Page 65 of Loving London

I nod. “Yeah, it does.”

“I’m thrilled for you and Loïc. I’ve always loved you two together. You’re good for him. I love seeing him so happy,” she says warmly, smiling toward Loïc.

“Thank you. I’m happy for us, too.” I follow her gaze and find Loïc watching us with a big grin.

He winks at me, and I shake my head with a chuckle.

Out of the corner of my eye, I see Sarah as her head whips between Loïc and me, noticing our exchange. She leaves the group and walks back toward the house.

“I’m going to go see if Sarah needs any help in the kitchen,” I say to the group.

“That’s nice of you, babe.” Loïc puckers his lips, and I meet them with mine, softly kissing him.

“I try.” I shoot him a wink before heading inside.

When I get to the kitchen, Sarah is ladling coleslaw from a mixing bowl into a serving dish, but she’s doing it with such force that little pieces of cabbage are flying out from the dish with each spoonful she throws in.

“Do you need any help?” I ask as cheerfully as possible.

Sarah’s back stiffens, and she turns toward me. Her eyes are red with tears. “You? Help me? Oh, that’s unlikely,” she says with a huff, turning back to the bowl.

“Is something wrong, Sarah?” I attempt to extend an olive branch. I’m going to have to deal with this woman forever. It’d be nice if she didn’t hate me.

She spins to face me again. “If you want to help me, you’ll leave. Go back to LA, and stay away from Loïc.”

“I can’t do that,” I say with a shake of my head.

“You ruin everything. I was so close. He just needed a little bit longer. Loïc is meant to be with me, London. Me! Not you. You can’t possibly begin to understand him or what he’s been through. I do.” A tear falls down her cheek.

Although the majority of me thinks she’s an extreme bitch, a part of me knows that she’s just hurting. “I’m so sorry that you’re upset, Sarah. I am. Truly. I know what it’s like to love someone so much and not be able to be with him. But I’m not sorry for loving Loïc. He wants to be with me just as much as I want to be with him. I’m not going anywhere. I can guarantee that.

“We need to learn to get along. Maybe, someday, we could even be friends. You can’t make Loïc choose between us because I can guarantee you that you wouldn’t be happy with his choice.

“And you’re right. No, I don’t know his past as well as you do. But I don’t need to understand everything he’s been through. I just have to love him through it. You have his past, I know that, and I’m glad you had each other. But I have his future, and that’s not going to change.”

I turn, leaving Sarah with her mouth agape, and I head back out to the party.

“Everything all right?” Loïc asks when I reach him.

“Everything’s great.” I wrap my arms around him and hug him tight.

Paige is holding Evan up and spinning him around as he giggles incessantly.

I sure hope Sarah comes to her senses because I would hate for anything to happen that’d put stress on Loïc’s relationship with his nephew.

Gosh, why do girls have to be such emotional basket cases?

I laugh to myself, thinking about how I was post-Loïc breakup. I was such a mess that I had to move across the country.

“What’re you laughing about?” Loïc asks.

“You.”

“What about me?”

“Just how addictive you are. Detoxing from you is a major downer.”

“Well, I’m not going anywhere, so there will be no more detoxing for you.” He kisses me.

---