Read Online Kissed in Paris by Juliette Sobanet - Free Book Online Page A

that I know you would love . . . and they’re in a great school district.”
    School district ?
    Just as I was about to respond, Julien’s leg pushed against mine. I’d almost forgotten where I was for a second. My secret agent travel buddy lounged back in his seat with his eyes closed, hands propped behind his head, legs relaxed out to the sides, invading my space. At least he appeared to be sleeping. Which hopefully meant he was not listening to this conversation.
    Paul continued. “I’m thirty-two now, and neither of us is getting any younger. We should really start thinking about having a family. This could be it for us, Chloe. This could be our chance.”
    “We’ve talked about this before.” I lowered my voice and turned my face back toward the window. “I have an MBA, and I did all that work so that I could have my own career. And I know I’ve said that I want to have kids someday, but I don’t know if I’m ready for all of that yet. I don’t know if I’m ready to leave the city for good.”
    “I know, darling. It’s just that this is a huge opportunity for me, and if you could be happy for me and give it a shot, I think it would be good for us in the long term.”
    “But we don’t know anyone there, and you’ll be at work all the time. What am I supposed to do?”
    “Chloe, sweetie, I’m sure you’ll make friends. There will be lots of other women and mothers in a small-town like that. You can read all those books you’ve been dying to read or take walks in the neighborhood, or take up cooking.”
    And then it hit me. Paul was talking about his mother. This is exactly what had happened with his parents. They’d left the city back when his father was offered a position he couldn’t refuse at a firm in a small town in Maryland. And that’s when Paul’s mom became pregnant with Paul.
    He wanted me to be just like his mother. But I wasn’t like her. I had goals and dreams, and I loved my job. I didn’t want to move away from the city and take care of a house and have kids. Not yet anyway.
    “Can we talk about this when I get home?” My forehead resumed its throbbing.
    “Sure sweetie, but, well . . .” Paul trailed off, and I could see him then, pacing in circles around the house, the way he always did when he disagreed with me.
    “Yes?”
    “It’s just that . . . well, promise me you’ll think about it, okay? This could be good for us, and I—” Paul’s voice was suddenly cut off.
    “Paul, are you there?” I pulled the phone away from my ear and realized the train was now racing through a tunnel.
    I’d lost the call completely. And as I stared down at the phone, I had no urge to call him back.
     
    ***
     
    I carefully laid the phone on the seat next to Julien so as not to wake him. I needed some time to process all of this.
    But just as I was leaning my head up against the window, gazing out at the green, rolling hills which reappeared as we emerged from the tunnel, Julien shifted in his seat next to me.
    “You’re a terrible liar,” he said.
    So he hadn’t been sleeping after all.
    I scowled in his direction. “It’s rude to eavesdrop on other people’s conversations, you know.”
    He pressed a few buttons on the phone, then tucked it back into his pocket. “Trouble in paradise?”
    I shook my head at him and laid my temple back up against the cool window. “Thanks for your concern.”
    “It sounds to me like you are with a man who is not so much of a man, if you know what I mean.”
    “Are you seriously trying to say that my fiancé, the man I love, isn’t a man ?”
    “Yes. And you, chérie , are not a woman in love.”
    “How can you even say that? You have no right to make judgments about my life. You know nothing about me, and nothing about Paul. If he were here right now, he would—”
    “He would run away like a scared little boy.”
    The sound of Julien’s French accent suddenly had the same effect as the Catholic nuns I’d had in grade school