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Anne squeezed his hand, but Henri excused himself from the table and went to compose himself. Gherring and Jared turned questioning eyes to Anne.
“I don’t know if he’d want me to tell you…” Anne started.
“I overheard the word cancer,” said Jared.
“Please don’t say anything, Jared. It’s not him—it’s a young family member. And they don’t know for sure yet. Just act like everything’s normal.” Anne chewed on her lip, glancing over her shoulder toward the hallway where Henri had disappeared.
“The bill’s paid already. We’ll leave when he returns. We won’t ask any questions.” Gherring spoke, and Anne was relieved to see sympathy in his eyes.
Jared swallowed hard. “I’m thinking what if it was Emery.”
When Henri returned, the foursome went to the car. The mood had turned somber, and no one seemed inclined to talk. Henri asked, “Can you take me to the train station on the way back?”
“Henri, if you want to stay the night, Gherring Inc. will pay for a room. You really did help close the deal today. I never actually thanked you.”
“No, I need to be back before the morning. But thank you for the offer.”
At the station, Anne walked in with Henri while the others waited in the car. Out of Gherring’s sight, she hugged him hard, and they shed a few more tears together.
“I’m praying, Henri. I wish I could do more. You rescued me today and I won’t forget it. I owe you, now.”
“You are still coming next week, right?”
Anne smiled. “I’ve got the ticket taped to my bathroom mirror! I look at it every day. But Henri, you don’t have to entertain me when I come. If you need to be at home or at the hospital, I’ll be there with you.”
“Of course you would say that, mon ange. I will find time to show Paris to you, no matter what happens.”
Anne stood on her toes and kissed him on the cheek.
“I cannot believe that I, the great Henri DuBois, am reduced to a kiss on the cheek. Next week, I hope to kiss these again.” He touched her lips gently with his finger before he turned and departed.
When Anne returned to the car, Jared and Gherring were discussing the schedule for the next day.
“I’d love to see Switzerland, don’t get me wrong,” said Jared. “But I miss my wife and my baby girl. So I was thinking about getting a commercial flight home. You said I was getting a bonus if we closed the deal. You could just take the extra cost out of my bonus.”
Anne said, “You don’t have to do that. I feel bad. Mr. Gherring, it’s okay if we go back tomorrow. I still got a stamp on my passport, even if I didn’t do any sightseeing.”
Gherring silenced them without raising his voice. “Jared, you can go back any time you please, and Gherring Inc. will pay for the ticket. This will be a lucrative deal at some point in the future. I am certain of it. However, Anne, as I was telling Jared, I have plans to go to Jungfrau tomorrow. You can come along,” he offered, his blue eyes twinkling with mischief, “or go back early with Jared if you prefer.”
“I don’t know what Jungfrau is, but I’m going!” She grinned so hard it hurt.
Anne was so excited about the trip she arrived twenty minutes early to Gherring’s suite for breakfast. She knocked gingerly on the door and listened for sounds of stirring inside. Then the elevator door opened and the breakfast cart emerged, heading for the Presidential Suite. This time she rapped loudly on the door, and Gherring opened the door clad
only in a towel, his hair still dripping. The butler was unfazed by his state of undress, pushing the cart into the room and setting up the grand breakfast on the table.
She lagged behind, expecting Gherring would hurry to his room to change. Instead, he lounged casually and chatted in French with the butler before giving him a tip. She tried to act nonchalant. After all, she’d seen his chest and his legs before, in the gym. Why was her heart racing this time? It was nothing new. Just a chest. Not just a chest. A very nice, well-muscled chest with a firm stomach underneath. He certainly didn’t have the stomach of a fifty-year-old. There didn’t seem to be any flab there at all. Didn’t all fifty-year-old men have at least a little paunch? He looked very fit, but it was nothing she hadn’t seen before.
Maybe it was the fact he had on a towel. There was that vague idea it was only a towel and it might somehow fall off. Not that she hoped it would. It was just that it might—you never knew. But it looked like it was tucked in pretty well. It probably wouldn’t fall off. Not that she wanted it to.
“Hello… Anne… Are you in there?” He was talking to her, and she hadn’t heard a word he’d said. When had the butler left? How long have I been standing here staring at his towel?
“Sorry. I was just…uh… thinking about being hungry—I mean—thinking about breakfast.” Anne could hear her own heartbeat in her ears.
Gherring, however, acted totally oblivious. “You’re hungry? Let’s see what they’ve brought us.” He walked between her and the table and bent over to examine the contents under the silver domes. This afforded her a fantastic view of his backside, covered by that towel. And when he bent over… Did the towel shift a little? Was it lower than before?
Good grief! I’m ogling my boss!
Anne promptly turned her back to Gherring. “I think you should go and get dressed. I shouldn’t have come so early.”
