“I think you’ll be good at it.” Pennie smiled at her. Having her mother away had made her appreciate her, and everything she did to make their lives run smoothly. Paul had been struggling. She had heard him arguing with Olivia too. Olivia wasn’t happy about how busy he was, and how much time he had to spend with them. It had been nice having their father home again, and she was going to miss him when her mother came home, and so were the boys. They liked having a man in the house. But they missed their mother too.
“Have you and Dad made any decisions?” she asked Eileen, when they were alone for a minute. Eileen shook her head.
“Not that I know of. He hasn’t said anything to me.”
“I think he’s sorry he left,” Penny said wistfully.
“I’m sure he misses the three of you.”
“He misses you too.” Eileen missed him too, but not as much anymore. Her new life was taking off and she was excited about her new business. “Do you want him back?” Eileen sighed before she answered.
“I don’t know. Sometimes things just go too far to get fixed. That might have happened to us. Life is like a river. It moves you along, whether you want to or not.”
“I think that happened to me and Tim. I still love him, but I can’t see us together anymore.” Eileen nodded. Pennie had grown up a lot.
“That’s kind of how I feel about Dad. It’s sad, but it’s happy too, because new horizons come into your life, and new people and experiences. I’m ready for that now. I kind of got lazy before, or distracted. I stopped doing new things. And I’m excited about that now.”
“You were busy with us,” Pennie excused it, but she could see that her mother had come alive again. Her eyes were bright, she smiled a lot more, and she looked comfortable and confident, excited about what she’d been doing. “Do you think Dad will marry Olivia if you get divorced?” Pennie was still sad about it, but she had accepted the idea that her parents wouldn’t get back together. It didn’t seem like they would.
“I don’t know. You should ask him.”
“She’s so young. Maybe she’d want kids of her own. Do you think Dad wants more kids?” These were all the things they were worried about.
“That I don’t. It would be a lot for him to take on. He’s never wanted more children with me.” But Pennie was right, Eileen realized. If he wanted a young woman, more than likely she’d want kids. The idea seemed strange, to think of him with a second family, but it could happen.
The vacation with her children went too quickly, and Eileen was sad to see them leave. They were equally sad to leave her. But she only had five weeks left in Paris now, and that would go even faster. She wanted to soak up all the information she could while she was there.
* * *
—
Paul spent the ten days they were in Paris with Olivia, and they got their relationship back on track again. They slept together every night. He didn’t have to commute. Olivia took him to see her grandmother and he loved her, and enjoyed meeting Federico. Paul said they were the perfect couple. And he and Olivia had brunch one Sunday with Olivia’s mother. Paul was stunned by how beautiful she was, and how interesting and intelligent and knowledgeable.
Olivia and Paul made love as often as they could while the kids were away, to make up for lost time.
By the time the children came back, things were going smoothly with Olivia again. They hadn’t for the last six weeks, with too little time together. She hated to think of his children coming home. She wasn’t looking forward to it, but they were in the home stretch and Eileen would be home soon, and ready to start her business. That would keep her busy too.
Paul picked them up at the airport when they got back from Paris, and they had dozens of stories to tell him about exploring Paris with their mother, and the restaurants they’d gone to with her to check out the food. Pennie had bought some clothes at Le Bon Marché near their hotel, and the boys had bought souvenirs, and brought him an Eiffel Tower that lit up, which he promised to put on his desk at the office.
He drove them back to Greenwich in a light snowfall. They all agreed Paris had been great, but it was good to be home. And their mother would be home in a little more than a month. It made Paul sad to realize that his reason for living with them was almost over. He knew Olivia would be happy about it, but he wasn’t. He was going to miss them even more when he moved out again. He had gotten closer to them than he’d ever been before, being alone with them. And he’d gotten better at the chores and organization than he’d been in the beginning. But he couldn’t imagine coming back to Eileen either. She had moved on, and so had he.
He didn’t know if Olivia was the answer for the next chapters of his life, but he felt sure Eileen wasn’t. He loved her and knew he always would, but she wasn’t the future for him, she was the past, and you couldn’t go back in time, only forward. When he looked ahead to his future, he saw Olivia, with her bright curly red hair. Not Eileen. He wanted a fresh start, and was ready for it. He hoped Olivia was it for him.
Chapter 11
Eileen was due back in four weeks, and the children settled down in Greenwich again. Olivia was hardly seeing Paul, when she got an email from a man with a French name, who asked for a meeting with her. She wrote back to him, asking about the nature of his business, and he said he was in the art field, and would explain it to her when he saw her. He promised not to take up too much of her time. His name was Jean-Pierre Muset, and he would only be in New York for four days.
With Paul unavailable again, she had time on her hands, and agreed to have a drink with Jean-Pierre Muset at the Mark Hotel, where he was staying. It was close to her apartment.
His email was quite formal, although his English was good, and she was surprised by how young he was when she saw him. He told her he was thirty-two. His father was a famous art dealer, in the traditional sense, and he was intrigued by her online art dealership. He said he was interested in joining her in some way, and starting a Paris branch for her, and wanted to know if the idea appealed to her. She had never thought of doing that before, but it seemed like a natural offshoot of her business.
He was tall and attractive, with dark hair and warm brown eyes, and he smiled a lot.
“I’ve never thought of it, but I like the idea,” she admitted to him.
“I have a friend in London I went to school with, and he might be interested in a London branch. The possibilities are endless really. Ideally, I’d like to do Paris, London, Hong Kong, in that order. It could be very interesting, and expand your business considerably. If you want to pursue it, I’d like to spend a few days with you here and see how you operate, and then you could come to Paris, and help me set it up. You could spend a month in Paris, maybe two, and help me launch and set up an office there. And then come back here. Are you interested?” He was very direct and smart and she liked him. He had good ideas.