After my shower, I’d checked my email again for any responses to my applications. There was an email from my mom. She’d sent me her contact’s name at the Charleston Historic Foundation. I was pretty sure I might even enjoy working there for a while. Certainly, the contacts in the city would be invaluable. People who valued what I did and weren’t out to make the fastest buck. Then after that, who knew? I hadn’t heard from anyone else, but for some reason, I still resisted applying.

I’d keep in touch with Madame too, regardless of what happened here with Xavier. There was a lot I could learn from her that could be useful in my work back in Charleston. Besides, I genuinely liked her. So to that end, I’d messaged her and formally asked her if I could stay and shadow her for a week before returning home while I figured out my next steps. I’d give myself one more week in France, not the weeks she’d suggested, so I could minimize my run-ins with Xavier after this two-day affair was over. She responded immediately with the word: Absolument! Which I took to mean absolutely in French.

Then she sent a cute selfie of her and Dauphine holding up some freshly painted nails. Dauphine’s were tangerine with little mermaid stickers, and Madame’s were a classy French manicure. I’d meant to ask Andrea what the French called a French manicure. Was it even French? French fries weren’t French, so what did I know?

A whistle drew my attention.

I looked up.

Xavier was casually leaning over the top deck rail, looking like an Instagram model. “Will you be joining me?” he asked and let out his megawatt smile that was like a shock starter to my chest.

Everything inside me was a complicated mess of emotion. I was upset at the things he’d said as we lay on my bed after the most incredible sexual experience of my life. Annoyed and hurt. And I had no right to be.

Why couldn’t I shut off my stupid brain and heart and just enjoy this for what it was? He’d made no promises. I didn’t want promises anyway. And just because it had been earth shattering for me, didn’t mean his sexual experiences weren’t always like that for him.

But, shit.

I was crazy about him. Beyond attracted to him. Addicted to getting him to laugh or smile. And the way he’d cried out my name as he climaxed? Well, that would haunt me soul deep for pretty much ever. And his daughter. God, I loved her. And I was enamored with the way he loved her. I had to make sure I didn’t confuse my love for his family with being in love with him. But I feared the waters were already too muddy.

My stomach, utterly empty, growled.