His hands always knew exactly where to touch her, like he was reading her mind. Most of the time she loved it, but not when she had something she really wanted to talk to him about. Yet here she was, like putty in his hands, and his fingers trailed along her thigh, threatening to touch her a little higher up.
A car drove by and she straightened up a little. Public displays of affection weren’t exactly her thing, and he knew it. He dropped his arms and said, “Why don’t we get out of here?”
“Sure.”
Joel threw his bag in the back of the trunk, then climbed into the passenger’s side seat.
“I have something to run by you,” he said. His eyes danced with excitement.
“What’s up?” she said, grateful that she didn’t have to tell him her news yet. She was so excited, and yet part of her was still worried about how he would react.
“While I was away, my editor sent me an email. He wants me to write a book.”
“Really? That sounds amazing. I know it’s always been a dream of yours.”
“It has. It’s like a dream. He wants our company to be the next mega travel resource or something like that. His idea is to have travel advice and mix it with a real story.”
This was huge. She had listened to him talk for hours about wanting to see his name in print, not just on the blog. A surge of pride filled her body as she watched his hands wildly animate his ideas and excitement.
“There’s one catch,” he said, stopping abruptly.
“What’s that?”
“He is planning for me to be on the road for a year.”
Emmeline’s heart sank. A year, a whole year! That made her guilt over wanting to move to the other side of the city seem pitiful. She had almost decided against the move a couple of times because of him, but he looked as though he couldn’t wait to leave. That stung. How could he be so excited to leave for an entire year?
The idea that perhaps this was the way he would to break up with her paralyzed her mind. Finally, the second shoe was going to drop.
“A whole year…” the words caught in her throat. She wasn’t sure how she was supposed to react. He was sitting there smiling, telling her that he was leaving for an entire year.
“Oh my goodness, you look like you’re about to cry,” he said.
She couldn’t help it. A tear slipped out of her eyes and trailed down her cheek. “It’s just that it’s a whole year. A whole year without you! I can barely stand it when you’re away for a few weeks.”
He chuckled.
“Great, now you’re laughing at me. How can you be so mean? I thought we really had something. If you’re planning on breaking up with me, the least you can do is to tell me and not sit there laughing at me.” She could feel her cheeks burn.
“I can’t stand it when you’re mad at me. Will you just let me tell you the best part?”
“So now I talk too much?” That was totally unlike her, but she was mad. How dare he drop this bomb on her and think that it was okay?
“No, stop.” He was starting to get frustrated too. “This isn’t the way this was supposed to go. I have something for you.” He got out of the car and rifled around in his bag.
It was wrapped in a white paper bag, crushed from being inside his carry-on. The word “Versailles” had been stamped into the front with a sticker.
“So a present is supposed to make it better? ‘I’m off for a year, but hey, I bought you something.’” She regretted the words as soon as they left her mouth, but she couldn’t take them back. She never thought he would agree to something like this and be so happy about it. Maybe she didn’t know him at all.
“Just open it, please. I was trying to be romantic.” His steel blue eyes pleaded with her.
Emmeline pulled out one of the two packages in the bag, wrapped in silver paper. She eyed it suspiciously, and then looked to him for clues. She slid her finger underneath the tape and opened the end. Out slid a hand-sized object wrapped in tissue paper.
“What is this?” she asked.
“Keep going.”
She opened the tissue paper. Inside was a passport holder, blue with the French fleur-de-lys embossed on the front.
“What’s this for? I don’t even have a passport.” None of this made any sense.
“I want you to come with me, you and Millie, for the year. We can travel, see the world. I don’t want to do this without you. I want you by my side the day we step onto the plane. Besides, with things so up in the air with Pernella and you wanting to move, this is the best time to do it.”
Emmeline was without words. Travel never seemed like a possibility. She couldn’t believe that she gave him such a hard time.
“What do you say?”
“I, well, I don’t know! This is so much—it never—wow, really?” She took a deep breath. It was so much to take in. “When do you leave?” she asked.
“I am hoping we leave in six weeks.”
That meant sometime in June. Her mind was racing. Millie would miss the last month of school, and then what about next year?
“I think I need to think about it. There’s too much to figure out.”
“Don’t think about it. Just come. Take a chance with me. I want to walk along the beaches of Spain holding your hand. I want to see the sunset from the top of the Eiffel tower. I want to shop in the spice markets of India with you, and fall asleep with you in my arms as we take the train through Italy.”
“It sounds perfect.” The practicalities of her daily life were floating away. “Yes! Let’s do this!”
“Really!” He swept her up in his arms, and they kissed a kiss filled with excitement and passion, a kiss full of dreams and possibilities.
“Yes, I want to go,” she said again, and yet something ate at the pit of her stomach. She was literally being given the world, but all of a sudden, it gave her indigestion.
