Page 67 of Fierce

I wouldn’t tell her about the nondisclosure agreement I’d pulled out the night before at a restaurant a few kilometers from here. Let her preserve her illusions.

“She’s a beautiful girl,” the woman said. Clearly the last of the true romantics. Well, she was in Paris.

“Yeh.” That one, I could agree with. “She is.” I looked down at Hope again, at the vulnerable line of her part showing white in the midst of her tumbled hair, and somehow, I’d kissed the top of her head. I couldn’t help it, not really. She was just too sweet there.

“Would you like…” My newfound friend hesitated.

“Yes?” I asked, doing my best to be polite. It was lucky that the boat was almost back to the dock.

“I thought you might like a picture,” she said. “To remember your night by. I could take it, if you like.”

I hesitated for a few seconds, then was reaching into the pocket of my trousers, pulling out my phone, and handing it to her. “Please.”

A minute later, she was handing it back, smiling at me again, and turning to her husband, beginning to gather her belongings. I shoved the phone back into my pocket without looking at it as the boat slowed and maneuvered toward the dock and Hope stirred in my arms and blinked her way back into consciousness.

It had been a weak moment, true. But at least it had only been a moment.

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