Broken Love (30 page)

“Bonjour.”

“Bonjour, Renee, It’s Ava Moore.”

“Ava! What in the hell! You have this whole damn office in an uproar right now, can I tell you that?”

I quickly peeked between the men’s room and the front door.

“Listen, I don’t have a lot of time to talk.”

“Well, you better make time. He wants to talk to you.”

My breath caught. “Does he remember Kate?”

“By the smile on his face, I’d say he does. He rattled off something about her young life ending too soon. My French is good, but when that man rattles that shit off fast I can barely understand him.”

“Yeah, I’ll have to catch you up on that.”

“Oh, Ava, there is one condition. He wants you to fly here … to Paris.”

Ryder walked back in through the front door.

“Holy flippin’ shit balls. Why? When?”

“What are you doing on the second week of February?”

My heart started racing.
This is not happening.
“Getting married in the Bahama’s.”

Renee busted out laughing. “Better make that Paris.”

“I gotta go. I’ll call you back in a few.”

“Don’t you dare show those designs to Maurice. Amour Des Lettres has first dibs!”

“Right. Later.”

I hit End and stood when Ryder walked up. “Sorry about that. It’s just all so much hearing this. Knowing my sister had this whole other world planned out that none of us knew about.”

Kissing his cheek, I replied, “I know. It had to have been so overwhelming for both of them.”

Jackson appeared before us and apologized. “I guess we both needed a moment.”

“I guess so,” Ryder said.

After they both ordered another drink, Jackson started back up where he left off. “The day Kate died, we left school early and hiked up River Mountain. We sat for a few hours and talked about what we both wanted. For me, there was only one option, and that was for Kate to follow her dreams. If she hadn’t, I would forever doubt her happiness. All I cared about was her and the baby. We had decided to tell your parents first and tell them about Amour Des Lettres offer to her. She was going to take it. We decided to stick with the plan of finishing high school, and then after we graduated, we’d move to France. She had called and spoke with some guy in France …”

I cleared my throat and softly said, “Michael Blancet?”

Looking at me with a surprised look, he replied, “Yeah. That’s the guy. She called and told him what our plan was and about the baby. He was more than understanding. So much so, I remember Kate saying she had to be dreaming. He agreed to wait, but he told her he wanted her designs. It was all coming together … or so we thought.”

His jaw began to tremble. “We agreed to meet at the stone house and then tell her parents. When I walked in she was … she …” He dropped his head while his body jerked with sobs. I quickly got up and went over to him.

My heart ached. It ached for Jackson and what he lost; it ached for Ryder’s family and what they lost, it ached for Kate and the future that she had that was taken from her. So many broken dreams. I was going to do everything in my power to give Kate those dreams. I could feel it in my heart she knew and she wanted this.

After Jackson regained his composure, I sat back down. My phone buzzed on the table. Ryder and Jackson were now talking about Jackson’s family. It gave me a chance to read the email that just came in.

“Oh my God.”

I wanted to kiss and kill Renee.

“Is everything okay?”

My head jerked up. Ryder was looking at me with a concerned expression. “Um … yes?”

He laughed. “Is that a question to my question?”

I swallowed hard. “Well, you see there is this friend of mine who I went to college with. She works in France. At Amour Des Lettres. As Michael Blancet’s assistant.”

Jackson leaned forward with his full attention on me.

“I kind of sent her a text and asked her to ask her boss if he knew the name Kate Montgomery from Montana.”

“And?” Ryder asked with a confused expression on his face.

“It looks like we aren’t getting married in the Bahamas after all,” I said with a lighthearted chuckle.

Ryder frowned and shook his head. “Why not?”

Pressing my lips together, I replied, “Cause we’re getting married in the city of love instead.”

THE SAINT JAMES Paris hotel Michael had put us up in was beyond crazy beautiful. Ryder and I hadn’t stopped pointing and gasping since we walked in.

“Okay, let’s act like we’re supposed to be staying at this hotel and stop acting like a damn tourist,” I said as we made our way up to our suite. The two grand staircases where beyond beautiful. It was like nothing I’d ever seen.

