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“Good night, family,” I said to the photo a little later. “I’m glad you got to see the place, Mum. I’m sure Billy enjoyed the pool. Sorry you didn’t get to come here, Dad. It’s lovely. Miss you guys. Love you.”

I closed my eyes and, for a moment, wondered how Tristan was and if he was back from his mysterious journey.

Thinking of him made me smile, and I fell asleep.

Chapter XIV Candles

Dylan was eating poached eggs on toast while Lulu was picking at a fresh croissant and poring over a laptop when I came down to breakfast. She lit up like Christmas when I wandered into the kitchen. “Good morning, Emily. Did you sleep well?” Her mood was infectious.

I smiled but wondered what she had planned. “Good morning. Yes. Thank you.”

“Don’t look so worried. I’ve been doing a little homework so we can plan our shopping trip.”

“Oh. Okay.”

“Come have a look.”

“Morning, Emily,” Dylan said. “I went out and bought some pastries this morning. They’re all fresh. Here.” He pushed a basket of fresh yumminess toward me.

I took a seat beside Lulu to see what she wanted to show me, picked up a pain au chocolat, and took a bite.

Oh. My. God. It was delicious.

Dylan, satisfied, went back to his eggs and Lulu grinned. “I want to show you some redheaded influencers so you can see what they’re wearing.”

Influencers?

“Here.” She clicked on one of her browser tabs, and a beautiful young woman, who had hair like mine and freckles sprinkled over the bridge of her nose like me, appeared on Instagram. She was lovely, probably a little older than me, and posing for the camera in various outfits. “See?”

Lulu had found a few redheaded Instagrammers, and she clicked between them quickly.

Wow. So many.

She’d also pulled up a page from someone who was all about capsule wardrobes. “Here. This woman is amazing. I think we should buy some of these and stay very neutral to begin with and slowly introduce color.”

“Um… okay.”

“There’s a Galeries Lafayette in Bordeaux and a Uniqlo. I think we should start there.” Lulu’s enthusiasm for this shopping trip was off the scale.

I didn’t want to rain on her parade. “Okay. Show me the influencers again.”

Lulu clapped her hands, and I took another bite of pain au chocolat, hiding my smile at her eagerness.

“I need to leave in about an hour. Will that give you enough time to… um… be influenced?” Dylan’s tone was a little sardonic as he stood holding his plate.

“More than enough time, Dyl.” Lulu smiled up at him.

His gaze slid to me, and I knew he was asking me if I was okay.

“Yes. That’s enough time,” I responded to reassure him.

This might be fun.

“You should do this––the IG thing,” I said to Lulu once she’d made a list of what we hoped to buy.

Lulu smirked. “I do,” she said proudly and clicked on her Instagram profile.

She had over 150,000 followers, and there she was—her latest post was from yesterday in her bikini. The caption read: “Serving Poolside Glamour.” And she was. In spades. She looked amazing. Weirdly, I’d never seen her take any selfies.