"He left me, Michelle."
Her friend was suddenly wide awake. "What do you mean, he left you? Nick? Where are you anyway?"
"Paris," she answered, sniffling.
"You’re crying, aren’t you? You lost the lawsuit. Laurant, I’m so sorry."
"I didn’t lose."
"You mean you’re rich again?"
"I suppose so."
"You don’t sound very happy about it."
"Did you hear what I said? Nick left me. I didn’t tell you the last time I called, but he left me the day after the wedding. He shook my hand, Michelle, and then he left. He doesn’t love me."
"He shook your hand?" Michelle burst into laughter.
"It isn’t funny. This phone call is costing money, so be sympathetic and be fast."
"Okay," Michelle said. "There, there. It will be all right."
"Now you’re being sarcastic."
"Sorry," she said. "What are you going to do about him?"
"Nothing. He doesn’t love me."
"I saw the way he was looking at you while you were dancing at the picnic. It’s the same way Christopher looks at me when he wants… you know."
"That’s lust, not love. I scared him."
"Oh, dear. You do have a knack for doing that. There’s only one thing left to do," she advised. "You’re going to have to go after him. Hunt him down."
Laurant sighed. "You aren’t helping. I’m feeling miserable. I hate being in love."
"Go after him," she repeated.
"And then what? I can’t make him love me. I hate feeling like this. If this is what love is all about, you can have it. You know what I’m going to do? I’m going to get on with my life and forget him. Yes, that’s what I’m going to do."
"Okay," Michelle agreed, and Laurant could hear the smile in her voice. "Just one question. How are you going to forget him?"
"I fell in love with him almost overnight, so it probably isn’t the real thing. That makes sense, doesn’t it?"
"Oh, please. Do you hear yourself? In your heart you know this isn’t an infatuation. I fell in love with Christopher after our first date. Sometimes it happens that way. I just knew I wanted to spend the rest of my life with him. Go after Nick, Laurant. Don’t let pride mess this up."
"Pride doesn’t have anything to do with it. If he loved me, he wouldn’t have left me. It’s over, and I have to accept it."
Laurant felt like her heart was shattering. Michelle was talking now, but she wasn’t listening. She interrupted her friend to say good-bye. She wanted to go home, but she didn’t know where that was anymore.
She called room service and ordered hot tea. Coping. That’s what Nick had told her she was doing when she fixed herself tea.
She was suddenly anxious to get out of Paris. She called the airline and moved her flight up. She could sleep on the plane, she thought. She got out of bed and started packing her bags again. She had just closed her overnight bag when there was a knock on her door. Tea had arrived. She grabbed a tissue on her way across the room and then opened the door.
"Just put-"
Nick was standing in the corridor, glaring at her. She was so stunned to see him, she couldn’t speak, couldn’t move.
He looked awful. His hair was down in his face, his clothes looked like he’d slept in them, and his eyes looked haggard. She thought he was beautiful.
"Did you even have the chain on? What were you thinking opening the door like that? I didn’t hear the dead bolt. Was the door locked?"
She didn’t answer him. She just stood there staring up at him with a stunned expression on her face. He could see she’d been crying.
Her eyes were red and swollen. He had to nudge her back inside before he could shut the door.
"This is how you lock a door," he said as he turned the bolt.
He had her now. He leaned against the door so she couldn’t get past him. He took a deep breath, and the panicky feeling he’d been carrying around vanished. She was just a foot away from him, and the world was suddenly making sense again.
"How did you find me?"
"I’m FBI. It’s what we do. We find people who try to run. Damn it, Laurant, how could you leave me like that? Without a word, you pack up and move to Paris? What the hell’s the matter with you? Don’t you know what you put me through? What were you thinking?" he railed. "You can’t tell someone you love him and then run away. That’s just damn cruel."
Laurant was trying to follow along, but Nick was talking so fast and furiously, it was difficult. Why did he think she had moved to Paris? And what made him think she was running away from him?
She was going to demand he explain as soon as she got over the fact that he was there, acting like a complete, adorable idiot.
"I’ll quit," he said. He nodded to let her know he meant it. "If that’s what it will take to get you to marry me, then by God, I’ll quit."
He only then noticed she was wearing the T-shirt he’d bought her, and that conjured up all sorts of hot memories. He smiled that wonderful, melting smile of his, and then he pointed at her and said, "You love me."
He tried to take her into his arms, but she backed away. "You can’t quit."
"Yes, I can," he said. "I’ll do whatever it takes to make you feel safe, but you’ve got to stop running. No matter where you go, I’ll follow you. Damn it, Laurant, I’m never going to let you leave me again."
She put her hand out to fend him off when he tried to grab her. "I wasn’t running away. You left me, remember?"
"Yeah, well, I came back and you were gone. You sure didn’t waste any time pining away for me. Tommy didn’t even want to tell me where you’d gone, but I made him."
She was starting to catch on. Her brother had become a match-maker. "And what did he tell you?"
"That you moved to Paris. It made me crazy knowing you were so far away," he admitted. "I have to have you in my life. I want to come home to you every night. I want to grow old with you. I need you, Laurant."
She started crying again. He wouldn’t let her back away from him this time. He pulled her into his arms and held her tight. He kissed her forehead as he whispered, "Will you marry me?"
"I won’t marry a man who can’t hold a job."
"Then I’ll take the coordinator position they’ve offered me."
"No, what you do is too important. You have to promise me you won’t stop."
"You mean it?"
"I love you, Nicholas."
"I won’t quit."
He nudged her chin up and leaned down. He kissed her passionately, letting her know how much he loved her.
"Marry me, Laurant. Put me out of my misery."
Her head snapped back. She was suddenly looking stunned again.
"How did you get here?"
He wouldn’t let her dodge his question. "Marry me," he repeated.
She smiled. "I want babies."
"So do I," he said. "With you, I want everything. I’ll be a neurotic father, worrying about them, but with you as their mother, they’ll turn out all right. We’ll be a good balance for them. As long as I have you by my side, anything is possible. I love you, sweetheart."
She was fervently kissing his neck. "I already know you love me."
"Yeah? When did you figure that out?"
She hoped their babies would have his blue eyes. They were so beautiful. "When I saw you at my door. That’s when I knew you loved me. You got on a plane and flew across an ocean for me."
He laughed. "Losing you was more terrifying. Besides, it wasn’t all that bad."
"Are you telling me you’re over your phobia?"
"Sure I am," he choked.
She smiled, kissed him gently, and whispered. "We’ll go home by boat."