“Sure you did. Solo or partnership, home or European adventure. That’s a big choice, too. You know, if you’d gone to France, you’d have pined away for us.”

God, that was so absolutely true. But keeping to her theme, she shook her head. “I’d have been too busy with my wild affairs and towering ego ride to pine. I’d have thought of you fondly from time to time, and swirled in occasionally from a trip to New York to dazzle you all with my European panache.”

“You have European panache.”

“Is that so?”

“Sometimes you mutter or swear in French when you’re working.”

She stopped, frowned. “I do?”

“Now and then, and with a perfect accent. It’s entertaining.”

“Why hasn’t anyone told me this before?”

He took her hand, linked fingers while they angled away from the pond. “Maybe because they figured you knew, since you were the one muttering and swearing.”

“That could be it.”

“And if you’d gone, you’d have thought about this, what you’re doing here now.”

“Yeah, I would. Still, other times I imagine I have a pretty bake shop in a small village in Tuscany, where it only rains at night and charming little children come in to beg for treats. It’s a pretty good deal.”

“And here we both are, still in Greenwich.”

“All in all, it’s a good place to be.”

“Right now?” He tipped her face up to kiss her. “It’s close to perfect.”

“This seems almost too easy,” she said as they walked back to the car.

“Why should it be hard?”

“I don’t know. I’m just naturally suspicious of too easy.” At the car she turned, leaned back against the door to look up at him. “When it’s going easy I know there’s a disaster waiting to fall on my head. It’s just around the corner, a piano being lowered out the window”

“So you walk around it.”

“What if you’re not looking up until—snap—the cable breaks, then you’re splatted under the Steinway”

“Most of the time the cable doesn’t break.”

“Most of the time,” she agreed, tapping a finger on his chest. “It only takes once. So it’s better to keep looking up, just in case.”

Lifting a hand, he tucked her swing of hair behind her ear. “Then you can trip over the curb and break your neck.”

“That’s true. Disasters are everywhere.”

“Would you feel better if I started a fight?” He laid his hands on the car on either side of her, leaned in to brush his lips against hers. “Rough you up a little so it’s not so easy.”

“Depends on the roughing up.” She drew him down for a deeper kiss. “Twenty-four more days,” she murmured. “Maybe it’s not so easy after all.”