Chapter Thirty-Seven
The afternoon disappeared in a haze of excitement as they sat talking about all the places they wanted to go. Joel explained that his boss had already worked out most of the details for the trip. The gig had been scheduled for one of Joel’s co-workers, who backed out because he found out his wife was expecting, and she was having a terrible time. Her morning sickness was something out of a horror story, and there was no way he could leave her. He had asked for an extension, but everything was booked, and there was a timeline to keep. That’s when they approached Joel as a replacement, giving him credit for always jumping at the chance to do more and pleased with his engaging writing style. The fact that his videos had done better than any of them imagined was an added bonus.
“They said I was smart, imaginative, and incredibly handsome.” He looked more than pleased with himself.
“You added that last part in yourself, didn’t you?” Emmeline asked slyly.
“Perhaps. You have to admit that it’s all true, though.” He puffed out his chest like a rooster on display.
“You got me there.” She leaned in for a soft kiss.
They were sitting in a coffee shop not far from Emmeline’s house, talking through all the particulars of their dream trip. Joel looked so happy explaining how he had been asked over a video conference call in a small town in France. How he had jumped at the opportunity to do it right away. Best of all, he had been able to figure out how to bring Emmeline and Millie along with him so that they didn’t need to be apart. It was the solution to everything, he said over and over.
“You still haven’t told me what is the book going to be about.” There were so many details that she was curious to know. This whole thing seemed incredible. It had overwhelmed her, and she responded without thinking, floating away in the excitement. She was trying to get everything set in her mind now. Getting carried away in the moment was a habit that she was trying to break. So far, she hadn’t had much luck, and she needed to think through it all rationally. Ask the right questions. She wondered if this new project was going to be an extension of the current project he was
working on.
For the past few weeks, he had been hitting many of the popular tourist spots in France and sitting down in their cafeterias to eat. It had been bugging him for years, how these tourist attractions could pride themselves on their culture, their history, their prestige, and then you sit down to eat horrid food amongst their treasures for twice what it would cost outside the hallowed walls. At one place, he had bought two drinks, a lemon pie, and cinnamon bun, and it cost almost $28 once he had done the money conversion. Frankly, they were dry and tasteless, and in the end, he dumped most of it in the trash.
So far no one Joel knew had taken up the mantle and tried to make these places see what a disservice they were doing themselves. It was a fight he believed in. He always wondered, why ruin a beautiful day with crappy food?
“Food matters,” he said. “It’s what people remember. It’s a serious let down when you finally get the chance to go up the Eiffel Tower and in the end, all you remember is the stale cookie you ate that cost ten bucks! It ruins the romance of it all. But you haven’t heard the best part, and why your coming along fits so well. You will be my official test subject.”
Emmeline narrowed her eyes and bit her lip, wondering what he could mean by that. Joel laughed heartily at her response, making her pout.
“Give me a chance, okay, before you go running away. I promise it isn’t going to be that bad.”
“It better be good.” A million possibilities flashed through her mind. She stopped briefly at the one where Joel ate food off of her and blushed.
“We’ll be touring around Europe and India on a quest to find the perfect date night experience in many of the major towns. Believe it or not, we will be forced to dine in romantic restaurants, and have it all paid for by my company. We will be visiting museums, theaters, and iconic attractions, and you get to tell me what you like the best. What makes you swoon. That’s the proper word, right?”
“Yes, I think it is! I’m pretty sure I swoon when you walk in the door. I seem to lose my head!”
“That means I’m doing my job.” He reached under the table and put his hand on her leg, sending shivers through her whole body.
“You’re distracting me.” He pushed his fingers a little higher on her leg, making her giggle. “Stop, you. I want to know more about this trip.”
“You are going to be instrumental, the centre of everything. I think we’ll really need a girl’s opinion to make this work and be a reliable travel guide. I even tried to get them to pay you a little for coming along, but they said no. They will, however, cover your travel expenses, and I can work on taking care of Millie’s with the advance I’m getting. This way I can use pictures and videos of us on our dates to keep up the blog while I’m writing the book.”
“Wow, that’s incredible—and a lot to take in.” She took a deep breath. She didn’t realize until that second that everything they did for the whole year would be put on display for everyone. Giving her opinion from time to time was one thing; this was more. She wasn’t even sure she wanted to be that much a part of the book. Talking about food would be easy, but her romance experience had been limited. What if what she thought was fabulous made everyone else gag? The idea was intimidating and exciting.
Joel’s enthusiasm for the project however, was contagious. It was a dream that most people would jump at. Her bakery, the pink awnings and French bistro tables, dashed through her mind. She hadn’t even told him yet. She didn’t know how to. Maybe she should keep it to herself. She needed time, time to consider everything, and she didn’t want to take the wind out of his sails when it was probably just her insecurity. The bakery idea would always be there, right?
“I know, but it’s perfect. I can just picture the two of us eating dinner, watching the sunset, seeing every major site. I can’t believe it’s actually going to happen,” Joel said, finishing his expresso.
“The three of us,” Emmeline corrected.
“Of course, that’s what I said.”
