chaste?” Daniel asks, as if that’s the height of foolishness.
“No. Not in the least.” Cole pauses, licks his lips, then grins. “Before you go, though, remember how you two knew that Sage was right for me?”
I furrow my brow. “Yes. I do remember Daniel engineering things between you and the love of your life.”
“You played a part too. You knew we were right for each other.”
“Fine. I did play a part,” I acknowledge.
“Well, I knew the two of you were right for each other,” Cole says, pointing at us.
“Sure. You’ve mentioned that before,” Daniel says.
Cole absently twirls a pen. “Remember that waitress in Avignon? At the café next door to the hotel?”
“The one we met at breakfast?” Daniel supplies.
“I remember her,” I say, an image of her freckled face flashing before me.
Where is this going?
Cole grins like a cat. “She wasn’t a waitress. She owns the café. Her name is Solange. She’s married to Colin, our front desk manager at that hotel. I talked to the two of them and I made sure she personally waited on you that morning a month ago. Made sure she planted that tip about the hotels.”
“No wonder he was so chatty that morning. He probably wanted to make sure her shift had started. So she could wait on us.”
Daniel blinks.
Nothing surprises Daniel. But this nugget seems to have knocked the wind out of him. Cole nods, looking supremely satisfied with our reaction.
“I knew about Le Pavillon,” he continues. “I knew the inns were on the market, that the chance to visit them would be too enticing for the two of you to pass up. And I had a feeling that the more time you spent together away from Paris, with just each other, the more you’d realize that you each had everything that the other person could ever want.” He says it like Inspector Poirot at the end of a whodunit, revealing how the heist was pulled off.
Daniel’s grin widens, his eyes going bigger, brighter. “You’re a matchmaker,” he says, amazement in his voice.
“Cupid. Call me Cupid.”
I march up to Cole and throw my arms around him. “You are Cupid, and I couldn’t be happier. Thank you so much for sending that waitress to us.”
Daniel offers Cole a hand to shake. “You were right, mate. I’ve never been happier to say you were right. And you were absolutely right.”
“I know,” he says, grinning. “I know.”
Later that night on the way to the concert, I tell Daniel I’ll be right back, then I pop into the ladies’ room in The Extravagant. At the sink, I spot two familiar faces. The couple we met in Giverny who live here in Vegas. The blonde is touching up her wife’s lipstick. They look even more in love.
“Elodie! Hazel!”
They both turn to me, recognition in their gazes. “Violet!” Elodie says with a smile.
I laugh, shaking my head. “Actually, my name is Scarlett.”
“Oh. Did I remember it wrong?”
“You remembered it right. We were doing a little…role-play that day in Giverny.”
Elodie’s bright eyes sparkle. “Is that so?”
Hazel’s smile turns curious, a bit naughty. “Tell us more. You were so inspiring with your stories. My wife enjoyed them quite a bit. As did I.”
“We traveled through France as business partners, all the while pretending to be husband and wife.”
Hazel’s jaw drops. “You’re not married? Are you not together?”
“What about the story about the sex on the desk? The roughness? The pain. Please tell me that wasn’t made up?” Elodie sounds almost devastated.
“At the time, it was fiction. But not for long. It’s been like that for real since then. And we are most definitely together now. Funny thing – it took us playing pretend to fall in love for real.”
Hazel hooks her arm through Elodie’s, tugs her closer, gazes at her with heat and love. “We should pretend to be strangers later.”
Elodie slides her hand down Hazel’s arm. “Oh yes. I’ll pick you up at the bar. See if I can convince you to go home with me.”
“Maybe I’ll play hard to get,” Hazel purrs.
“Maybe I’ll be so persuasive, we’ll be playing other games.”
“Mmm. You’re on,” Hazel says, then turns to me. “By the way, I’m glad you and your man are together for real. Even though it was pretend, it never looked that way.”
“Sounds like it never really was,” Elodie adds.
“It never really was,” I echo, then wave goodbye to the happy women.
I leave shortly after, and a few minutes later, Daniel and I meet up with Nadia outside the theater.