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Could she see what he’d done as human rather than unforgivable?
She sipped her coffee and listened while Sophie told them about an amazing pizza they’d eaten in Florence, and how the gelato was the best anywhere.
David was mildly amused that Sophie’s focus was on food when Florence was all about art and culture. They all reminisced about a vacation they’d had in New York where all Sophie remembered was the pizza.
They were a family again. It had been such a long time since they’d sat around a table and laughed together like this.
She’d missed it.
“Did Mimi have lunch in her room?”
“Yes. And she has gone to the bookshop to see it for herself.”
Grace put her cup down. “I was going to take her! I would have taken her today.”
“I told her that, but she insisted.”
“It’s true,” Sophie said, jumping to her father’s defense. “You know what Mimi is like. When she wants to do something, she does it. She doesn’t care what anyone thinks.”
Why had Mimi gone to the bookshop alone?
Why hadn’t she waited for Grace?
“I don’t like to think of my elderly grandmother traveling alone in a cab, that’s all.”
“She wasn’t alone,” David said. “I went with her to make sure she arrived safely and that the place was open. I waited in the cab until she went inside, then I came back here a
nd met Sophie in the restaurant. I’m going back to pick her up in two hours.”
He’d gone with her grandmother in the cab.
That was so typical of David. Grace felt a pressure in her chest and a thickening in her throat.
“Thank you.” Her voice sounded husky. “Thank you for doing that.”
She’d been working so hard to find a way to stop loving him, and now she realized she never had. Even hurt and angry, she hadn’t stopped loving him.
But could she ever trust him again? Could she trust anyone again?
She didn’t know.
Mimi
The bookshop hadn’t changed at all. It was like stepping back in time. There was the same smell of dust and leather and the cool shade that offered respite from the relentless Paris heat.
She knew every nook and cranny.
“Bonjour.” An elegant woman stepped forward with a smile, and Mimi assumed this must be Elodie.
She introduced herself in French and explained that she used to come here when she lived in Paris and would like to look around a little.
Elodie was gracious and charming and offered to make tea, but Mimi wasn’t in the mood to chat.
She wanted to see the place that had stayed in her mind all her life.
It was time to admit that she hadn’t made this trip for David. She hadn’t even done it for Grace. She’d done it for herself.
She walked slowly from room to room, remembering.
