by Avery Scott
Abby and Hudson were together almost constantly. She expected that they would start to wear on one another’s nerves eventually, but that wasn’t the case. Every day it got just a little bit harder to deny that she was falling hard. The only tiny complaint she could make was that they weren’t getting to enjoy France at all. They left the hotel by eight AM every morning. Lunch was catered at work. Most nights, they arrived back in the suite so late that it was too late to do anything except eat dinner and go to bed. Abby got to enjoy some of the most amazing restaurants of her life, but it physically hurt sometimes to know that the city that she had dreamed of for her entire life was just outside her windows, but she had to stay inside and work.
Finally, after a week of longing, Abby’s luck changed. When she and Hudson went downstairs after breakfast, they did not go to the Quinn Holdings offices. Mr. Fougere had arranged for them to tour some of his local partners and visit a Marché d’Été store. He said he wanted them to immerse themselves in the people and the culture of the organization and to get a feel for how important his family business was to its patrons and suppliers.
Abby noticed Hudson was being unusually quiet on the ride. “Is something bothering you?” She hated to sound needy but they never talked about their budding relationship. She wondered if their romance was all one-sided.
“No, I just think today is going to be a big waste of time if you want to know the truth. We should be in the office crunching numbers. What I really need to be focusing on is how to convince Mr. Fougere that our deal is the best thing for his company, not touring the French countryside. We’ve already extended this trip once. I want to get the deal closed and get back home.”
Abby didn’t feel the same. Going home meant the charade would be over. She couldn’t keep pretending to be her sister once they stepped foot on American soil. She would have to come clean if she ever wanted to see Hudson again after they returned from Paris.
“What’s that sour look on your face for?” Hudson asked. “You don’t think we’re going to be able to pull it off?”
“No, that’s not it at all.”
“Well then?”
“I guess I’m just sad at the thought of leaving Paris.” That wasn’t a lie, but it wasn’t the only reason.
“We’ll come back again some time. I promise, Gabrielle.” He punctuated his words by squeezing her knee.
It was almost exactly what she wanted to hear.
Chapter Fourteen
The car pulled to a stop in front of a large warehouse on the outskirts of Paris. Forklifts swarmed like angry bees, feeding an assembly line. The machines moved massive crates filled with wares inside the facility and then returned outside to stack the empty palettes off to the side. People were milling about. As Hudson and his assistant walked into one of the buildings, they saw a rotund man with a loud voice haggling with a vendor.
“What’s that all about?” Hudson asked. Outside of “bonjour” and “oui” he hadn’t really picked up any new words on this trip and felt he was at a disadvantage on the tour.
“The big guy isn’t happy with the price on those blackberries. He’s negotiating with the vendor to take them off his hands for a lower price. Otherwise, he says that the seller can leave and take the berries with him.”
Hudson felt a little out of his element with the language barrier, but bartering was right up his alley. He headed towards the seller to get a closer look at what was going on. A deal must have been struck because after a few minutes of animated conversation, the large man shook the seller’s hand with one meaty palm and used the other to motion for a forklift to pick up the crate of berries.
No one seemed to notice the two Americans or to care that they were wandering around, so they moved further down the line to see what was happening with some peaches. After about fifteen minutes of looking around on their own, a pretty young lady taking inventory finally stopped and asked if she could assist. Hudson let his assistant do the talking since he couldn’t understand a word the woman was saying. He stuck with nosing around the warehouse. He had to admit that the place was impressive. It was interesting to watch the local farmers dealing directly with the business, without middlemen negotiating for their piece of the pie as well. Hudson assumed that helped keep costs down. His mind was spinning as he took in all of his surroundings. He wanted to absorb as much information about this place as possible. He was in the middle of watching another bartering exchange over ears of corn when he felt Gabrielle walk up next to him.
“Learn anything interesting?” Hudson asked when he noticed her.
“Not really. She offered to show us around and answer any questions we had, but I let her know we just want to observe right now.”
“Does she know who we are?”
“Do you mean does she know we’re the ones planning to buy the place out and probably take her job away in the process? No, I didn’t mention it.”
Gabrielle’s sarcastic side amused him even though the source material was not funny at all. “Ha Ha.”
“Seriously though, she did say she’s heard rumors that the company is having some financial trouble. There was a deal they were working on a couple of years ago with a different company who was going to help them expand and possibly go international, but at the last minute, the company backed out. This was after planning and preparations had already started. Mr. Fougere lost a lot of money and she said she feels like the company hasn’t really been able to claw its way back since.”
Hudson tucked that bit of knowledge away in the back of his head and they continued their tour. They ended up spending a lot more time at the first warehouse then they planned, but Hudson got a good feel for the place. After that, they visited three more distribution centers, as well as two artisan workshops and covered a lot of French countryside along the way. Each of the storage warehouses had a designated parameter of where they delivered food. Mr. Fougere had it worked out so that nothing sat inside a warehouse for more than forty-eight hours. In two days, the product needed to be delivered, sorted, repackaged, inventoried and sent to one of the designated markets for that distributor. The idea was to get the goods into the stores while they were at their freshest and for the least amount of cost.
