Anyway, everything is going just fine. I do miss you, of course, but I’m sure you’re just as excited to have some space as I am...ha.

I love you and give Grandmere a hug for me.

Jasper

P.S. If I know you as well as I definitely do, you haven’t actually left the house since I got here. Go out and have fun, Dad. Don’t be a total loser now that I have my own life...

His kid was such a little shit.

God, Theo missed him.

And apparently Jasper was able to do what his father never had—have a Gardner’s friendship without even trying. Just by being himself. Those few moments he had seen them together—it wouldn’t take long for them to be friends, naturally. Like that friendship was meant to be.

Theo had ruined any possibility of that for himself by being, in general, a huge asshole.

He sat at the desk in his suite of rooms, checking his private emails as he always did before he started his day. He took these extra moments to lounge around in his favorite French terry dressing gown, the smell of verbena and juniper bubbles flowing in from the en-suite bath, a cup of espresso steaming within reach.

Yes, he had lived a rough life for several years. Yes, he could do it, and he did it well.

Yes, those were some of his sweetest, most delicious memories.

But great God above, now that he could live a life of opulence, he would do it to the hilt. It was a payoff, the prize at the end of the puzzle of practical adulthood. Feel like shit about yourself, take a luxurious bath with two-hundred-dollar perfumed oil.

He closed the email from Jasper, opening a few others—a quick note from Genni (he really should get Jasper to stop calling her Big G, which annoyed her to no end, but it was just too wonderful), excited about Hyacinthe’s acceptance on the field hockey team. A missive from Josephine, partially in Creole French, asking him to please send down Tom as soon as possible, the kitchen needs him, merci.

And there, nearly lost in his inbox, an email with a terribly familiar name.

Theo’s hands shook, just a little, as he opened it.

Theo—

Hi

God. I don’t know how to start.

It was nice running into you (literally, I suppose) yesterday, though it wasn’t exactly something I’d planned out. I don’t know if you heard, but some things have changed.

I don’t want to say all this in an email. And I know I don’t deserve any of your time, after...everything. But I’d really like to see you. Can I buy you a cup of coffee?

Say yes.

Jack