AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Ruby can't help herself: she gazes across the candlelit table and her eyes land on Julien. Even with his head bowed he is the spitting image of Jack. It nearly takes Ruby's breath away. Etienne and Julien had come to the bookstore the previous summer and she'd taken notice of the boy, of course, but he'd been spirited away to the back room to talk to Athena and Harlow while Etienne and Ruby had a quick, challenging conversation about the letter that Jack had left for Ruby. She hates to admit it, but she'd barely clocked Julien's appearance that day, so shocked was she by Etienne showing up on Shipwreck Key unannounced to deliver a mysterious letter.
Julien reaches for the potatoes, taking them with nothing more than a close-lipped smile. He has yet to speak to anyone besides his mother, though Claire is speaking to him now from across the table in French and he smiles at her, dipping his chin shyly again.
Even the way he looks up through his lashes reminds Ruby of Jack! She can't stop staring and she knows it, but instead of looking away, she spears half a potato on her fork and pretends to prepare the bite. In the past year, Julien has truly morphed into a younger version of Jack.His father, Ruby thinks, reminding herself to call a spade a spade.Jack was his father. Harlow and Athena are Julien's sisters. And I am...what am I?
"Ruby," Etienne says, walking around the table and topping off everyone's wine glasses. "Have you spent much time in France?"
Ruby glances at Banks, who is giving her a long look of encouragement. He's bucking her up for this, and she can feel it.
"I have," Ruby says, setting the fork with the potato bite back on her plate and holding up her glass for Etienne as she passes by. She'll need a bit more wine if she's going to make it through this dinner and the days ahead. "I spent a semester abroad here in college and of course I've visited many times as an adult. Never Bordeaux, however."
"Ah," Etienne says, gathering her skirt around her body as she sits again. "Well, welcome to the wine capital of the world. I've lived here in this region for many years now, though my family is from Provence, as is Claire's." Claire twists her long hair around one elegant hand, letting it fall down her back as she leans forward to take a bite of her roast chicken. "She and her husband bought a vineyard here many years ago, and when I had Julien, I thought this would be the perfect place to raise him."
At a normal dinner party this declaration might have fallen easily on the table and been met with questions about Bordeaux, about raising Julien, or about any number of things, but Banks, Dexter, and most especially Ruby, are all aware that Etienne would have come here to raise her son away from prying eyes, and to afford her a place to rendezvous with her married lover.
For a long moment, there is only the sound of cutlery on plates, and in the background, soft jazz playing from a speaker in the next room.
"It's lovely here," Dexter says, filling the silence. Ruby shoots him a look of gratitude. "I've spent a fair amount of time in Paris myself, but I've never ventured to Bordeaux and I'm planning on sampling the region's biggest export extensively while here." He lifts his own wine glass and everyone at the table laughs. "But I'd love to ask Julien, if he doesn't mind chatting with us, what do you do for fun here in a village so small?"
Julien finishes chewing his chicken and then answers after his mother gives him a nod of approval. "I have friends," he says. "They live close by. We play football together, walk around and talk--you know, like regular teenagers."
Again, amused laughter from the adults at the table.
"And school?" Dexter prompts, reaching for his water glass. Etienne has decorated the table with fresh cut flowers in vases along with the candles, and from outside they can hear faint thunder in the distance. "Is it close by?"
"School is..." Julien tips his head from side to side as he thinks of his answer. "Not far. I stay there during the week, usually." He looks to his mother to make sure he's explaining things correctly.
Etienne nods. "Like boarding school, but technically he could come home any day if he wanted to." She takes her son's hand again and holds it, looking at him adoringly. "Julien likes to be with his friends more than with hismamanthese days, so he stays there. This is a small break for spring, and he is here for a week."
"Two weeks," Julien says, taking his hand from Etienne's and holding up two fingers.
"Ah, yes. Two weeks," Etienne says with a smile. "His friends want to go to Disneyland Paris, but Julien is not interested."
Julien shrugs as if dismissing the idea. "Too many tourists."
Without meaning to, Ruby finds herself compelled to join the conversation. "Have you been?" she asks Julien. Her hand is shaking and she puts it in her lap. "To Disneyland?"
Everyone at the table stills; it's clear what she wants to know.
Julien turns his head and finally looks directly at Ruby. "Yes," he says, tossing his loose curls with the flick of his head. "Of course. Have you?"
"All of them," Ruby says. "As First Lady I was able to travel a lot, and if you end up in a country with a Disneyland, there's always someone who wants to take you for the photo opportunity."
Julien looks mildly confused, but he reaches for another piece of bread from the basket at the center of the table. "My dad took me when I was eight."
There is a noticeable pall that settles over the table at this declaration, though it was always going to be this way, regardless of the questions and answers.
Ruby pushes chicken around on her plate with the tines of her fork. She nods slowly and stares at her plate. "That was nice of him. Was it for your birthday?"
Somehow she knows it was; Jack was famous for celebrating birthdays in a big way. When each of the girls had turned thirteen, he'd planned a huge trip and made it feel special for them, letting them know that the day they'd been born was an important one. For Athena, he'd taken them all on a cruise to Alaska because she was obsessed with nature and wilderness. And for Harlow he'd chosen Paris, letting her shop and drink coffee and feel like a grown up as he'd busily taken calls and answered emails from advisors who wanted him to make a run for the Oval Office. As Ruby had watched her husband, she'd had no idea that he was already living a second life here in France. It stuns her now to call up images of him doing things that they'd done every day, just living their lives, and to know that behind it all had been a little boy in Bordeaux, playing in the fields and waiting for his dad to come for another visit.
"Yes, my birthday," Julien says, hunching over his plate in the way that only gangly teenage boys can hunch. He tosses his hair again and looks directly at Ruby. "He was a good dad."
Ruby glances at Dexter. Of everyone in her life--even Sunday--Dexter is the one who knows her true feelings and the depth of her pain over Jack's decisions. They've spent so many late nights in Zoom calls, Ruby on Shipwreck Key and Dexter in New York City, talking through the nuances of being First Lady, unpacking the way Ruby felt when she discovered that Jack had been in love with someone else and had fathered a child, and piecing together the way Ruby's upbringing had prepared her for life in the White House. Dexter knows her, which is rare. He trulyknowsher, and Ruby is viscerally aware of him there on one side of the table, taking in all of the things being said and applying all of the information he has to the situation.
"That's important." Ruby forces herself to look at Julien. "To have a good dad. I had a great one myself." She smiles wanly, still holding her fork. "My dad was a man named Ruben, and he died when I was eleven."
Julien stops chewing and watches Ruby; he'd been twelve when Jack died, so there's a sudden awareness that someone else at the table might know how he feels. "What happened?" he asks.