The prices seemed right and business looked like it was booming, so Hudson wondered just how much of a financial hit the Fougeres took during the business deal gone bad that the employee had referenced. He was beginning to understand why the Fourgeres were so gun shy over working with Quinn Holdings too. They had been burned once before. Hudson knew exactly what that felt like.
It was late in the afternoon when they headed back toward Paris. Hudson had planned a treat for his companion. She thought they were returning to the hotel, but they made an unplanned detour.
Gabrielle was absorbed in her tablet, so she didn’t realize what had happened until the limo rolled to a stop in front of a pink house with green shutters.
“Wait a minute. Where are we?” she asked, peering out the car window. “She took in the sight of the house and gasped. As Hudson had hoped, she recognized the location immediately: Claude Monet’s gardens at Giverny. “Oh my God, are we really where I think we are?”
“I wanted to surprise you.”
“When did you arrange this? How did you know that I wanted to come? I’m just…! It’s too…! I’m speechless!”
Gabrielle was so excited that she didn’t even wait for the driver to open her door. She sprang from the backseat with excitement and looked as though it was physically painful for her to keep from running inside as she waited for Hudson to climb out of the limo and join her. “This is amazing. I can’t believe you did this for me. I’ve wanted to visit Monet’s Gardens since I was a little girl. This is truly a dream come true.”
The woman seemed practically giddy, and Hudson couldn’t suppress the gratification he felt at knowing he was the one who caused her to feel that way. He loved to see her taking pleasure in the things he was able to provide. He wanted to make her
smile like that as often as possible, he thought as he climbed out of the car himself.
“Shall we?” He asked, offering her his arm as they walked towards Monet’s charming pastel-colored house.
It was magical. Gabrielle professed loudly and repeatedly that it was everything she had dreamed it would be and more. Hudson had to admit that it was the closest thing he could imagine to what stepping inside an actual painting might feel like. As soon as they entered the gardens, they were surrounded by row after row of flowers in various shapes, sizes, and colors. Hudson didn’t have an artistic bone in his body, but he could easily see why it was the kind of place an artist dreamed of visiting. Gabrielle told him that the famous water lilies would be at the end of the garden path, but he didn’t rush her. Hudson wanted her to see it all.
Gabrielle pointed out the different types of flowers and blooming trees as the path wound through the property. She offered the names first in French and then their English versions. “Can you imagine what it would be like to live here?” she asked, her voice full of wonder. “I could sit here and paint for months and never run out of ideas or inspiration.”
“Then you should.”
“Says the man with an endless supply of money,” she joked. “Unfortunately, in the real world, sitting around and painting flowers doesn’t tend to pay the bills.”
“I’m sure you could find a way,” Hudson said, stopping to admire a bed of giant hollyhocks swaying in the wind. The flowers looked as if they were performing a dance.
“I thought about it once. I wanted to be an artist after I finished college. I was hoping to travel around the world and paint the beauty that each city has to offer. I was close to making it happen too. I even had a plane ticket. I planned on coming to this very spot.”
“What happened?” Hudson asked as they turned down a new path.
“Well, first my grand-mère got sick. My sister and I took turns taking care of her while the other one worked.”
“What was wrong with her?”
“We didn’t know for the longest time because she refused to see a doctor. She was one of those women who brushed everything off as a cold and didn’t fully trust modern medicine. She was all about herbs and holistic healing and being a part of the ‘universe’s plan’. In the end, when she was too sick for us to take care of, she allowed us to take her to the hospital. By that point, it was too late.”
Abby trailed off and Hudson didn’t push. He waited patiently until she was ready to continue.
“When the doctor told us she had cancer, I couldn’t believe it. She always seemed indestructible. Even after he told us, I thought she had a chance to pull through. People beat cancer all the time. It was a scary diagnosis, but I thought she would make it. What the hell did I know?” Tears dotted the fringe of Gabrielle’s long lashes and Hudson struggled against the urge to reach up and brush them away.
Instead, he pulled her into his arms and hugged her tight. “I’m so sorry.”
It felt so wonderful wrapping her up in his arms. Her petite figure fit perfectly against the hard, muscled plane of his chest. It just felt so right. The notion was crazy, but standing on the sun-dappled path, surrounded by the scent of flowers, cradling Gabrielle Levesque against his body felt like exactly where Hudson was supposed to be.
The woman rested her head against Hudson’s shoulder, and he reached up to stroke her hair. She sighed happily at the touch and he allowed himself a gratified smile. The look of sadness left her face. She seemed as relaxed and happy as he did.
“Do you think she would have liked me?” Hudson asked.
“Grand-mère?” Gabrielle laughed. “No, I don’t think she would have.”
“What?” Hudson asked, pulling back from the embrace to look in her eyes. “Why wouldn’t Grand-mère like me?”
“Well, because you’re a suit!”
“A suit?”
