Hotel Vendome

He was trying to tease Natalie to distract her, and kissed her, and then he looked at her with a worried expression, as though he saw something he didn’t like. “What’s that in your ear?” he asked her, and she looked scared for a minute.

“In my ear? Is there something in my ear?” She brushed her hand past it as though it might be a bug of some kind.

“There’s something in your ear,” he insisted, still frowning. “Let me have a look.” He peered into it, and she giggled. He was tickling her.

“What are you doing?”

“I think it’s stuck. Maybe I should get a pair of pliers or something.”

“Don’t be silly,” she said as she turned around and kissed him, which distracted him for a minute. He wanted to make love to her again, but there was something else he wanted to do first.

“Do you have a pair of pliers?”

“No, I don’t. And you’re not going to put a pair of pliers in my ear!”

“Oh, here it is! I got it! I knew there was something in there!” He handed something to her, and she didn’t know what it was at first, and she looked at it and stared in disbelief. It was a beautiful diamond solitaire. He had followed Jennifer’s suggestion and gone to Cartier that day. It was much larger than any engagement ring Natalie had ever dreamed of, and she looked at Hugues in amazement.

“Are you serious?”

“That looks like a very serious ring to me,” he said, laughing. “It’s a good thing I got it out. We might have had to cut off your ear to get to it.” And then he grew serious too. “Will you marry me, Natalie?” He slipped the ring on her finger as he asked her and then kissed her.

“Yes, I will,” she said when they came up for air. “I would even without the ring. I never expected anything like that.” That made it even more fun for him. He loved spoiling her. And she had earned it. She had waited a long time for him to do the right thing. And now he was doing more.

“When shall we get married?” he asked her, looking happy and relaxed as he lay next to her, and she was flashing the handsome diamond on her finger and grinning from ear to ear.

“I don’t know. Is tomorrow too soon? What if you change your mind?”

“I won’t.” He got quiet again for a minute. “I have to go to Heloise’s graduation in Lausanne in June, and by then I hope you’ll come with us. I’d like to give her a party when we get back and combine it with her twenty-first birthday. I don’t want to steal her thunder. What about July? How does that sound to you?”

“Perfect,” she said, as she turned and kissed him. The whole evening had been perfect. Their lovemaking, the proposal, the gorgeous ring. And a life with him forever. And then she looked worried again. “What are we going to tell Heloise?”

“That we’re getting married,” he said simply. “She hates me right now anyway. How much madder can she get?”

“Maybe a lot,” Natalie said, looking nervous.

“She’ll get over it.” He still believed that. And he had told Natalie when she came back to him that it was for good. And he was true to his word. “When she calms down, I’m going to ask her to be my witness.”

“I’ll ask my brother to give me away,” Natalie said happily. “Actually Heloise might like my nephew. He’s awfully cute. We can introduce them at the wedding.” She loved the sound of it as the words rolled off her tongue … ‘“at the wedding” … It was sheer bliss.

“That might help,” Hugues said, looking equally happy. “I assume we’ll have the reception in the ballroom?” he asked her.

“Of course. We could have a minister do it there.” She wasn’t particularly religious, and he was divorced, so it sounded right to both of them. It all did. The wedding. And the life that would come afterward. He had a life again. And he was going to have a wife who loved him. And one of these days, he might even have a daughter again too.

Chapter 16

HUGUES DECIDED TO speak to Heloise the next morning. After leaving Natalie at her apartment, he walked back to the hotel, saw Heloise at the front desk, and asked her to come into his office. He looked very official as he said it. She was standing at the desk in the navy suit that was the uniform for female desk clerks, and she came in to see him a few minutes later.

“Am I in trouble?” she asked, looking nervous, forgetting for a moment that she was angry at him. She wondered if she had done something wrong while working at the desk, or a guest had complained about her, but he shook his head and asked her to sit down.