A Perfect Paris Christmas - Mandy Baggot Page 0,98
refusing that offer – because it had been offered – he had made himself the cuckoo. That self-appointed status he was always using as a default position. ‘Perhaps I should have.’
He hadn’t realised he had said those last words out loud until Bo-Bo let out a bark and brought him back to the now. Jeanne hadn’t said anything and he wanted to get across to her the point he was trying to make in all this. ‘I see your independent nature, Jeanne. I know you think you are tough and you can take on the world, but do not be afraid to take help from the world too.’ He swallowed, watching her features soften and her fingers squash the food in her hands. ‘I cannot be anything formal to you. My life, it is still as up in the air as it has always been. I do not have myself together.’
‘You own five hotels,’ Jeanne stated.
‘I part-own five hotels and, believe me, that job gets more difficult by the day.’
‘You said I could stay… for a bit,’ Jeanne reminded him, her tone cutting him to the quick. ‘You said we could go to the circus.’
‘I did,’ he answered. ‘You can, and we are, tomorrow evening.’
‘Then what is this “I cannot be anything formal to you” speech about if it is not to get rid of me already?’
Ethan sighed, his body resting so comfortably in the old part-worn chair. It was like it was a piece of his own furniture, its cushions moulding to the shape of his body. ‘I would like to help you, Jeanne. Like someone once helped me. But we do not have to become a deep part of each other’s lives.’ He was not ready to be someone’s role model or moral guidance. ‘I will be your… benefactor. You can stay at my apartment whenever you like, there will be food in the fridge, but we will not always sit around the table together sharing anecdotes of our days.’
‘That would be the worst,’ Jeanne agreed with a nod.
‘And you should go to school,’ Ethan told her.
‘What?!’
‘That is my condition of you sharing my space.’
‘But what about Bo-Bo. There will be no one to look after him all day,’ Jeanne started to protest, wriggling with the dog still on her lap. ‘And the school will want many forms filled in with who I am and where I come from and who is my guardian and—’
‘Jeanne, do you think this will be my first time making up a story to suit my purposes?’
‘What will I learn at school that I will not learn from the streets… or working at a hotel? There are five of them for you to choose from. I do not mind starting from the very bottom. I can clean.’
Ethan studied her, chocolate somehow now all over her face. She was so young. He had no idea how young and he wasn’t sure the girl really knew herself…
‘We will do a trial,’ Ethan told her. ‘You will share my apartment between now and the end of the Christmas holidays and, if the arrangement is acceptable, you will commit to school.’
He watched her mulling over the suggestion. He could almost see her brain working things over. The pluses, the minuses, if this attachment to his offer was really going to be what she wanted. Of course she could flee into the night at any time, or she could stay for the duration of the festive break and then flee into the night and renege on the whole idea. But, for now, he was guessing Jeanne had nothing to lose and he would at least know she was safe for a while. One less kid on the pavements of Paris with no one looking out for them…
‘Bo-Bo sleeps with me,’ Jeanne said suddenly. ‘In the bed. Not on the floor or on a fancy dog bed he will hate. With me.’
Ethan shrugged. ‘He was meant to sleep with you last night, but he ended up in my bed. And he snores.’
‘You have terrible taste in jam,’ Jeanne countered. ‘Strawberry is the best. Not this horrible bitter orange in the cupboard.’
Ethan smiled. He didn’t even know he had orange jam. ‘So, we are agreed? A mutually beneficial arrangement for a few weeks?’
‘Mutually beneficial?’ Jeanne asked, her eyebrows rising up into her hat. ‘How does this benefit you? Is there a clause I have missed? If it is eating the jam I would rather eat Bo-Bo’s—’