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I didn’t sleep well. I couldn’t stop thinking about Ash and his fury. About how he’d walked out. About how wrong I’d been to show him the contents of my heart.
I’d made a mistake in my comparisons of him to a car. Yes, he was large and powerful, but he wasn’t simply an engine. A machine I could drive wherever I wanted. He was a man with his own will, and that will didn’t include loving me.
Because no matter what I’d told him the day before about not wanting anything, the pain in my heart told me otherwise.
If I’d wanted nothing from him, I would have stayed in London. I would have been content to be near him—even if that meant just being in the same city.
But I didn’t want nothing.
I wanted everything.
The next day, after coffee and croissants, Dad took me to the makeshift Python workshop where we had a miniature family reunion with two of my brothers.
They were excited—not that you could really tell if you didn’t know them, but I could tell. There was a certain sparkle in their eyes as they showed me around and introduced me to some of the team helping them. Even Dad had the sparkle.
‘You did good, Ellie,’ Dad said at last, quietly, as we stood beside the first of the cars that were beginning to take shape, the chassis gleaming under the bright fluorescent lights. Men in overalls swarmed over the car like ants, while one of my brothers barked orders from his place near the computer.
The praise hit me hard, making more tears prick at me. ‘Aw, Dad,’ I said, going for jokey. ‘You’re going to make me cry with that mushy nonsense.’
But he didn’t respond as he normally did, with a smile and a nod. Instead, he said, ‘You saved the company. Don’t think I don’t know that.’
I didn’t look at him. I couldn’t. I shoved my hands into my pockets instead.
‘I know I haven’t been the best father.’ His voice was gravelly and gruff. ‘I should have stuck up for you with that...other business. But when your mother died... Well. I didn’t know how to deal with a girl.’ He cleared his throat, obviously uncomfortable. ‘That doesn’t excuse me, I understand that. But... I just wanted you to know that I’m grateful for what you did for the company.’
I swallowed, my throat thick, unable to speak. The bright lights of the workshop ran like paint in my vision. ‘Thanks, Dad,’ I forced out, my voice hoarse.
‘So, what’s happening with your project?’ he asked, as if he were asking me what I was doing for lunch. ‘Evans told me you were going to start building a prototype.’
But I couldn’t face that right now. I couldn’t even imagine going into the workshop that he’d bought for me. ‘Not right now,’ I said.
‘Look, I don’t know what’s going on with you and Evans—’
‘Nothing,’ I interrupted, the pain in my chest spreading like wildfire. ‘Nothing’s going on.’
‘Ah,’ Dad muttered, as if that answered a question. ‘Well, it’s only that he—’
‘Hey,’ Justin, my brother, said. ‘There’s some French guy on the doorstep wondering if you’re here, Ellie.’
I turned, blinking the tears away hard. ‘What French guy?’
Justin shrugged. ‘He’s at the door. You’d better go see.’
The guy turned out to be a man in a freshly pressed chauffeur’s uniform and behind him, waiting in the street, was a long black limo.
My heart gave one hard, painful beat.
Justin, who’d followed me, whistled. ‘Looks like someone important.’
The chauffeur gave me a professional smile. ‘A gentleman wishes to know if you’ll come for a ride with him, mademoiselle.’
My heartbeat picked up speed, my breathing coming shorter, faster. ‘What gentleman?’ I demanded, anger rising inside me, along with a ridiculous hope.
‘He did not want me to give you his name. He only said that if you want to know who he is, you’ll have to get in the car.’
But I already knew who it was and I’d stormed past the chauffeur before he’d finished speaking, heading straight towards the limo.
I was breathing fast by the time I reached it, anger becoming rage and hope and a thousand other things all rolled up into a big emotional storm that I had no hope of resisting.
