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Finally, his serious mood broke, and he squeezed my hand. “What are you going on about?” He shook his head and laughed at me.
“Good Arvo. I see I have your attention now,” I said brightly. “I only said you talk too much.”
“Sarcasm from my fiancée, and only an hour after our engagement.” Asher raised his eyebrows with a silly smirk.
“Hey, you signed up for this.” I grinned back. “No take-backs.”
“Did I just hear you say no take backs?” he gasped in mock horror.
I nearly spit out water from the bottle I had just pulled from the limo frig and put to my lips. Instead, I swallowed it down the wrong pipe and began a coughing fit amongst my laughter, while he patted my back in concern. He pointed out the window to the glowing structure as we approached the Eiffel Tower.
“We’re here, Gunner, pull over anywhere and let us get out and walk,” I heard him say. “Are you going to be okay over there?”
“Let’s get out. I see a street vendor, maybe they have hot chocolate.” I playfully pushed him to exit the limo. “I know, I know, you would rather have coffee, but you’ll survive it.”
The vendor luckily had both coffee and hot chocolate. I ordered an extra hot chocolate and brought it to Gunner, who looked at me a little surprised.
“I figured you wouldn’t want coffee this late in the evening?” I handed him the Styrofoam cup. “That should keep you warm while you follow us around.”
We sat for a bit on a bench, drinking for warmth. Asher thought we should walk around to the other side where there were more tourists, and most likely paparazzi. He stood, then put his hand out to help me up. We walked hand in hand silently enjoying the splendor of it. He had been correct in his assumption of paparazzi. The cameras clicked from a short distance. Gunner allowed them to take their photos, and we all put up with their calling out questions, but he stepped in front of us when they were getting too close.
“I think we’ve had enough of this for tonight. Why don’t we head back to the penthouse,” Asher suggested. “Gunner, please walk in front to block the cameras.”
It had begun to get pretty cold out and we had walked a good distance from the limo. At one point I visibly shivered, so he stopped and put his jacket around me. Once we were far enough away from the cameras, Gunner excused himself and took off jogging. He yelled back that he would get the car and come for us.
“He runs?” we both said at the same time.
“Jinx.” I blurted out
“Wait, did you just jinx me?” He stopped walking and turned to face me.
“I did.” I laughed.
“Now what do I do with that?” he asked.
“I don’t know what the rules of jinxing are exactly, but I think you owe me something.”
“I owe you something because you said ‘jinx?’” he asked, confused. “I don’t know this.”
“Strewth Crickey, how have you gotten to your age without ever jinxing someone? Don’t you have siblings, or cousins, or better yet, friends?” I questioned, then waved to Gunner when he pulled up with the limo.
“For your information, I had and have all of those people. I just never played jinx. If I owe you something, is it anything I want to give?” he asked, looking around.
“If we go with how I remember it, you owe me something. Like, the common saying is ‘jinx, you owe me a coke.’ It can be something easy,” I explained through another shiver.
I could see his invisible wheels turning. I took his hand and pulled him toward the car where I knew I’d find warmth. I was about to get into the limo when he spoke.
“I know what I can give you for the jinx.” He took my face in his hands and slowly put his lips to mine.
Chapter 48
AUGUST
Ihadn’t planned on kissing Imogen, but then she pulled that adorable jinx and my heart opened a little more. I’d been fighting it for days now and doing a terrible job each day. There was something about her I couldn’t quite put my finger on. Here we were, sitting in the limo on our way back to the hotel. Her head was cradled on my shoulder with her perfume floating by every time she moved.
“Are you going to the front entrance or back, Mr. Hawthorne?” Gunner called from the front. “I see paparazzi out there already.”
“We need to go in the front and have some pictures, unfortunately,” I groaned. “Go around the block so I can wake Imogen up.”