“Yes, that’s what she called businessmen. Suits. They were nothing more than a boring black and white picture to her.”
“Hey, what’s wrong with black and white pictures? Some people find them sexy, you know.”
“Grand-mère had a thing for colors. They all held meanings for her. She hated that someone would take a perfectly beautiful color picture and remove the best part. If it makes you feel any better, I happen to like black and white pictures myself, and find them quite sexy.”
“Good,” Hudson said and kissed her on the nose. “I can’t believe the amazing Grand-mère wouldn’t have liked me though. I’m a little heartbroken, I have to admit, after hearing how much you looked up to her.”
“Well, I’m certain that she would have come around once she got to know you.”
“I think you’re just trying to make me feel better!”
“I’m not, I promise. If we’re being honest, I didn’t like you much when I first met you either and look at us now.”
“Wow. One blow after another. The hits just keep on coming. I thought we got along great when we first met.” Hudson said, but he didn’t look wounded at all. He released Gabrielle from his embrace, and they walked a little further down the path.
“So, what about you? I don’t know anything about your family other than the fact that your father is a bit demanding.”
“You don’t know that half of it,” Hudson said in a way that implied their issues went deeper than what she’d experienced so far. “My father is tough, that’s for sure. But for all his faults he’s one hell of a businessman. You know, my grandfather started our company during the Second World War? He was a hard ass too, at least to my dad, but he spoiled us grandkids rotten. He started out by buying old junk and selling the metal to munitions factories. It wasn’t until after the War that he branched out. Somehow, he managed to put my father and my uncles through college. Before grandfather passed, he used to talk about how seeing them all graduate was the proudest achievement of his life. He grew up dirt poor and never made it passed the fifth grade. Back in those days, if your family didn’t have any money, education wasn’t a priority. Making money was the only thing that mattered. Grandpa wanted a better life for his family, and he made it work. He sacrificed a lot though.”
“I can imagine,” Ms. Levesque said, seeming to drink in every word. She looked surprised by the backstory of the Quinn fortune. Hudson guessed that she had assumed his family was always wealthy. It wasn’t true though.
“When my father graduated from college, he went to work for the family business almost immediately. It was his idea to expand into real estate and company buyouts. He started working a lot of his own deals and bought my uncles out of their share of Quinn Holdings when grandpa died. We are silent partners in a few companies, but the foundation of our business is still pretty much what it always was: buy something essentially worthless for a cheap price and hack it up into bits. The individual pieces are almost always worth more than the whole.”
“And that’s what you’re going to do to Marché d’Été? There’s really no other way to make it profitable?”
“If there is, that’s not really our forté. Quinn Holdings doesn’t make things, we take them apart.”
Gabrielle opened her mouth. For a moment he thought she was going to argue that he was wrong about how Marché d’Été fit into their business model. In the end, however, she must have doubted herself because she pressed her lips together and lowered her head back against Hudson’s shirt.
“So how did you end up in the family business? Was it expected or have you always wanted to carry it on?”
Hudson stared off into the distance for a moment and then started walking again. It took a moment for him to respond. “Actually, I never wanted to be a part of the business. I had different plans. I wanted to be an engineer if you can believe that. I read an article about developers working on a walkable city project and had this crazy idea of getting into residential development…but then my brother was in an accident.”
“You never talk about him. What’s his name?”
; Hudson released his breath in a shudder. He opened his mouth with the intent of changing the topic, but something stopped him. He turned to look into his assistant’s eyes.
“Colin,” he said slowly. “His name was Colin.”
He watched the color drain from his lover’s face at the word “was”. Hudson balled his fingers into fists, bracing himself against the inevitable wave of grief that crashed through him in the wake of any discussion of his brother. Ordinarily, he would simply clam up. If he didn’t talk about it, he didn’t think about it. If he didn’t think about it, it didn’t hurt. If it didn’t hurt, life could almost go on as if nothing had ever happened. He was surprised when the desire to unburden himself came. It was as if a part of him needed Gabrielle to know what had happened.
“Colin was the perfect big brother. He was the kind of guy that people just gravitated to, you know? Charismatic. Smart. Kind. He always had a smile. He was the person you went to when you needed a pick-me-up. Colin had this amazing ability to make people feel good, and it wasn’t phony at all. He was genuinely just an all-around great guy. He was a sharp businessman too. He worked for the family business right out of college and I remember my dad gushing about what a phenomenal job he was doing for the company. Colin was closing deals left and right. He and my dad always had a close connection. I think it had something to do with being the firstborn son. I was always more of a mama’s boy.”
“A mama’s boy? You don’t strike me as the type.”
“Yeah, well, I think my mom took pity because dad didn’t have as much time for me as he did for Colin. At least it seemed that way to me when I was a kid. Colin was five years older than me.”
“What happened?”
Hudson stopped walking. He struggled to control the emotions that surged through him. This was the hardest part of the story. It took him a long time to find his voice. He didn’t look up when he spoke, staring off into the distance instead.
