Her head cocked to the side. Her nose, slightly pink and peeling, was dotted with tiny freckles. I needed to be better about sunscreen.

“Truly?” she asked.

“Yes. Find a YouTube video about basic coding and see if you can make a game we can play against each other.” I pushed back from the table and stood, leaning down to kiss her forehead. “Or draw,” I suggested again, knowing that’s what she would probably pick. “Now, I have to get on a call to America. Please take our plates inside on your way.”

After she’d left, I poured another water just as a movement caught my eye. Looking up, I saw Evan striding toward me, having come around the side of the house.

“Christ. You’ll give a man a heart attack sneaking up like that,” I said, switching to English as I sat back down.

He grinned, eyes hidden behind reflective Ray-Bans. “For your own safety, you should be more observant.”

“I employ you for that, asshole.”

We clasped hands like an arm wrestle in the air across the table, then let go and he sat.

“On est prêt?” I asked him, switching back to French.

“We’re ready,” Evan confirmed. “The boat’s all stocked up and the crew is waiting.” His accent in French was atrocious. Normally I ribbed him, but today I let it go.

“Did you have any luck finding a nanny?”

“I have a call in twenty minutes. Hopefully we’ll have an American on a plane by tomorrow night.”

“Amazing what enough money will buy. Dauphine will love that. She loves all those American shows.”

I grimaced. “Banal teenage humor. She’s beginning to talk like she’s ten going on seventeen. But at least she’s improving her English.”

“I hope you find someone. I have the itinerary planned for all the meetings you gave me, and you’ll be spending a lot of day times off the boat.” Evan shifted. “I, uh, took the liberty of speaking to Jorge.”

I opened my mouth at the mention of my mother’s private secretary, but Evan spoke over me. “Just as a precaution. Your mother will be in Monaco for most of the month, but in a few weeks she’ll be in the Cap Ferrat house. Jorge says she’s been talking about reaching out and asking if Dauphine can visit for longer than just the occasional weekend.”

“Did he now?”

I leaned back in my chair, spreading my legs and resting my arms on each arm. “And I don’t suppose you then happened to mention we’d be on the boat and in the area?”

Evan had perfected the art of non-expression. “I may have mentioned it.”

We stared at each other.

At least, I stared at his sunglasses through my sunglasses, giving him the stink eye. For all I knew he was taking a quick power nap.