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Melanie had to restrain herself from retorting that since she’d just had a handful of hours to pack, she had hardly brought any shoes at all. Or clothes… at least, nothing she could wear to a gala in Nice. And how far was Nice anyway? Mentally, she drew up a fuzzy map of France. Best she knew, it was somewhere along the coast, heading east towards Italy. After that… nada.
“I can’t—”
“It would be a pleasure,” Corbin interrupted smoothly. He tilted his head near to hers so he could be in the frame. “Melanie and I would be delighted to meet our client.”
Melanie and I?she wondered. He was speaking for both of them? She cut him a sharp, silencing look, but it failed to shut him up. As he and Queenie began to talk details, Melanie interrupted again. “But Rhys—”
“I have made arrangements with Zanifa to take him to the lakeside to watch a meteor shower tonight. There will be hundreds of people there, and from what I hear, the atmosphere is like a carnival. It’s wonderful fun. Then she will sleep over, in case you come home late.” Queenie almost smirked when she said that, as if she could think of ten good reasons why Corbin and Melanie would dilly-dally on their way home from a ball. And Melanie would hotly deny all of them.
So much for that excuse. “I don’t even know how far—”
“It’s an hour’s drive,” Corbin said, knocking down another excuse as if he’d slung a bowling ball at it.
“I’ll send a car,” Queenie offered at once.
“No need,” he insisted. “It’s a relaxing drive that I have made many times. It would be a pleasure to drive the lovely Melanie to an evening of fine dining and dancing.”
She watched in irritation as the two continued to plan her evening. The nerve! Corbin’s phone gave a little whoop-whoop as Queenie sent him the location and time, and he confirmed receipt and promised again to be there.
By the time they were done talking and Queenie had hung up, Melanie was seething. This was the second time this morning that Corbin had stepped into the daddy role, making decisions that affected her and her son.
It was just the kind of thing Wilder used to do: Say yes to invitations she didn’t want to accept, to spend time with his friends, who she didn’t even like. Forced to pretend and smile, pretend and smile, as though their marriage, their family, and her world weren’t all teetering on the brink. He’d been a master of the art of pretense, Wilder was. And the thing he liked pretending most was that he was the head of his family, so what he said went.
She gave Corbin a dirty look. “Who told you you could do that? Answer for me? Did I ever give you permission to—”
He shrugged, dismissing the thought before she could finish. “If you wish to be a designer, you will need to rub elbows with the right people.”
“Shoulders,” she corrected automatically, irritably.
“Comment?”His brow creased.
“In English, you rub shoulders, not elbows.”
“Ah, merci.” There was a twinkle in his eye that she didn’t care for. She didn’t want to be sidetracked, especially when he was doing the cute-Frenchman thing.
“And,” she continued accusingly, “once again, you spoke for my child.”
He tilted his head, staring gravely at her. “Did it bother you that I was speaking for him, or that you will be away from him tonight?”
She was about to snap off an answer in the negative, but stopped before she could get the lie out. How did this man manage to get inside her head like that? She heard herself admitting, “I can’t remember the last time I was away from him at night. Years, certainly. It’s….”
“Frightening,” he offered. “But Zanifa is wonderful. Rhys, he will have a great time at the lake. I have a telescope I can lend him. He will be happy and safe.”
“I know,” she admitted, dropping her gaze to her cruddy, dusty shoes. “But it’s hard….”
“Eventually, we need to let them go,” he said softly.
For a brief moment she wondered how he would know this, this childless man. Where had this philosophy come from, about having to let go of your children? But she had to admit he was right. Rhys was growing up. He was entitled to some independence; she couldn’t cling to his childhood forever. So she nodded, giving up and giving in.
“Come,” he gestured. “We finish the day, and then tonight, we relax, enjoy each other’s company. Yes?”
Enjoying his company. Relaxing in his company. There it was, she thought. Something else to be scared of.
