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“So, what do you want?” he demanded now.
“Not much, big brother.” Sofia sat back in her chair serenely. “Just a small favor. Very small.”
She’d really changed since they’d left Lyra, he thought. The young woman looking at him now, in her red lipstick and chic little suit, had deep self-confidence and a determined glint in her eye. She’d come into her own. But no wonder, when... He did mental arithmetic. He was almost forty. That meant Sofia was almost thirty.
How the hell did that happen?
“What favor?” he growled.
“It’s nothing.” She placed a small blue box on his desk. “Just this.”
Theo stared down at the wrapped present with its big blue bow. “What the hell is that?”
Sofia sighed. “I got your wife’s invitation. I meant to RSVP weeks ago but then got caught up with my new job at the museum. Also, I’ve been seeing someone, and...” She snorted. “Why am I explaining? You understand. You always wait till the last minute. I was counting on it when I came here.”
“Emmie invited you to a party?” Theo was bewildered.
She rolled her eyes. “I felt bad about ignoring her when we were in Lyra, so I decided to blow her away at the shower.” Smiling down proudly at her wrapped gift, she confided, “They’re little blue baby booties I knitted myself.” Lifting a manicured hand high in the air, she pretended to do a mic drop. “Now,that’show you make amends. But I didn’t finish making them till last night, and by then, even the fastest shipping wouldn’t make it in time. Then I remembered you were still in Paris. I must say, sometimes it’s nice to have a workaholic brother with his own plane.” She grinned, rising to her feet. “Thanks, big brother. I really appreciate this.”
“She’s having a baby shower.” He’d gotten that much.
“Yes.” Frowning at him, she spoke with exaggerated slowness, as if explaining something simple to someone not so bright. “And I need you to bring it with you when you fly to New York today. For the party tonight.”
His throat suddenly hurt. “Sorry. I’m not going.”
“Of course you’re going. The invitation said coed. I assumed you were the reason. Emmie wanted you to be there.” Her brow furrowed. “Are you really not going?”
Theo felt a hard twist in his chest. He cleared his throat.
“I’m too busy to leave Paris at the moment.” To prove it, he moved the cursor vaguely around his computer screen. “We’re about to break ground on our project. The biggest in central Paris in decades. That doesn’t leave much time to loll around eating cake with friends.”
Sofia looked at him pityingly. “I see.”
And that was just it. He was afraid she did see.
Theo rose to his feet. “I’m sorry I can’t take your gift personally, but my secretary will arrange it to be sent in time by express courier. Where’s the party?”
“A friend of hers is hosting. Some beach house in the Hamptons.”
Beach house. That meant Honora and Nico. His closest friends, other than Emmie. He felt a razor blade in his throat.
Pushing papers around his desk, he said hoarsely, “Thanks for coming by, but I have a lot of work to do...”
Sofia didn’t move. She was staring at those papers.“Theo.”
He followed her gaze to Emmie’s diamond ring resting on the divorce papers.
“Emmie’s leaving you?” Sofia breathed. She looked up. “What happened?”
He set his jaw, looking away. “I don’t want to talk about it.”
“You can’t have broken up. Why?”
Turning from his desk, Theo went to the large arched window and looked out at the gray drizzle of Paris. Leaning his arm against the glass, he looked down at the busy lanes of traffic swarming around the Arc de Triomphe. Swallowing hard, he forced himself to say, “Emmie and I realized we weren’t suited for marriage. It was a mutual decision.”
“No way.” His sister’s voice was incredulous. “The woman I met in Lyra was totally in love with you.”
Theo set his jaw. For a moment, he thought of ordering her out.
