final wrap, but her ankle isn’t as bad as I thought it would be. It’s just puffy and swollen, with very light bruising.
“It looks fine,” I tell her.
“It’s not fine,” she says. “It looks gangrenous.”
I laugh. “It isn’t gangrenous. It’s just inflamed. Another few days of plenty of rest and keeping your weight off it, and you should be fine. I didn’t hurt you, did I?”
“Well, no. But you have to wrap it back up, so there’s always another chance.”
I can’t help but grin. She can be so prickly. I nod at her drink. “Pour yourself another glass and drink up.”
“Back to getting me drunk.”
“I’ll join you in a second.”
And I’m not lying. With the same care as when I took off her bandage, I wrap her ankle back up. “Not too tight?” I ask, her ankles still resting across my thighs.
“I’m impressed,” she says, taking a sip of her drink. “Just as I’m impressed by this champagne, this hotel, you, and everything else that you happen to touch in some way or form.”
“Well, I’m glad I can impress you by the things I do and not by the things you’ve read about me.”
“Oh, believe me, I was still impressed. Even by the blatant lies. I had no idea you had a secret baby with the princess of Monaco.” She pauses, narrowing her eyes. “Unless . . .”
“Blatant lie,” I tell her. “Though I do think my cousin has had a few dalliances with her.”
“Which one?”
“You know about them?” I practically bristle.
“It’s hard to do research on Olivier Dumont without learning about the rest of his family.”
“What did you learn?” I ask carefully.
She shrugs. “A lot, but who knows what’s true and what isn’t? Your family does seem to be at odds with each other, though. They seem so different from one another, your father and your uncle.”
“How so?” I ask. Of course, I know the truth, but I’m always curious to see how we appear to others, particularly to people from outside of France who weren’t brought up with my father and uncle dominating the news from time to time.
“The gossip sites like to paint you like you’re in a family feud. There’s the so-called good side with you and your sister and brother and parents. And then there’s your uncle and aunt and their sons. The so-called bad side. Though sometimes they just called them progressive, so I guess ‘bad’ is just a relative term. So to speak.”
She has no idea. “You’re right. They are more progressive,” I admit. “My father has always believed in running everything Dumont the same way that our grandfather did. He sees only harm in changing things to fit with the times.”
She stares at me inquisitively, which makes me want to drink. I quickly finish my glass. “And what do you believe?” she asks. “Do you agree with your father?”
I nod. “I do. I adapt in my own way when it comes to my side of the business. My hotels will always have an old-world feel about them in terms of service and location, the things people think of when they think of a place like this. But obviously I adapt, like all hotels do. The online marketing world to individuals is everything. Using Instagram, social media. If I didn’t adapt and utilize them, I couldn’t sustain the momentum.”
“And your father? He doesn’t even have an online store.”
“Well, the products are online. He just doesn’t let you buy them that way. You have to go into a store.”
“You don’t think that’s inconvenient?”
I’ve heard this argument so many times, and I know every way it can pan out. “It may be inconvenient, but it keeps the brand from becoming cheap and fast fashion.”
She bursts out laughing. “Cheap? I looked at your handbags. They’re five thousand dollars.”
“So is Chanel, and you don’t see anyone balking at the price.”
“Oh, I’m balking at that too. It’s ridiculous. My whole trip here cost half that much.”
She’s got a point. For once I’m at a loss for words.
“Look,” she says after a moment. “I don’t mean to, you know, insult you or your father. I’m sure it’s all worth it. It’s just a totally different world, and it’s one I doubt I’ll ever understand. Our worlds couldn’t be further apart.”
“And yet here we are. You and me. Sitting on the deck of my villa at the Hôtel du Cap-Eden-Roc, drinking champagne. It looks like our worlds have collided very well.”
“It’s temporary,” she says. “And it’s only because of your