Dean was standing in the window with a leprechaun cutout, gesturing expressively to Jacqueline, who had her arms crossed as she listened. Kyle noted the shelves were filling in fast. There was a new section stocked with champagne that hadn’t been there on his last visit.
When Dean caught sight of them, he danced over and opened the front door. “Hey! I hear good news might be upon us on the Michelin front. Come inside and settle a debate.”
“Yes, Kyle, please tell Dean that displaying a leprechaun in the window is not the message we wish to send our customers for our opening.”
He winced as Spike barked madly when Dean bent over and roughhoused with him. “Hey, I’m having a good day here.”
“I agreed on the parrot motif,chéri,” Jacqueline continued, “but mostly because I adore Pierre. But little Irish people are too much. Besides, we are in France.”
“But it’s St. Patrick’s Day!” Dean picked up Spike and made baby faces at him. “It’s like the International Holiday for Drinking. Irish bars here in Paris make bank.”
“Left or right?” she joked.
“Good one,” Kyle said with a laugh.
“I’ve seen Irish bars on both the Left Bank and the Right Bank, thank you.” Dean made a face to Spike. “No one appreciates my ingenious wit.”
“Not when it comes to leprechaun cutouts,” Jacqueline told him. “Now, Kyle, I heard the news from Thea. Christophe Flaubert is an incredible person to know. His special request to visit Nanine’s is a good sign, I think.”
“I think so too.” He laughed when Spike started sniffing at Dean’s pocket. “If you have food on you, he’ll find it.”
Dean lifted the puppy in the air. “Who can blame him? He’s a growing boy. So you and Madison are clearly doing better.”
He knew she was being guarded, and he couldn’t blameher. But he was staying positive and continuing to do everything in his power to make her dream come true. “Yeah,” was all he said, though.
“That’s all I get?” Dean asked, blinking comically.
“Yeah.”
Jacqueline gave a quiet laugh as Spike pawed in the air to be put down. Kyle took him and hugged him to his chest. Dean gave a dramatic groan.
“Chéri,the delivery man is here.” Jacqueline gestured to a van parking out front.
“I should go and let you two get back to work.”
“Take the leprechaun, Kyle,” Jacqueline murmured. “I beg you.”
Dean grabbed it and hugged it to his chest, making Spike yip with delight. “You are not taking my lucky leprechaun away.”
“Oh,chéri,” Jacqueline intoned, punctuated by a very French sound. “Whatever will I do with you?”
“I’ll tell you when we close the shop,” he answered with a wink. “See you later, Kyle. Spike, don’t be one of those little dogs who poops all over the streets of Paris. You’re better than that.”
“I am so out of here.”
He stopped next at the storefront Brooke had bought to launch her own interior decorating business with a famous fashion designer—although she’d put up paper on the windows so no one could see the renovation’s progress. Texting her, he asked if she was inside. A second later, the front door opened.
“Fancy seeing you here,” she quipped, dressed in her usual business couture of Chanel and Louboutins. “Out walking Spike?”
“Something like that. Did Thea share the news about our august guest coming tonight?”
“She did.” Locking the door behind him once he wasinside, she leaned up on her tiptoes and kissed his cheeks Parisian style before petting a yippy Spike. “He’s the guy we’ve been looking for. I love that Thea found him. She’s really showing her mettle, isn’t she?”
“It’s always been there,” he told her frankly as he set Spike down. “You don’t come to Paris with barely any French without your parents’ support unless you have mettle.”
She laid a comforting hand on his arm with a soft smile. “That almost sounds like you. Except your French was better—and you were more confident in your ability to make things happen.”
“Still am,” he said, kissing her cheek.
