One Summer in Paris(95)

“I know, and I will never be able to make that up to you but I’m going to try anyway.”

She took a step backward and almost fell over a chair. “What are you saying?”

“I’m saying—I’m asking—if you think there is any way you might be able to forgive me. If there are any circumstances in which you might consider—” He swallowed. Licked his lips. “Trying again.”

Grace felt as if she’d stepped into an alternate universe.

This morning she’d been in bed with Philippe. And now David was asking if they could try again.

“You slept with someone else.” She ignored the little voice that told her she’d slept with someone else, too. “You said our marriage was over.”

“It was madness. You’re my best friend, Grace. I don’t know how I could have lost sight of that.”

“Lissa’s long legs probably had something to do with it.” Grace glanced at the door, wondering if Mimi was listening. Had her grandmother known what David was going to say? If she’d known his relationship with Lissa had ended, why hadn’t she warned her?

He ran his hand over the back of his neck. “Will you at least have dinner with me tonight? So that we can talk.”

“I can’t. I have plans.”

“I thought you didn’t have any plans.”

“You asked me about the day. Tonight I have plans.” Was that why Philippe was calling? She felt awkward being with David, which was ridiculous because Philippe had never shown the slightest interest in the domestic details of her life.

Philippe didn’t do domestic details. He flew from country to country, from city to city, indulging his one big love, which was the piano. He’d never wanted anything that kept him rooted in one place.

David put his hands on the back of the chair. His knuckles whitened. “What are you doing tonight?”

“Not that it’s any of your business, but I’m going to a concert.” She told him because she didn’t want him thinking even for a moment that she was sitting indoors crying over him.

His gaze held hers. “On your own?”

“No. Not on my own.” She reached for her bag and started to walk toward the interconnecting door, but he caught up with her and turned her to face him.

She could feel his fingers gripping her arms and smell the familiar scent of him.

“Is it Philippe? Sorry—” He let go of her, raising his hands by way of apology. “I know I have no right to ask.”

“You’re right. You have no right to ask.” She didn’t ask how he knew about Philippe. Mimi, presumably. Maybe she should feel guilty, but she didn’t. Right now she felt angry. She’d loved David. Adored him. Maybe she still did, but he’d carelessly destroyed what they had and now he expected her to just take him back?

She looked away so that she didn’t meet those blue eyes that had always made her feel weak at the knees. She wasn’t that woman anymore.

“Don’t worry about Mimi.” She tugged open the interconnecting door so violently she almost lost her balance. “I’ll take her out with me tonight. I’m sure you’ll find a way to entertain yourself.”

“How about lunch tomorrow?”

He sounded so calm and reasonable, so totally like the old David that for a moment she was tempted. Just a conversation. Why not hear what he had to say?

Even as the thought entered her head, she could imagine Audrey’s jaw dropping.

You said yes? What, are you a doormat or something?

No, she wasn’t a doormat. And she was so mad at herself for even considering saying yes that her anger levels trebled and she hurled the whole burning coal of emotion that had built up inside her in his direction.

“I don’t want to eat lunch with you, David. I don’t want to get back together. This wasn’t some adolescent row. You ended our relationship on our twenty-fifth wedding anniversary, and you did it in public! You left me. You left Sophie. Our daughter.” She dug out all the reasons she had to be angry with him and stuck them right in front of her where she could see them. She almost heard Audrey cheering. “Right now I don’t want you in my life in any shape or form. Go home.” Before she could change her mind and do something she regretted, she walked away from him and back into Mimi’s room.

She’d spent the past six months trying to learn to live a life that didn’t have David in it, and now he was muscling his way in again?

She was furious and also a little afraid because part of her missed him, too, and that made her vulnerable to making bad decisions. They’d been friends for most of her life. You didn’t just turn that off.

Maybe, one day, they’d be friends again but right now she couldn’t even entertain it. She didn’t dare.

She closed the interconnecting door and kept her back to it.

Mimi looked anxious and maybe also a little guilty. “Well?”

Grace felt torn. She adored her grandmother, but why hadn’t she warned her that David was coming or that he’d broken up with Lissa? Still, this wasn’t the place to have that conversation with David standing just the other side of the door.

“How would you like to go to a concert tonight? Mozart.”

“The three of us?”

“Two of us.” Grace let go of the door handle. “You and me. I have two tickets. All you need is a dress.”