“And here I am,” she said to herself as she checked her floral blouse and jeans in the mirror. The day promised to be sunny but cold, so she added a blue sweater to the ensemble and strolled out.
Maddox’s brow lifted with appreciation. His light green eyes, so much like colored glass, flicked from her shoulders to her toes and back to her face.
“You ready?” he asked.
“Yep.” She slung her purse on her shoulder and joined him in getting to the street below.
They toured the city on a double-decker bus splashed with stripes of orange, purple, and white. Adelie was grateful Maddox led the way to the upper level, and while it took more time during the hop-on, hop-off segments of the city, she was able to see more of it during the interim from an upper vantage point.
Every twist, every turn, stole her breath. She gobbled up views of the buildings, the Louvre’s token glass pyramid, the Paris Opera House, and the sad remains of Notre Dame—or what was left of it after the fire that demolished the beautiful structure a few years before.
The bus stopped at all the important places. The Louvre, the Eiffel Tour, the Champs Elysée, which let out at the L’Arc de Triomphe. The architecture was spectacular; it was all completely surreal.
While returning to the tour bus stop after strolling past shops from which she could never hope to purchase anything, Maddox’s phone buzzed. He’d answered calls from Duncan, from investors and handled other business on occasion, but after a fleeting glance at the screen, he returned the phone to his pocket.
“Not going to answer?” Adelie asked.
He sniffed, allowing his hand to grasp hers. Adelie’s stomach burned at the contact. He’d never held her hand like this in public before. Like they were a couple.
“Is this okay?” he asked.
She didn’t need him to clarify what he was asking. She squeezed his fingers in hers. “Yes,” she said quietly.
Adelie noticed Maddox’s phone buzz several more times along their journey from the street and back to their tour bus. Each time, he glanced at the screen, only to pocket the phone once more without replying.
Who could be calling him? And why would he ignore it?
They stopped for lunch at a small corner café where the pastries were the flakiest, creamiest she’d ever tasted. She was starting to see the appeal of eating so much bread, though she topped it off with a refreshing café crème that battled the chill in her fingertips. Maddox rested his phone on the table, and a name blared on the screen once more.
“Who’s Ruby?” Adelie asked, unable to help her glimpse of the name and the picture of a beautiful woman with dark hair, plump lips, and black eyeliner flaring into delicate little wings that accentuated her stunning eyes.
“Hmm?”
She gestured to his phone with her fork. “Ruby. Is she the one who keeps calling you? Who is she?”
He covered the phone with his palm and slid it to his lap as though it was a card that had just been dealt to him. “She’s no one,” he said. “An old friend.”
Adelie’s eyes narrowed. “The same ‘old friend’ you went to Paris with before?”
Like a knee-jerk reaction, Maddox shifted his attention away from her. Adelie’s forehead knitted at the invisible barrier forming between them and at his lack of response—which was basically an affirmation. Whoever this Ruby was, she’d meant something to him at one point in time. Whether she did now or not, Adelie couldn’t be sure.
Her jaw clenched. He was acting so distracted, so different from the warmth he’d displayed during breakfast and again throughout the tour. Did he regret being here with her? Did he wish he was with whoever this Ruby was? Why didn’t he just answer the call?
Doubt sifted through the happy emotions she’d been basking in since they’d arrived. Scenario after scenario sifted through her mind, of who Ruby could be. He wouldn’t have offered to marry Adelie if he’d been in a relationship with someone else, she told herself. But the internal argument wasn’t convincing enough to soothe her worries.
Maddox gripped his phone and rose from the small, circular table. “We should hurry so we don’t miss our next stop.”
Adelie didn’t move right away. Confusion was still a crease in her forehead. Their tour was something they could take at their own pace. It wasn’t as though the bus was sitting at the stop waiting for them. Even if they missed one, another would be along shortly after.
Conflict swarmed inside of her. She wanted Maddox to know how grateful she was for his help after the Coleman’s incident. She wanted him to know how incredible this moment was—or how incredible it would have been sans the mysterious phone call. He’d put his life on hold to marry her. To take her on a fake honeymoon. That had to mean something.
For Adelie, courage had never come easily. This was her Wonderland, to explore a completely foreign world with him. Part of her wanted to admit it wouldn’t matter whether they were in France or back in Vermont, she wanted to let him know she was ready for the journey. To let him know whatever he was hiding from her didn’t matter.
But something still stood in the way, she thought as she stared out at the still water of the Seine and one of Paris’s many bridges intersecting through the city. Pedestrians strolled aimlessly along its wooden planks. And that something buzzed in his pocket again.
Maddox pulled out the phone, turning his back to Adelie. She let her fingers linger on the table’s edge until she managed to collect her wits and make her way to him. He couldn’t keep denying it. The least she could do was point it out to him.
“You’ve been ignoring her calls all day,” Adelie said.
Maddox angled his head away and had the gall to appear startled. As though he hadn’t heard his
