We reach Café Bonjour and choose a seat in the back, and after the server takes our orders of sandwiches with fries, Lauren and I sit across from one another as if we’re waiting for the other to speakfirst.
So I doit.
“Gramps has decided to close down ChicLimos.”
Boom. Cat right out of thebag.
Lauren blinks. “Really?Why?”
“Well, it’s been hard for him to keep it afloat with the competition coming in. There are only a few regular clients, which includes you, but it’s not enough to sustain a profit. And business isbusiness.”
Her shoulders sink. “So what does that mean for you? Does that mean you’re leaving Paris, packing up and heading back to NewYork?”
And I thought her first concern would be how she’ll get around townnow.
“No. I’m staying put. I loveParis.”
A pause momentarily swoopsin.
“Okay. So where are you gonnalive?”
The server drops off our sodas, and I explain to Lauren about Gramps and Nana moving to the South of France, and how I’ve come to inherit their Parisvilla.
Her eyebrows lift up then down. “Wow, Jaxson, that’s pretty wonderful. Congrats. And I think it’s amazingly cool about your nana’s art gallery,” she says with a smile. Then adds, “And don’t worry about me. I can always call an Uber or a taxi to take me to the office. Or get up the nerve todrive.”
She puts her elbows on the table, resting her face on her palm, a pensive glow in hereyes.
“Drive?”
Her eyelashes flutter. “Yep. I do have a car, but I don’t like driving so it just stays parked in thegarage.”
The server delivers our meals and both of us readily divein.
“Mind if I ask why you don’t likedriving?”
After cramming a few fries in her mouth, she shakes her head and says, “I really don’t talk about it much. Brings back bad memories of my teens and my ungrateful twin”—she squints her eyes and tilts her head to the side—“but I feel like I can tell you anything,Jaxson.”
With a mouthful of sandwich I say, “Youcantell meanything.”
She sucks in a deep breath. “Okay. I was a teen, about sixteen years old. Daddy had just bought me and Becky a car. It was ours to share. I rarely drove the thing because she always seemed to hog it. Cheerleading practice. A nail appointment. Sex in the back seat…whatever.”
Her face gleams of annoyance at the memories of her sister. I listen intently as she goeson.
“One night she went to some lame-ass party. A party Mama and Daddy forbid her to go to, mind you. But her stubborn, selfish butt snuck out, went to that damn party. Then had the nerve to call me—crying and beggin’ me to come get her, that I couldn’t tell our parents because she didn’t want to get in trouble. Apparently, the little tramp she went to the party with, left with some guy and poor little drunk Becky was alone and scared.” She takes a small bite of her sandwich. Then a sip of soda, swallowing before she continues on. “So I grabbed my raincoat and hopped in the Beatle on a mission to not only rescue my dim-witted twin, but to also ring her neck. Only, I never madeit.”
I drop the fry I was about to shove in my mouth and lean in, curious to hearmore.
“Whathappened?”
She looks to the ceiling for a few seconds and fans her eyes, then shifts her eyes back to mine. “The roads were slick, from Savannah rainfall. I could barely see, even with the windshield wipers going. Before I knew it, my car was spinnin’ and rollin’. I woke up in the hospital. Luckily I just had a slight concussion and a broken my arm. Daddy said my car hit a slick of oil and when I lost control, my car flipped and I crashed into a ditch.” She scoffs. “Silly me bought a BMW last year. I had it delivered to me and everything, convinced I would drive it some day. But the fact is, I’ve never conjured up the nerve to get behind the wheel of any car since myaccident.”
Lauren looks down at her food, swirls a fry she’s holding ‘round and ‘round in a small pool of sauce splattered on the edge of herplate.
God, how I want to hold her. Make her fear goaway.
“And Becky? Did she get in trouble for going to that party? For asking you to come rescue her and ultimately be the reason why you were out there in the firstplace?”
Her lips form into a half-smirk. “She got grounded, but didn’t speak to me for weeks because of it. Said because of me, she missed the homecomingdance.”
