Page 108 of Valentine Nook
He taps the biggest one. “This is a package my mother asked me to collect for her. I believe it’s a Birkin.” He holds up the other. “And this is for you.”
“You bought me a present?”
“I did.”
I’m too greedy to wait until we get back to the hotel, so I tug the ribbon. Carefully easing out the box inside, I remove the lid and wade through reams of tissue to find a small leather folder with a silver buckle and a heart dangling from a strap.
“You didn’t seem to have anything to keep your notes together when you were reading them on the plane.”
It’s so thoughtful, so typically Lando, that my eyes well up immediately. I can feel him staring at me, his expression filled with confusion.
“Is this a good cry or a sad cry?”
I dab at the tears before they fall. “A good cry. A very good cry. Thank you, it’s really so kind of you.”
“You’re welcome,” he replies, reaching behind him, “but perhaps these might cheer you up too.”
He’s holding a beautiful black box covered in swirls and intricate edging. It’s the type of box that typically contains a piece of jewelry. My breath catches somewhere between my lungs.
It’s better than jewelry, and immediately, a laugh barrels out of me. Only in Paris would a box of donuts be packaged as beautifully as jewelry.
“Donuts?”
“Of course. We have something to celebrate, don’t we?”
I giggle and peer at him from under my lashes. “Yes, Gracie. We do.”
We spend the next two days being as French as we can.
We eat croissants. We drink wine. Wemake love.
When I do my camera test, Lando works from a couch in the corner, watching. Too many times, my focus drifts over to him.
We try pastries that would have Pierre weeping. I buy a little box of the chocolates he says I have to beat before I can move on to making other things. We cycle along the Seine. We visit the Mona Lisa and Versailles.
We laugh and laugh and laugh.
And all the while, there’s a niggling in the pit of my stomach that feels a lot like a turning point.
My life is about to go in different directions. I just hope I take the right path.
CHAPTER 22
Lando
“Have you seen this?”
Grabbing my coffee mug before it topples over, I peer at Alex, then at the piece of paper he’s slammed onto my desk, easing it out from under his hand.
It looks to be a land purchase order, forestry for sale. Fifteen hundred acres. One hundred million dollars.
My brow knits together.
He doesn’t need my authorization to spend anything under half a billion. I trust him, and he has a sixth sense that seems to have protected him from making any lamentable investments so far.
One hundred million wouldn’t usually have him so riled up that he looks like he might burst into flames at any moment.
“Can you fucking believe it?”
