Page 197 of Boss of the Year

I rolled my eyes at her. “That’s great, Jacques,merci.”

“D’accord.And Marie?” He flashed an amiable smile that had charmed half the village, young and old. “You should know that everyone is talking about tonight. The whole village is excited to see what you’ve done with this place.”

My cheeks heated under his frank compliments. “I hope they won’t be disappointed.”

“Impossible,” he said with conviction. “Everything here is absolutely perfect.”

Louis and Kate exchanged glances beside me.

“Everything?” Louis muttered to her. “Or everyone?”

“Maybe only one,” Kate said with another pointed look my way.

I huffed. Apparently, they were back to being best friends.

But before I could tell them that Jacques and I were also just friends, we were all interrupted by a deep, solemn voice that sent a shiver up my spine with only one word.

“Marie?”

Kate’s eyes widened as she looked over my shoulder at the visitor. “Holy shit.”

Louis followed her gaze. “Putain. He came.”

I, however, couldn’t quite manage to face the owner of that voice. Mostly because I knew that the moment I did, all my hard work to forget him would wash away down the river like it had never happened at all.

“Marie?” he said again.

I took a deep breath and finally turned.

Lucas looked the same as ever, and yet somehow completely different. His customary black suit had been traded for more casual traveling wear: gray wool trousers and a thick cashmere coat over a dark blue sweater that emphasized his eyes, even under the dim fairy lights. The facial hair that he had always kept clean shaven had grown to what must have been a week’s worth of stubble, making a dapple of silver sparkle over his cut jaw and the hollows of his cheeks.

Those storm-cloud eyes, however, were just as dark as ever, swirling with untold depth and shadowed emotions that echoed the sadness I couldn’t quite shake either.

Or maybe I was just imagining that part.

“Lucas,” I said in a voice much stronger than I felt. “What are you doing here?”

His eyes brightened considerably when they looked over me, floating over my hair, my dress, and a million other details I was sure only Lucas ever seemed to see.

“Marie,” he said for the third time as he continued across the patio to where I stood. “I?—”

His greeting was cut off by the sound of car doors closing and raucous voices carrying over the creek as footsteps crunched across the gravel walkway. I turned toward the gate and saw several familiar faces waving and laughing.

Right on cue, the band began to play, drowning out any possibility for a conversation.

Lucas Lyons would have to wait. My guests had arrived.

40

COQ AU VIN

*There’s no shame in cheating with a little roux at the end.

His presence should have made everything worse. I was already a ball of nerves on what was easily the biggest day of my life.

The grand opening of Chez Songe du Soir meant more to me than my final exam at the Institute. More, even, than the moment a few months earlier when Daniel Lyons had asked me to dance. Or even that day in Paris when Lucas Lyons had told me he loved me.

I should have been a wreck.