Page 102 of Chloé

She looked at all three of her fathers and nodded. “Yeah. I wanted to talk to you about Paris.”

“Bien.”Pèreleaned back in his seat and rested his hand on the top of it behind her dad. “Because that’s why we’re here.”

“I thought it might be.” She curled her legs up under her and took a sip of her coffee.Well, here goes nothing.“First, I want to say that I’m sorry it’s taken me so long to get back to you. I didn’t mean to drag my feet; it’s just—”

“Chloé?” She turned to her papa. “This isn’t a job interview with strangers. You don’t have to apologize. You can take as long as you want.”

“I know. I just feel bad about how I might’ve come off as, I don’t know, unappreciative.”

“Oh, my darling girl.” Dad shook his head. “We never thought that. But we’d be lying if we didn’t say we were a little shocked at first by how you took the news.”

“I know.” Chloé looked down at her mug and traced the rim with her finger. “My only excuse is that…you caught me totally off guard. I didn’t knowwhatto say.”

“And we understand that.” Papa reached over and put a hand on her arm. “You don’t need to make excuses with us for what you’re feeling—ever. If you’re happy, sad, angry, or upset, we want to know about it.”

Chloé bit down into her lip and tried to think of the best way to say what had been on her mind, and then finally she just blurted it out. “I’m scared.”

“Come here.” Papa sat up and moved over on the seat until he could pull her into his side. She snuggled in and looked at her Dad andPère, who were watching her with mixed emotions playing on their faces.

“What are you scared of,bichette?”

Chloé let out a sigh. “I don’t know—everything?” She laughed a little at herself and shook her head. “It’s stupid, but all of these ridiculous thoughts have been running through my head about how if I go, I’ll never get to see you anymore or that you’ll forget about me. Or how I might make a mess of the restaurant and you’ll be upset with me and never forgive me. I don’t know, I told you it was stupid.”

“You’renotstupid.”

She looked up at her papa. “I didn’t sayIwas stupid—I said my idiotic thoughts are.”

“Well, maybe that’s because we didn’t say everything we were feeling either, the night we spoke to you.”

“I don’t understand.”

Papa let out a sigh and leaned in to kiss her hair. “We’d talked about the possibility of you going to Paris one day.”

Dad nodded and reached forPère’s hand as though he might need something to hold on to. “But the idea of sending our baby girl to another country was—is—terrifying.”

“But,”Pèrejumped in, rounding off their thought, as they always seemed to do, “it wasn’t fairnotto offer you this opportunity.”

Chloé could hear the vulnerability in their voices, and it did something to her that their excitement last week hadn’t been able to—it made her understand.

This was just as hard for them as it was for her. When she had gotten quiet in her contemplation and worry over missing them and not seeing them, they had put on a brave front, and that made her love them even more.

“It is going to absolutely kill us to let you go.” Papa kissed her on top of her head. “But it would kill us even more if we didn’t let you.”

“This is what you were born to do, baby.” Dad’s eyes welled as he looked her over. “You’ve been following yourpapounetaround since you could walk.”

“That’s right, and now it’s time for you to fly,mon ange.”

Chloé blinked, her vision blurring as tears of happiness and joy escaped. “Thank you.”

“We love you, Chloé,” Papa said. “Don’t be afraid to follow your heart.”

“You’re right.” She nodded, her conviction growing with every word they said. “I want this. I want Paris.”

“Then you should go.”

“I’m going to.”

“Good, and knowing you have Ethan and Zayne going with you will make it a little less difficult for us to let you go.”

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