Chapter ten
Wanting to show her new boss that she could be organised and professional when she wasn’t caught on the hop, Darcy made sure that she and Connor were ready with plenty of time to spare.
Rosie had been shepherded across the road to school, after a solemn pinkie promise that anything bought for her room would be in shades of pink. It had been her favourite colour since the age of three; and as far as she was concerned, still the only colour worth having. She had pouted a little at not being able to accompany the others but once she spied her new friends already playing in the school yard, she ran to join them happily, the outing forgotten.
Darcy was standing admiring the view of the countryside from the kitchen window clutching a second cup of coffee, when at precisely half past nine Gabriel pulled into the open gate, towing a small trailer behind the SUV. The empty trailer rattled on the rough surface of the lane as he passed by the cottage to continue further down, but he was back moments later. He must have turned where the lane met the main drive, Darcy thought as she watched him brake to a stop.
She continued watching as Gabriel hopped out of the vehicle and walked around to the passenger door to let his dog out. He was dressed more casually today with a dark green cashmere pullover under the same leather jacket he’d worn yesterday teamed with jeans.
He had parked directly outside the kitchen window and as he bent to pat the dog’s shaggy head Darcy had a fine view of his jeans clad backside. No, she admonished herself, pulling her gaze away from the sight, she was not going to become distracted by male eye candy… especially that which belonged to her employer. Thinking to distance herself, she walked the few paces to the sink to pour the dregs of her coffee down the drain but turned again as she heard the dog barking excitedly out the window. He’d run off down the drive towards the chateau making an unholy din. Appearing unconcerned, Gabriel straightened, turned and walked to open the cottage door and wander inside.
“Frodo’s seen a squirrel,” he announced as he closed the door, toeing Napoleon gently away from an inquisitive inspection of the bottom door before picking the kitten up to stroke him. Napoleon promptly crawled under Gabriel’s jacket and rubbed against his soft pullover. Darcy tried not to notice but felt a small stab of envy for the kitten. “I think the squirrels are pretty safe though,” he continued, “he’s never caught one yet, but he doesn’t give up trying. It’ll give him a chance to stretch his legs before we start off.”
Darcy, who had admired the red squirrels bouncing through the long grass and playing on the rooftops hoped he was right about his dog’s hunting capabilities. Frodo? Ha, the name was weel-suited to the dog with the big hairy feet that was running around outside.
Attracted by the voices and the barking Connor appeared from the bathroom where he’d been sent by his mother to brush his teeth. Gabriel held his hand out to shake. “Bonjour Connor. Its time you got used to French ways,” he said, then turned to Darcy, “You too. When in France you must do as the French do. It’s like Rome, but not,” he took her hand, instead of shaking it, he pulled her towards his body while placing his other hand on her shoulder and rapidly kissed her on both cheeks. “Bonjour Darcy, Ca va?”
“Bien, merci,” Darcy, taken by surprise, replied automatically. She quickly set her features into a mask of, what was, she hoped, polite indifference.
She had come to the conclusion, lying awake the night before that she would make whatever effort it required to keep this relationship as impersonal as possible. She was, after all, a cool-headed professional and she was going to act like one. The last thing she needed was to jeopardise her employment by falling for the boss. She’d dragged her children away from everything familiar to them and taken this job with the express purpose of giving herself time and space to collect her thoughts, while she decided what she would do with the next chapter of her life. She thought of it as hitting the pause button, a kind of hiatus before moving on with her life after Patrick’s betrayal; and nothing else. That’s what she’d decided and that’s what she’d stick to. She was so not ready to be feeling any kind of attraction to another man.
Now, if he’d just take his bleedin’ gorgeous hand off her shoulder, she would be able to continue breathing.
Gabriel, his hand still lightly covering her shoulder had felt the indrawn breath and waited, curious to see if she would go blue or faint before exhaling. Talk about uptight English. Or American, who had been living in England long enough for the English attitude to all things sensual to have rubbed off on her. Still, it wouldn’t be kind to let her faint from lack of oxygen so he took pity on her and removed his hand.
Darcy’s relief was almost palpable. He turned away slightly to hide his grin.
“Are you ready to go?” he asked, when he thought he had his face back under control.
“Yes,” she replied, catching that look before his smirk was reigned in to something more acceptable. Her eyes narrowed in annoyance … He knew exactly what he’d done.
In the future he could keep his hands to himself, or, or what? ,….better not go there,….she picked her handbag up off the bench and stalked, stiff-backed to the door.
It took no time at all, speeding along on the A13, to reach the bridge which crossed the River Seine at Tourville la Riviere. Darcy sat in the front passenger seat beside Gabriel while Connor got to know Frodo, who had politely given up the front seat to be restrained in a doggy safety harness next to Connor in the rear.
