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He gave a slow nod. “Snooze-fest.”
“Maybe one day you’ll fall in love and do the same.”
He gave me a steady stare, his eyes hard but his mouth slightly playful. “Right.”
I stared at him for a while, regarding him as a friend but feeling like he was a stranger at the same time. “I think I’m going back to Cap-Ferrat…”
There was a subtle change to his eyes, his brows lowering over his face. “Cauldron and I have a deal.”
“I’ll still come here when you need me. I just need a day’s notice. Cauldron said I could take his plane.”
He stared at me for a while, letting the silence flow over us in waves. “I know what you’re doing.”
“What am I doing?” I asked, my bewilderment sincere.
“You’re trying to make me feel bad. But I’ve never felt bad about anything I’ve ever said or done.”
“That’s not what I was trying to do.”
“Then you won’t be disappointed when I tell you the deal is still on. That was my price.”
“And it was a fair price.”
He continued to study me.
“How long is this deal going to last, exactly?”
“Why?”
“I hope to be a wife and a mother in a couple years. Can’t take off to Paris for a few days with my babies at home.”
“Cauldron can’t take care of them?” he asked incredulously.
“If they’re too young, I think he’d lose his mind.”
He gave a quiet laugh. “How about a year? That seem fair?”
“I can do a year.”
“Alright.” He extended his hand to me.
We shook on it.
“But what will you do when the year is over?” I asked.
Bartholomew looked out the windshield again. “I guess I’ll have to find someone else… Wish me luck.”
“A lot of women would kill for this job. It’s exciting.”
“But few can handle it. They lack the professional sternness I require.”
“I see…”
“You’ve been in the game long enough to know how all this works. Most haven’t.”
“Well, Cauldron will be happy to know there’s an expiration date.”
“He’d be happier to know that I got shot on the job,” he said with a mild laugh.
