Turning Point(47)
“I’m going to wear my Minnie Mouse pajamas tonight. You should have got some too,” Alex told her.
“I will next time,” Wendy said and kissed them both goodbye. And then she kissed Bill on the cheek too. “Thank you for a fantastic day…and some good advice,” she added, and he knew what she meant, about Jeff. “I hope I see you soon, in California,” she said to the girls as she got out. “You have to come to my house for a barbecue, and I have a pool.” She waved as they drove off to their hotel, and she was smiling as she let herself into her apartment. For once, she didn’t miss Jeff, and she wondered what she’d been doing with him for six years. This was what she had been missing, and it was better than the one night a week she shared with him. That told her what she needed to know.
She sent Bill a text when she took her coat off, thanking him for how much fun the day had been, and how nice they’d been to include her. She was going to tell him again when she saw him at Marie-Laure’s for dinner the next day.
When she looked in the mirror, she saw that she was still wearing her Minnie Mouse ears, and she laughed out loud. She felt like a kid again.
* * *
—
Valérie had to catch up on paperwork in the office on Saturday. She’d been out so much following the counseling sessions that she had fallen behind on her reports. But she’d agreed to have dinner with Tom again that night. It was something to look forward to. She enjoyed their time together, and the man she had discovered behind the flirting and the jokes. He had a sense of humor she loved, but he was also serious with her, and he wasn’t hiding anymore. She was the first woman who had ever seen through him, and understood who he was. He had revealed himself the day he had run past her to save the little girl at the lycée. And the look on his face when he ran with her, desperate to save the child, had won Valérie’s heart. There was no turning back from that, and Tom knew it too. Valérie had removed his protective covering, and had helped him take down his walls. He had been a man in camouflage, in a full suit of armor, until then. He felt lighter now. And she looked happy to see him when he picked her up at the office. She kissed him on both cheeks when she got in the car. He was driving an Autolib’, a short-term rental you could pick up on the streets, like the bikes.
“Where to?” he asked, smiling at her. He’d been excited about seeing her all day.
“Why don’t we go to Le Bon Marché and pick up something to eat? I’ll make dinner for you,” she offered.
They spent an hour in the enormous food hall, picking vegetables and fruit, mushrooms, artichokes, anything that looked good to them. They bought some crab for dinner, truffled mushroom soup, an assortment of cheeses, some pastries Tom couldn’t resist, and a box of chocolates to take to Marie-Laure for her dinner party the next day.
They set it all out in Valérie’s cozy kitchen on the rue du Bac, and he poured a glass of the champagne he had bought. The crab was already cooked and looked delicious. They put it in the fridge, and went to sit in the living room. He built a fire in the fireplace, and then came to sit next to her on the couch, and she looked wistful for a minute.
“I’m going to miss you when you’re gone,” she said. They had gotten used to seeing each other every day. And they liked working side by side. The whole team had meshed perfectly, both the French and the American side. It had been a lucky assortment of people, and not a rotten apple in the bunch.
“I’m going to miss you too,” he said quietly. Three weeks in Paris had changed him, partly because of everything that had happened, but Valérie was an important part of it. He wanted to be a better man for her. “I can’t wait till you come to San Francisco. I actually live just outside the city, on the other side of the bridge. I want to take you to the Napa Valley while you’re there. There are some great restaurants and it looks like Italy. Everything gets very green around the time you’re coming.” He was looking at her and touched her hand. “I feel like we’ve been through so much while I was here, with the shooting and everything. The three weeks have flown by.” They had one week left, but he knew that would go quickly too. “I wish I could stay.” She looked surprised when he said it, and he had even surprised himself. “It would be incredible working here.”
“You could work for one of the emergency services if you want to get certified here. Or for one of the agencies like Gabriel and Marie-Laure,” she said thoughtfully, but he shook his head.
“That’s not what I do best. The administrative side isn’t for me. It’s been great while I was here. But my forte is saving lives once people get pretty badly banged up. I love seeing patients.” She had seen him at work and knew he did. “I’m better on the clinical side. How are your post-traumatic stress patients doing?” He was referring to her counseling programs. The idea of his practicing in France seemed like a distant dream and not real to him. He loved his job at Alta Bates.
“It’s going to be a long process for most of them. You don’t recover quickly from something like that. The teachers are having the hardest time, feeling guilty about the kids they couldn’t save. So many of them didn’t have a chance. The surviving children will recover best in the end. They’re in the early stages right now. And the parents of the survivors are badly shaken too. I want to get everything set up now, so there’s no lapse in service while I’m away.” She was extremely conscientious, as was he. He poured her another glass of champagne, as they sat and looked at the fire, and then he turned to her and kissed her. They had agreed not to rush anything, but it felt like the right time to him, and he was leaving in a week. He wanted her to know how much she meant to him when he left. She smiled after he kissed her, and then she set down her glass and slipped her arms around his neck.