling her eyes. “I was only a little bit mad, because I didn’t want Stef making herself so sick just for my wedding. And mad at myself for not realizing exactly how sick you were.”
“That’s not your fault. I did my best to hide it from you.”
“Seems like you hid something else from me, too.” Esme gave me a narrow-eyed look that had me squirming. “Which we can’t discuss right now, obviously. But soon…”
I sighed. “Okay.” I finished making the coffee. “Now, let’s see what there is for you guys to drink. And maybe a snack.” Pulling open the refrigerator door, I peered inside. “Hmm. We’ve got some organic fruit. Eggs. Cottage cheese. Some very fancy juice, by the looks. What is this? Oh, macrobiotic yogurt. Almond milk. Sparkling water. Literally nothing a kid might like.”
“You could probably mix some juice with the sparkling water, kind of like cordial,” Esme suggested.
“Yeah?”
“Sure. It’s either that or plain sparkling water. Or I’ll shoot downstairs to Wolfe’s and grab something. He always keeps kid friendly stuff there now, even though we’re hardly ever there.”
“Let’s go with the juice, sparkling water combo and go from there.”
Once all the drinks were made, we trooped over to the lounge area and settled on the couches. The moment we were sitting down, that was it for the kids. I got bombarded with all their holiday stories. By the time they’d done all that, and played with Patti to their heart’s content, late afternoon shadows were creeping across the room.
“Jesus, it’s nearly dinner time. You guys wanna stay?”
Esme paled a little and immediately shook her head. “I don’t think Grayson would want that.”
“What? Why not? You’re family.”
“Well, I don’t know…”
“You’re just saying that because you’re scared of him.”
“Exactly.”
“Well, there’s no need. He’s a giant teddy bear…”
Esme snorted.
“He is! Swear to god.”
“I like Grayson,” Belle announced.
“See! I’ll just shoot him a quick text to double check, but I’m sure it’s fine. We can get takeout or something, so no one even needs to cook.”
Me:Hey, Esme and the kids are here and it’s getting late. You don’t mind if they stay for dinner, do you?
Three dots appeared, disappeared, reappeared. I smiled to myself, because I knew the struggle he was going through.