Page 22 of Touch the Sky

“Oh, uh, yeah.” I reach up to scratch the back of my neck. “We don’t have plans or anything. I was in the area and thought she might be around. I just wanted to go over some stuff about the rental unit with her.”

I wait for Gabrielle to question why I’m not here to talk to her, considering she’s the one whose name will be on the lease, but she just nods and then pulls her phone out to check the time.

“Ah,zute alors,” she mutters. “I’m late already.Mauditlegs.”

She stuffs her phone back in her purse and grins again, but I can see worry gathering in the crinkly lines around her eyes.

“I am very happy you’re still interested,” she says, “but Jacinthe isn’t here today. It’s the grand opening.”

I’m about to ask what she means when it hits me.

“Oh, the inn! That’s today?”

“Yes.” Gabrielle bobs her head. “And I am very late. I told Jacinthe I would drive myself over. I’m so sorry to be rude, Tess, but I have to go.”

She hefts her purse strap higher up on her shoulder and sucks in a deep breath.

“Right, right. Of course,” I babble.

She takes her first step and immediately gasps, then clenches her jaw into a tight line before she takes her second.

I didn’t notice much of a resemblance before, but the hard, stubborn expression makes her look just like her daughter.

She makes it another few steps before she pauses, panting.

“I could drive you,” I blurt.

I cringe as soon as the words leave my mouth. If she says she can drive, it’s not my place to tell her she can’t, but she doesn’t look like taking her own car would be a good idea.

“Of course, it’s totally up to you,” I tell her. “I just thought I’d offer. I?—”

“Tess, you are an angel!”

She beams at me, and all resemblance to her daughter vanishes. There’s no way I can imagine Jacinthe looking that happy to see me.

She claps her hands and switches course to head for my truck.

“Now,vite vite!” she orders. “We have to get there before they cut the ribbon!”

I don’t know what kind of crowd I was expecting, but I never would have guessed we’d have to park four blocks away from the inn.

I didn’t even know La Clochehadfour blocks.

Gabrielle is groaning with more and more distress the farther we go without finding a gap big enough for the farrier rig in the never-ending cars lining the sidewalks.

“Don’t worry,” I tell her. “We’ll get something.”

“I should have left earlier,” she says, her hands digging into her hair. “I knew it would be like this.”

“How about I just drive as close to the inn as I can and let you hop out?”

I’d much prefer to make sure she gets there safely, but at this rate, we’ll be stuck hiking down from the mountains by the time I find a place to park.

“Oh, but you have to come too!” Gabrielle says, giving up on scanning the streets to stare at me with wide eyes. “You’re not going to miss it, are you? Everyone is here!”

Before I have a chance to answer, a minibus full of senior tourists swings out into the street up ahead of us, clearing a large stretch of pavement.

I hit the gas, Gabrielle cheering me on as I do the smoothest parallel park of my life. She’s already flinging her seatbelt off before I’ve even cut the engine, and by the time I’ve got my bearings and locked the truck, she’s hustled several meters up the sidewalk.