“We are tourists,” Ryder said.

The moment we opened the door to our room, I knew I was never going to stay at another hotel like this again in my lifetime.

“Oh my.”

Ryder and I walked in and looked around. “It has two floors!” Ryder called out as he ran up the steps. “There is a baby-grand piano up here!” he yelled in excitement.

I tried to hold back my giggles, but failed. I was just as excited. Paris was where I originally thought I would be living. Where I dreamed of designing clothes and wedding dresses people would be begging for.

Ryder came back downstairs holding his phone up. “What are you doing?”

“Rubbing this shit in Nate’s face.”

I rolled my eyes and smiled.

“We have our own balcony. I’m having naughty thoughts!” Ryder said from outside.

“I like the sound of that!” I replied.

Glancing around the room, I took in the beauty. It was classic French décor all the way. The furniture itself looked like it was taken from a palace. I walked up and looked out to see the most breath taking garden I’d ever seen. Even in the winter it was filled with flowers.

This was like a dream come true. Not only were Kate’s dreams about to come true, but mine were as well.

TWO HOURS LATER, Ryder and I were getting out of a taxi and walking into Amour Des Lettres main office. Michael greeted us as we walked in. His English was almost perfect as he spoke to Ryder about how much he adored Kate and how he had never seen such talent until yesterday.

I pinched my eyebrows together at his comment. What an odd thing to say.

Michael turned to me and looked me over and then slowly shook his head. “Kate has blessed me ten-fold.”

I peeked over to Renee who stood there with a huge-ass grin on her face. “Now, come to my office. We have much to talk about it.”

Following Michael to his office. Ryder stopped every now and then and took a selfie with random girl walking down the hall and fired it off to Nate. He laughed every time he got a response. They were all the same.

I hate you.

When we walked into Michael’s office, I stopped dead in my tracks. “My dress!”

Turning quickly, I placed my hands on Ryder’s chest and pushed him as hard as I could. He went tumbling backwards and fell right on his ass.

“You can’t see my dress!”

He looked up at me with a stunned expression. “Why not? I’ve seen it on paper. What difference does it make?”

My heart was beating like a wild horse running in an open field. “You can’t see it.”

Stepping in Michael’s office, I slammed the door shut and made my way over to the dress.

Covering my mouth, I held back the waterworks show. It was beautiful. How Lucy’s friend managed to do this in the short amount of time she had was amazing. No wonder it cost me a small fortune!

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen a more beautiful wedding gown, Ava,” Michael said while we both gazed at it.

“The end product is breathtaking,” I said with a huge smile. Never mind the fact that Michael Blancet just said my wedding dress was beautiful.

“It is. Now, let me have Renee put this back in the bag so that your poor Ryder can join us.”

My face turned red. “Well, I really don’t want him seeing it until I’m in it.”

He nodded and motioned for me to let Ryder back in now that Renee had zipped up the bag. Ryder walked in and shot me a dirty look. I mouthed,
sorry
, to him and blew him a kiss.

“Sit, both of you please. We have much to talk about.”

We each took a seat and sat there stunned while Michael said he wanted the original designs that Kate had sent them. He also wanted the five other designs of Kate’s that I sent a few weeks back that were not finished.

Ryder took my hand and squeezed it. Kate’s dreams of becoming a fashion designer were going to happen.

“We already decided the money will go into a scholarship account for young girls in Montana to follow their own dreams,” Ryder said when Michael started talking money.

“I do have one question though,” Ryder said. “Who will be finishing my sister’s other designs?”

My heart sank. I’d have given anything to have been able to finish them.

Michael sat back in his chair. “Oh, that will be done by our latest designer. She lives in America and is
very
familiar with Kate’s work.”

Ryder and I both looked at each other.
What in the hell is he talking about?

“Who?” I asked a little too hard.

With a wide smile, Michael said, “You, Ava. You will finish Kate’s designs. The moment I saw your dress I knew that my sweet Kate brought you to me to finish the work she had begun, and so much more.”

I was positive I had just peed my pants. “Wait. What?”

Everything from that point on was nothing but a blur.