Page 67 of Falling for Provence

The sun would have gone out if he’d lost Theo in that accident, but it was also going to shine a lot less brightly when Ellie was no longer a part of his life.

After the disaster of his marriage, Julien been determined to never fall in love again. Or care about a woman so much it would hurt to lose them.

But losing Elliewasgoing to hurt. And the only comfort he could take from that was that he’d never told her that he loved her. He’d never offered up his heart, and perhaps that had helped to shield Ellie from what might have been a more intense pain.

It made it so much worse that it was ending badly, however. As Theo stood up and waggled his wet fingers at his papa with a smile that went straight into his heart, Julien remembered the look on Ellie’s face when she’d asked to go to the hospital with them.

How could he have ignored the anguish he’d seen in her eyes? She’d been as afraid as he was that Theo wasn’t going to survive, and she was hurting forhimas well as Theo. She knew, better than anyone, what that pain could be like and yet she’d let them both into her life. She’d let Theo hold her hand that day, and how hard must that have been?

As hard as when she’d heard him call herMaman?

He hadn’t had the emotional bandwidth, or possibly courage, in that moment to let her close enough to offerhercomfort. It would be nice to find a way to make up for that. To think of something that might make this ending a little easier for both of them.

It was when they were nearing the bend in the main street that would take them towards the church that Julien spotted the sign for the gallery where that painting had been on display – the painting that Ellie loved so much – and he suddenly knew exactly how he could try and make up for letting Ellie suffer alone since the accident. For keeping himself so distant, thinking that he was protecting his family by focusing on them so completely.

To thank her for what she’d taught him. Because love was what really mattered, and the biological bond of family was not necessarily what made a particular relationship or love more significant. Or life-changing.

But when they reached the gallery the painting was no longer in the window.

Had it already been sold? Julien’s heart sank like a stone. It might be only minutes since he’d thought of the perfect wayhe could show Ellie how much he cared without making their parting even harder, but this felt like a failure that would haunt him for ever.

Theo was tired now and was looking too pale. Julien picked his son up to carry him back up the hill and take him home.

There was nothing more he could do.

He’d left it too late.

Time had almost run out.

There was only one more day to take care of important tasks, like the appointment Ellie had with Christophe – the vet who’d looked after Pascal after she’d run him over with her bicycle – to have her little dog microchipped and vaccinated and to obtain his health certificate and pet passport.

She could go to the last summer market tomorrow evening and then have time for any final touches to leave the house looking picture-perfect. The sign had gone up on the roadside just today and the digital marketing campaign would go live tomorrow. Noah had a set of the keys and would take care of showing prospective buyers through – something that Ellie was more than happy not to have to be there for.

Mike and his mechanic friend Gary were coming to give Margot the once-over and a new MOT to make sure she was ready for the grand adventure of a three-day trip to her new home in Scotland. Ellie had meticulously planned her route and would drive down to the coast near Nice and then bypass Marseille to head inland to Lyon and Dijon and Reims. They would take the ferry from Calais to Dover, bypass London and keep heading north.

Heading home.

By the time they got to Oban the distance between Ellie and the south of France would feel like a whole world away.

So would the distance between herself and Julien, and perhaps that was when this separation would start to feel easier.

Ellie’s phone rang as she was sitting out on her terrace watching one of the last sunsets she was going to see here. Laura’s face filled the screen as she answered, but the expression on her sister’s face was one that she had never seen before.

‘You’re not going to believe this, Ellie.’

‘What?’ she asked. She was still trying to interpret Laura’s odd expression. ‘What’s wrong? Oh, my God… is it Mam?’

‘No… No… there’s nothing wrong at all.’ Laura was smiling now. Grinning, even, which was so unusual it was almost scary. ‘It’s the most amazing news ever?—’

‘Tell me,’ Ellie demanded.

‘It’s sold. The house is sold.’

‘But…’ Ellie could feel a shock wave rippling through her entire body. ‘It can’t have. It’s not even on the market till tomorrow.’

‘Well, it has. I’ve just had Noah on the phone. Somebody saw the sign and just went into the agency and offered the asking price even though we set it so much higher than we expected to get. The paperwork’s all underway.’

Laura’s excited words were tumbling out so fast they sounded like verbal static to Ellie. Her brain was refusing to make sense of any of this.

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