She hit the bell a third time. Pierre’s door didn’t open, but the one next to it did.
Pierre’s short, dark-haired neighbor, Danielle, whom Sabrina had met a few times, came out of her apartment, smoking a cigarette. “He’s not here.”
Speaking French, Sabrina said, “Oh. Where is he?”
Danielle brought her cigarette to her lips, inhaled and blew a long stream of smoke. “He’s at his house in Spain.”
“Spain?” Confusion rippled through her. “He has a house in Spain?”
“He goes there at the end of every August. Pretty much spends the winter there.”
Trent put his hands on her shoulders, reminding her of his presence to reassure her. “You wouldn’t happen to have the address?”
Because he’d spoken English, Sabrina repeated the question in French. Danielle held up one finger. The universal symbol for “wait one minute.”
She returned with the address written on a scrap of paper.
Trent said, “Thanks,” took the paper, then turned Sabrina toward the steps again.
They walked down the thin stairway, her optimistic hope of telling Pierre and getting it over with, vanishing. Still, it wasn’t like she had to wait forever. She just had to get to Spain.
When they reached the street, she took the slip of paper with the address from Trent’s hand. “I can get a commercial flight. I don’t want to bother you.”
“It’s no bother. Besides, I have a condo in Barcelona. We’ll fly there, buy a change of clothes, eat a nice dinner and head to Pierre’s tomorrow morning.”
A weird kind of relief poured through Sabrina. Calm, cool and collected Trent had a plan.
Still, she didn’t want to get accustomed to depending on anyone. Not ever. Her mom had been so dependent on her dad that she’d lost the biggest part of her life. Now that Sabrina was in Europe, away from her family’s curiosity, she would have the privacy to do what she needed to do. She could go on without Trent.
“Thanks, but I’m fine.”
“No, you’re not. You’re mad. The guy has a house in Spain that you clearly didn’t know about. You dated him, probably told him everything about yourself but he had a house in Spain and apparently spent lots of time there, yet he never thought to mention that. How much did you guys date anyway?”
She drew in a breath. She was mad. “We didn’t date date. We spent weekends together, took trips, did exhibits together.” She paused long enough to think through how to phrase her explanation. “Our homes were on two different continents. Our relationship was long distance. So there were stretches of time in the winter when we didn’t see each other.”
“Okay. I get it. That’s how long-distance relationships are. You see each other when you can.”
Once again, his answer relieved her. Most of her anger with Pierre melted away. But that didn’t mean she needed Trent to fly her to Spain. “Thanks. When I tell Seth and Jake about being pregnant, I’ll also tell them how much you helped me these past two days.”
Trent’s brows drew together as he frowned. “You do realize that what you’re saying is that when Seth hears I brought you to France, I’ll have to explain to my best friend why I dumped his little sister in Europe.”
“It’s not like that.”
“That’s exactly how a man would hear it. Especially when your brothers find out you didn’t see Pierre in Paris. You saw him in Spain.”
When she said nothing, he sighed. “Look, I’m offering a plane and some companionship. You could catch a cab to the airport and then wait two days before a seat opens up on a commercial flight. My jet’s just a few miles away.” He caught her hand. “And once we get to Barcelona I have friends, a condo, a club I like to go to. I might just ditch you.”
She laughed. Again. He seemed to always say the right thing to make her feel better. He did have a plane. Here. Waiting. He also had somewhere for them to crash overnight. If he’d owned his condo in Barcelona for any length of time, he probably did have friends he’d want to go clubbing with.
And she’d have a few hours alone tonight for a bubble bath. She could chill and get her perspective back.
Because it had hit her all the wrong ways that Pierre had a home in Spain and in their years together he’d never mentioned it.
She needed some time to unwind and Trent was offering it.
How could that possibly go wrong?
“All right. Let’s go.”
TRENT CALLED HIS PILOT. Having an international cell phone, as Trent obviously did, she was tempted to call her mom but decided against it. When he finished his chat with his pilot, they climbed into the limo and headed to the airport. They landed on a private airstrip in Spain a few hours later, but it took another hour to get from the rural airstrip to Trent’s condo.
When he opened the door for her and she stepped inside, she gasped. The place was amazing. Built in an old factory, the condo retained the original brick walls, but they’d been scrubbed to clean perfection. A row of four tall, thin windows brought in light that accented peach-colored club chairs across from a modern gray burlap sofa. The coffee table was a shiny wooden rectangle. Its open middle would have been the perfect place to stack magazines or books. But there were no magazines or books. Not in the open space of the table or strewn around. There wasn’t a personal item anywhere.
“Let me guess. You don’t come here often.”
He tossed his keys on the long island of the spotless kitchen. Sturdy wood cabinets had been painted sage green. Shiny green, white and gray geometric-print tiles created the backsplash. Stainless-steel appliances completed the kitchen.
“No. I’m here all the time.”
She glanced around. Even as particular as she was, she had magazines, books, pictures, scattered about.
“It’s just all so...clean.” Sanitary. As if he didn’t have a personality. Or a family—
He had told her that he was distanced from his family.
The thought of not having pictures of Jake, Avery and Abby on her mantel or Seth, Harper and Crystal on the end table by her sofa squeezed her heart. The thought of not having her brothers and their families in her life or being in theirs almost brought tears to her eyes.
“I’m not one for having things lying around.”
Okay. She’d give him that. But it had to be sad, difficult, having a mom but not being able to call her with questions or brothers and sisters-in-law to laugh with.
Before she could ask him about his family, he said,
