A Perfect Paris Christmas - Mandy Baggot Page 0,151
whatever life had in store for them, she was going to be all in. Every time.
Sixty-Eight
L’Hotel Paris Parfait, Tour Eiffel, Paris
Christmas Day
‘The children are touching everything!’
‘Antoine, the children are meant to be touching everything. The touching is making their experience,’ Rach said. She nudged him with her elbow. ‘Touching always makes my experience.’ She kissed the concierge in the kind of way that wasn’t necessarily appropriate for a dining room full of street children.
‘Rach, could you hand out some more crackers?’ Keeley asked, presenting her friend with another box full. ‘If you can leave Antoine alone for five minutes?’
‘Just five minutes,’ Rach said pinching Antoine’s bum. ‘No longer.’ She took the box, turning around to blow her boyfriend a kiss on the way to the main table.
Keeley watched the children eating for all they were worth, some blowing up long sausage-shaped balloons and watching them fly around this dining area in the lobby she had constructed and decorated. There were fifty children, maybe more, the invitation to attend Perfect Paris on Christmas Day to be given a hot festive meal and a room for the night being passed by word of mouth, starting with Jeanne and the places she used to hang out. This year and every year after, it was going to be Christmas Day for everyone that needed it, as well as everyone who had paid for it. Seeing the delight in the children’s faces now, Keeley could tell one meal, one day and night out of their normal lives, was going to mean everything.
‘Juice, Keeley. They are going through juice like oranges are about to become a rarity. And one of them called Michael Bublé, Michael Booby! Sacrilege.’
Keeley smiled at her mum. Yes, Lizzie and Duncan were here for Christmas. A few FaceTime calls, an introduction to Silvie, Louis and Ethan and the Andrews had decided if Keeley was going to be staying in France for the festive season then they were going to make the journey too. And, Silvie and Lizzie had quite the sisterhood going, brought on by a conversation about all the recipes they had tried to make that hadn’t quite gone to plan. Louis was still trying to beat Duncan at darts… What happened when the New Year arrived hadn’t been decided yet, but Keeley had a feeling Rach might be more than open to looking for an apartment to share in Paris as opposed to London. In fact, Rach had already ‘popped in to’ a few Parisian estate agents to ‘get a feel for the market’. Plus she had already mooted the idea of starting up a bespoke property search service with the help of the connections of the Bradburys she might be able to run alongside any other job with the hope it would take off.
And, as for Keeley, she had a position here if she wanted it, making over all the Perfect Paris hotels. It would be helping Ethan, putting money in the bank and it would also be excellent for her interior design portfolio whether her business ended up being based in England or France.
‘I’ll get some more,’ Keeley said, taking the jug from Lizzie’s hands.
‘Well,’ Lizzie whispered, ‘don’t you have… you know… staff to do that for you?’ She sniffed. ‘I’ve never been to a hotel where the interior designer had to fetch drinks for guests.’
‘The staff are all in the main restaurant serving the paying customers,’ Keeley reminded her mum. ‘This is for the children and… I want to do it.’ She smiled at her mum. ‘Ethan was one of these children once. And it was only through the kindness of others that his life changed. Maybe what we’re doing today will change someone’s life.’
‘Oh, Keeley,’ Lizzie said, her voice sounding a little teary. ‘Bea would have loved this, wouldn’t she?’
Keeley nodded. ‘Bea would have been modelling those balloons and playing hide and seek and probably constructing a bridge made out of straws.’
‘Ferne would have loved it also,’ Silvie remarked, arriving next to the women. ‘Particularly the Jeanne and Bo-Bo Puppet Show.’
Jeanne was in her element, showing the children around the new improved areas of the hotel and Ethan had fashioned her a puppet theatre style booth from which she was delivering timed performances of magic, plus dancing from Ferne’s old puppet, Augusto. There were even doggy-tricks Bo-Bo was exceedingly bad at but no one seemed to mind. The girl was in trousers today, smart and black with a white shirt and bow tie, her hair slicked back from her face in a boyish avant-garde fashion that suited her so well.
Since their talk in the boutique boudoir, Keeley had spent nights at Ethan’s apartment, curled up on the sofa between both him and Jeanne – plus Bo-Bo – toasting marshmallows, and for all intents and purposes being a family. It was all the proof anyone needed that family could come along when you least expected it and very rarely these days fitted with convention.
‘Keeley!’
She turned to the sound of Ethan’s voice and there he was, beckoning her to the outside, dressed in his three-piece suit looking as always, halfway between travelling conjuror and entrepreneur.
‘I’ll be back,’ Keeley said to the two women. ‘I’ll come back with the juice.’
Silvie took the jug from Keeley’s hands. ‘I will get some more juice. Come, Lizzie, while we refill this, let us see if we can find a little adult juice in the kitchens.’
*
Ethan was nervous but his heart lifted as he saw Keeley walking towards him across the snow-covered garden. There were children all around, being taken into the barn to pet the animals by newly appointed Perfect Paris staff in charge of looking after the pets’ welfare. It all really felt like a new dawn for the hotel brand. Welcome Paris would be ready to be everyone’s home from home in 2021.
‘What are you doing out here?’ Keeley asked. ‘We’ve got children to feed.’
‘I know,’ Ethan answered. ‘Antoine says the hotel will never be the same.’
‘Comfort, remember?’ Keeley teased. ‘Memories to treasure.’
‘I remember,’ Ethan breathed. ‘And, trust me, I like it.’ He kissed her lips. ‘I really really like it.’ He drew a wrapped gift from out of his pocket and held it out to her.
‘Ethan, we said no gifts.’
‘It was a stupid idea.’
‘But I haven’t got you anything.’
‘Open it,’ Ethan urged her.
Keeley smiled and began loosening the bow, before she tore at the edge of the paper, revealing a box beneath.
‘Open it,’ he urged her again.
He watched as she lifted the hinged lid then he smiled as she exhaled in delight.
‘Oh, Ethan! I love it! It’s so perfect!’ She took the golden necklace out of its casing and held it out to him. ‘Would you put it on for me?’
‘Absolument.’
With trembling hands, he took the fine chain between his fingers and levelled it around her neck. ‘Sorry,’ he whispered as it took a few attempts to get the catch to fasten. ‘There.’
Keeley turned around and put her fingers to the shiny penguin suspended from the necklace. ‘It’s… the best gift,’ she said. ‘Ever.’
‘No,’ Ethan told her. ‘You are the best gift.’ He swallowed. ‘And whoever I have to thank for bringing you to me – fate, Ferne… Pepe.’ He sighed, happy tears forming in his eyes. ‘I will be grateful for the rest of my days.’
Keeley put her arms around him, holding him close, and as a children’s chorus of ‘Away in a Manger’ drifted out of the barn and into the air, they both whispered to the afternoon sky.
‘Merry Christmas.’
About the Author
MANDY BAGGOT is an international bestselling and award-winning romance writer. The winner of the Innovation in Romantic Fiction award at the UK’s Festival of Romance, her romantic comedy novel, One Wish in Manhattan, was also shortlisted for the Romantic Novelists’ Association Romantic Comedy Novel of the Year award in 2016. Mandy’s books have so far been translated into German, Italian, Czech and Hungarian. Mandy loves the Greek island of Corfu, white wine, country music and handbags. Also a singer, she has taken part in ITV1’s Who Dares Sings and The X-Factor. Mandy is a member of the Society of Authors and lives near Salisbury, Wiltshire, UK with her husband and two daughters.
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