Darcy watched the countryside flash by, letting her mind drift and enjoying not having to drive for a change. Gabriel indicated to turn off the auto route, negotiating several roundabouts as they approached the shopping centre.
The distinctive blue and yellow IKEA megastore stood out, among a wide selection of other shops. As Gabriel circled the car parks and manoeuvred to park the SUV under a large shady tree, Darcy noted the plethora of chain stores, some familiar, some not. There was a huge Carrefour hypermarket and a Decathlon sports store. Great, she thought, they needed to stock the kitchen and she wanted to buy bicycles for the children now that they were living somewhere with enough space to ride safely without venturing onto a road.
“Mind if we grab a coffee before we start?” Gabriel asked. “I’ve got a feeling this is going to take a while, and I need caffeine to start my day.”
As he spoke, he was opening the driver’s door and exiting the vehicle, so Darcy felt she had little choice but go along with his request. She thought of the two coffees she’d already consumed and hoped there was a loo somewhere nearby in the enormous complex.
The morning was warming up; Darcy shrugged out of her jacket and stuffed it under her seat as Gabriel filled a dog bowl with water for Frodo and left the SUV windows open wide enough for fresh air to flow. The big dog whined unhappily at being left, but released from his harness, clambered over the rear seats into the wide hatch area and lay down, head on paws.
The moment they entered the main shopping complex Connor spied a Micromania gaming shop and pleaded to investigate. Seeing that it was only a couple of doors down from a small café Darcy relented.
“You’re not to go anywhere else,” she instructed. “This place is huge and I don’t want to spend all morning looking for you,” as her son scooted away she hoped he’d heeded her caution as she accompanied Gabriel to the café..
The coffee was much better than the instant Darcy had been drinking earlier and the selection of fresh pastries that Gabriel bought to go with it too tempting. Darcy had eaten a small strawberry tart, and was eyeing a mille feuille, with its layers of flaky pastry, rich creamy custard and vanilla and chocolate icing.
“Go on, you know you want to.” Gabriel was watching her from across the small table. “You’re slavering worse than Frodo for a doggie treat.”
“Am not!” Darcy retorted indignantly, not overly pleased with the comparison to his dog.
“Here, if it makes you feel any better, I’ll take half,” he leaned forward with a knife poised above
the pastry, grinning as Darcy whisked it out from under the blade and onto her own plate before he had time to lower the implement.
“Whoa, watch out, you could lose fingers doing that,” he admonished, “If I’d known you were a mille feuille addict I’d have bought more than one.”
“I’m not addicted,” Darcy protested, smiling, but when he reached out, playfully, as if to grab her plate with the pastry on it, she whipped it away and up to her mouth, licking along the icing. “Mine, all mine,” she jeered laughingly.
“If I really wanted that, it would take more than a bit of spit to stop me,” he replied candidly, leaning back comfortably in his chair while watching her dig her fork into the layers, “I come from a big family and I know how to fight for what I want.”
“And still. Mine,” Darcy forked a big mouthful into her open mouth, waggling her eyebrows tauntingly.
“You sound like those obsessive Aussie seagulls in Nemo,” Gabriel said, pleased to have seen her relaxed and smiling at last. It was a vast improvement on the various grim looks he’d seen on her face so far.
“Oh yeah. Mine, mine, mine, mine,” Darcy repetitively chanted, adding, “How on earth do you know that?” He didn’t look like the kind of guy who spent a lot of time watching children’s movies.
“Big family…lots of nieces and nephews,” he replied, shrugging in that way that immediately reminded her that, despite his Americanised English he was still so very French. “Believe me, it beats watching ‘Frozen’ for the hundredth time or ‘Dora, L’Exploratrice’ with the girlie girls. Give me Nemo and the sharks any day. But we’re getting off the subject. You could share that, you know. I missed breakfast ‘cos I had to get up early to pick up the trailer and I’m still hun-gry,” he growled as he drew the word out and turned his lips down in a parody of a sad face.
“Pa-thet-ic,” Darcy laughed out loud. “You should take lessons from Rosie and Connor if you want to get that look right,” but she passed over a forkful of the crisp pastry and crème anyway, her other hand held under to catch any stray globs of custard. She had intended handing the forkful to Gabriel, but he leaned forward and grasped her wrist, gently forcing her to feed him. As he licked the pastry cream from the tines, Darcy could feel herself colouring under her makeup at the unexpectedly intimate gesture.
She was saved by Connor choosing that moment to return from Micromania, bursting to tell her all about the game he’d seen that he ‘really had to have,…’ As Darcy started to say “Not today buddy,” Connor’s face crumpled.
“There, that’s the look you need to perfect,” she said to Gabriel, pointing to Connor, who was by now looking as if he’d lost his last friend in the world. She sighed gustily, “come on sport, show me this ‘must have’ game,” …she climbed to her feet and held out her hand to her son.