“He just wants to impress all the French girls,” Sophie commented as she mindlessly fished through her bag. She and Danial spent a lot of time together in New York, and Alex had deduced from her research that he had an affinity for the beautiful friends of hers who always seemed to be visiting from Paris.

“The—” Alex hesitated, always hyperaware of when she needed to inconvenience this group. “The people at the information desk told me my luggage would take a little longer, since it was supposed to go to Marseille.”

Danial shepherded the women toward an open row of seats. “That’s fine, we have a little wait for the car anyway. The rental technically doesn’t start for another hour but they’re going to try to get it earlier.” He cleared his throat. “I wanted a certain car, so I told them I was okay with the extra wait. I hope you’re cool with that.”

If Alex didn’t know better, she might think he was nervous.

“What does it matter?” Sophie whined, scrolling through her phone as she walked. “We’re just dropping it off in Marseille.”

“I’m sorry.” He turned toward her, a bit impatient. “Would you like to drive the eight hours to the boat? Because if you want to drive, you can pick whatever car you like.”

“I can help drive if you need to trade off,” Alex offered without thinking.

“Oh—” he turned toward her. “Oh, no, that’s okay. I’m just kidding.” He leaned down to seamlessly pull Sophie’s oversized silver Rimowa from the carousel, his long, elegant biceps straining slightly under his shirt. “I’m looking forward to it, actually. I never get to drive in the city.”

“Don’t listen to him,” Sophie said, not looking up from her phone. “He goes upstate, like, every other weekend to drive around in a circle with a bunch of other idiots.”

“Oh, yeah?” Alex suppressed a smile.

“I like to race cars,” he clarified, setting his suitcase down and silently counting the bags before placing them on a luggage cart. He turned to Sophie. “I’m allowed to have one hobby.”

“Mmm.” Sophie nodded, still buried in her phone.

“Thank you, but I can push it,” Alex offered, reaching for the cart’s handle.

He looked down at her hand, briefly, before meeting her eyes. “It’s okay, really. I said I want to be a gentleman.”

It only took an hour for Sophie to fall asleep, sprawled across the back seats with noise canceling headphones over her ears and a large cashmere shawl wrapped around her shoulders. She even slept in a chic way, her lips pursed neatly and her dark lashes fluttering the tiniest bit as she breathed.