Page 46 of Falling for Provence

She understood the apology, as well, and the poignant curl of her lips told him that she appreciatedhisunderstanding. His protection? It was all the confirmation he needed that it was far too soon for Ellie to imagine including a child in her life in any significant way. But it was that poignancy that touched his own heart and drew him to her with a force that was irresistible. He had to touch her lips with his own before that curl finally faded, and, while the lack of any desire to keep an eye on protective boundaries should have been a warning, Julien couldn’t have cared less.

This… whatever it was between them was only going to last until Ellie went home. Until the last summer market, which was only a matter of weeks away. It was something that was just between the two of them, and it didn’t need to involve something like a family outing with Theo.

Surely it wouldn’t do any harm to simply enjoy it for what it was? To feel this alive again and regain hope for any future joy he might be lucky enough to find in his life? It felt as if Elliecould also find that hope again, and that made this even more special. Important, even.

‘I will go and visit Roquebillière by myself,’ he told her. ‘But, after that, we can give you more driving practice.’

‘D’accord…’

Her pride in remembering her new word made Julien smile. He loved the joy he could see in her face. That he was, more and more, coming to see the real Ellie as she gained enough confidence to emerge from where she’d been hiding.

It made kissing her as they stood in this dusty old garage as necessary as taking his next breath. He carefully smoothed his hands over the tangles in her hair so that he could hold her head and find the perfect angle to let his tongue dance with hers and taste every astonishingly delicious corner of her mouth.

She wassodifferent to any woman he’d ever been with.

Was it because he couldfeelwhat she was thinking so often? Like her pride in remembering a new word or overcoming her fear of driving? Sharing her appreciation of a view or a painting that captured some of the colours and light of Provence was a gift. She had taught him to love the smell of sunshine on sheets that had just been washed. The sound of an accordion playing a classic French song. The taste of simple food like fresh tomatoes and basil. He would never ever forget the sigh of pleasure that he could invoke by touching her bare skin…

It would be so easy to fall in love with this woman.

Not that that was going to happen,bien sûr. The boundaries of thisbrève liaisonwere what was making it possible to be this close to her, becausetheywere making it safe.

But he was going to remember this time with Eleanor Gilchrist for the rest of his life.

Oddly, that thought gave Julien a wash of something that felt like sadness.

Was he missing her already?

15

The curls of lemon rind had been in the bottle of alcohol for seven days now, religiously taken out of the cupboard and shaken every day by Ellie. Days during which she found she was putting the final touches on some of the bigger projects of renovating La Maisonette.

The interior stone walls were completely clear of the crumbling whitewashed plaster, and every particle of dust had been removed. Thetometteson the floor were gleaming, and she had sanded down and repainted the repaired shutters in a lovely shade of Paris blue with a lavender undertone. On a trip to the localbricolageto find some white paint to freshen up the wrought-iron table and chairs on the terrace, Ellie had discovered that her now-favourite shop had all sorts of unexpected things for sale. She had been able to find tiny tubes of oil paint in a craft section that were just what she needed to restore the ceramic tile with the name of the house. And she had spotted pretty pale-green glass bottles with embossed flowers and flip-top wire clasps that were perfect for the next stage of making her limoncello.

This evening, she had boiled the water and sugar into a syrup and let it cool, and now she was adding it to the alcohol to filter into the bottles through a funnel and a clean scrap of cotton fabric. A summer storm was brewing outside, with dramatic, black-tinged clouds crowding the sky and rumbles of thunder in the distance. Pascal was hiding under the table, close to Julien’s feet, and, as Ellie carefully poured the syrup into the two pretty bottles and then clipped the stoppers into place with the wire clasp, she noticed the way he reached down to give her dog’s ears a reassuring scratch every now and then.

It was another tiny sliver of the jigsaw she was putting together of who this man was, and it was, piece by piece, a picture of… a kind man. An attribute that might not be considered particularly sexy, maybe, but – along with the ability to make someone laugh – it was, without doubt, the most attractive attribute any man could possess.

Ellie put the bottles back into the cupboard, where they needed to sit for twenty days before the limoncello would be ready to drink. She didn’t want to think of what day it would be. She knew it would be in August. Far too close to the date she’d set as the time to go home to Scotland.

Laura was arriving in just a few days, and when the photographs were taken the marketing campaign would begin in earnest. Surely it wouldn’t take very long at all to sell the little house in its orchard setting that Ellie now knew was a small patch of paradise. Would she have the chance to do anything more than taste her own effort to create limoncello, or would it end up being a farewell gift for Julien?

Ellie pushed that thought away even more firmly as she sat beside him with a glass of her favourite rosé. She loved that he would drop in after work for a glass of wine. Sometimes they ate dinner together. Sometimes Julien stayed the night. Other times he needed to go home to do some work or to make a video callto his mother and his son if he hadn’t had time to do it earlier in the day.

Today it felt as if he was planning to stay. Right now he was looking through her sketch pad.

‘When did you do these?’

‘Just today. I spent the morning picking up old fruit in the orchard and cutting long grass with the shears I found in the garage, but I needed a break, so I took Pascal to St Paul de Vence and we wandered around all afternoon. I tried to find and draw all the different patterns of flowers I could find in the cobbles.’

‘I must look more carefully the next time I go there. I’ll take Theo and make sure he can see the flowers and how beautiful they are.’

Oh… Ellie wanted to go with them. To be out with Julien and Theo and Pascal. Finding things to do that would bring them all joy in being together.

Like a family…?

It was lucky that Julien was absorbed in turning the pages of the pad and couldn’t guess her thoughts. Ellie could hear an echo of his words from the night they’d first made love.

‘…I will never try to replace Theo’s mother – for his sake or my own. It simply isn’t going to happen…’

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