AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Oh yes, that's better,” she says. “Finally, a bit of circulation. I'm not going to be able to bear this bed for very much longer.”
"After that stunt, you pulled, it's a wonder Olivier doesn't strap you to the bed.”
That makes her laugh.
"As if he would dare," she emphasizes. “I am the one who runs this family. Always have, as I refused to let the Dubois return to the fields, poor and hungry. I love my grandchildren, and Olivier is the future head of the family. I have decided everything for that boy's life since he was four years old. Where he would go to school, what he would study, which sport he would partake in, and who he would marry.”
My head snaps to look at her so fast that my head spins.
Her lips are pursed as though she's challenging me. It’s the exact same look she had on her face as when she ran that quiz with Simone and me. Like we were in a game show without knowing what the prize was.
I get it. It’s Granny who pulls the strings all the way down to Olivier's love life. That explains a lot. Of course she would pick someone like Simone.
It's true that out here on the estates, it feels like time has turned way back. The vineyards look the same as they probably have for hundreds of years. The Dubois family with their chain of restaurants and massive winery… I suppose, Grandmama doesn't want to leave any of it to chance.
“There you go," I say, gently tapping her legs. “All soft and supple.”
I rub the remainder of the cream on my arms and am pretty sure I just increased in value by a couple hundred bucks.
My eyes drift back to the window to see Olivier pacing below, his hand running obsessively through his hair. I wish I knew what was going on in that mind of his. My heart tightens at the sight of him, even though I know he is forbidden fruit.
Grandmama sighs. “Divine, don’t you think?”
“He sure is,” I say and catch myself too late. “I mean… the fields.”
Panic. Panic.
It's rising up my throat like a bad attack of indigestion. I glance at Grandmama. Did she notice?
Her eyes are wide like ping pong balls. “Is he?”
She noticed.
“Well, you know…” I say playing up my Texan accent. “…back home, we often refer to the fields as boys because they can be so naughty and out of hand, am I right?”
Please buy it.
“Interesting,” she replies, her eyes narrowing. “I don't recall my Texan ever speaking that way of fields.”
Her Texan? Is she talking about Henry again? Is he the American she wasn’t allowed to marry?
“Madame, about what you said earlier—”
“Ooh la la.” She stretches her arms flops down on her pillow more like a teenager than a fragile old lady. “Off you go then, I need to rest. Not another word.” She rolls over, and just like that, the conversation is finished.
* * *
“I don't know what I was thinking,” I say on a video call to Laura, though Gina is poking her head over Laura's shoulder, and I know the others aren't far. “It was just that being in his arms felt so, so…”
“Delicious?” Jess jumps in.
“Comforting?” Gina offers.
“Heart palpitatingly sexy?” says Chrissy, who then removes herself from the screen, but I can hear her giggles from here.
“It sounds like the kind of romance we all dream of,” Laura says, “and awfully easy to get caught up in.”
“I know.” I flop back on the bed, but still hold the phone over me. “It just felt like it was more than that.”