Emmeline grunted. It was a slip of the tongue, she was sure. “Millie—you haven’t even met Millie. Not really, anyway. I should have made sure that you guys met before you left. This is going to be a real shock for her.”
“I know, but think of the opportunity for her. I always dreamed of traveling when I was younger; this is a chance of a lifetime. Think of everything she’ll get to see. There can’t be any better geography or history lesson than to visit the places where history happened, to touch it, to breathe it in. We’ll be in a new city every few days. It doesn’t get any more exciting than that.”
A new city every few days, she thought to herself. I wonder how this is going to work? Emmeline had never traveled much, just around the province and a family road trip to Florida. Her parents had argued for most of the drive, while Emmeline hid in the back seat reading a book with a blanket covering her head.
She targeted Joel with a barrage of questions, all the time trying to keep in mind what Ginny would ask. Where would they stay? How many cities? Could they leave a little later, after she got Pernella good and settled? Would he spend some time with Millie before they left? She even went as far as asking the horrible, never-want-to-think-about-it question: what would happen if they broke up while they were away?
“Why would you even ask me that? Are you thinking that’s a possibility?” Joel looked hurt.
Emmeline stumbled over her words, feeling guilty. “No, it’s just, well, just, if it did happen.”
Joel snorted.
“What I mean,” Emmeline began again, “is if we broke up, I don’t have just me to worry about. I have Millie too, and if we break up while in some foreign country, what do I do? I mean, I’m trusting you with everything.”
“You know me. And if, God forbid, while we are on our incredibly romantic trip, where I am doing my best to be your own personal Casanova, we did break up, I’d send you guys back here. I’d never leave you stranded. Emmeline, I promise, this will be the best experience for all of us.” He reached across the table and squeezed her hand. “Emmeline Hope, you are the best thing that has ever happened to me. I love you.”
“I love you too.” Emmeline smiled, feeling a little more reassured. She glanced down at her watch. “Look at the time! I have to go and get Millie from school.”
She sucked back the rest of her coffee and sped over to Joel’s house to drop him off before going to get Millie. He needed to unpack and shower from his trip, and she needed to start preparing Millie. As she drove to the school, she started to make a mental list of what she needed to do: passports, information about homeschooling, get Pernella’s house ready to be sold, put their stuff in storage, tell Callum. That last point lingered in her mind. Millie would miss him for sure, and so would she.
“Damn Ginny for putting nonsense in my head! It’s making me doubt what I know for a fact!” she grumbled out loud as she pulled into a free parking space by the school. Parents were already walking back with their kids and helping them into the cars around her. She was late, but not by much. All Emmeline could think was, I hope Millie had a good day at school, and is ready for some life-changing news.
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Emmeline drove into the school parking lot practically in a daze, thinking about all the places they would visit—places she had never imagined in her wildest dreams that she would ever have a chance to go to, especially after she had Millie so young. The air felt different, and she practically floated to the back of the schoolyard where Millie was waiting for her in a throng of hundreds of kids running every which way as they waited to be picked up. Emmeline hardly saw them darting in front of her, focusing in on her kid, the lucky one, the one who wouldn’t be there next year. Instead, she would be hopping the train to Brussels, or building sandcastles on an exotic beach in Spain.
Millie came running up to her and started babbling a about her day, clearly frustrated. “The teacher totally messed up today. She said that we were going to sit outside and do our math work. I told him that
we couldn’t, we didn’t have desks to sit at out there, and then we’d have to lie in the grass. Then our books would get covered in dirt and ants and then we’d bring them back into the school. Then the janitor would be mad. Remember when he freaked out about the sparkles? So, he said that we had to go outside, it was good for us, and I said that if he wasn’t so worried about the school rules, then why should we be? That’s when all the kids in the class started chanting, ‘Cheese, cheese, cheese.’ Mommy, I hate that word. Why do they always say cheese? I swear I am never eating cheese again for as long as I live. It doesn’t even mean anything. One kid just said it one day and now they all say it non-stop for no reason.”
“Millie, I don’t think that going outside on a nice day to have class and gluing sparkles to your desk is the same thing.”
“Mommy, we either need to follow the rules or we don’t. If we don’t need to follow the rules, then fine. You just can’t go switching things around just to make one person happy.”
Reality was hitting Emmeline like a brick wall. She took a deep breath and blew it out slowly. Why did it have to be today that Millie had a bad day?
Millie went on as they walked slowly to the car.
“But sweetie, sometimes we can change things up so that we can have new experiences. New experiences are what make life interesting, don’t you think?” Emmeline asked, hoping her words would get through.
“It sounds to me that the teacher has no respect for the janitor.”
“Millie, try to have an open mind. You don’t want to miss out on stuff just because it doesn’t fit in with your little box of what you want to happen.”
“You sound like my teacher.” Emmeline could tell Millie was really starting to get angry again. The tips of her ears were turning pink and her lips pursed tightly together. There was no talking to her when she was like this.
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