Page 32 of Blue Gold

A smile spread on Elliot’s face. “Oops.”

“Here, you can hold her, too.” She put the ladybug in his palm. “Just be careful ’cause she’s so small.”

Elliot nodded, and with his eyes fixated on the ladybug, he slowly rose to his feet. The small red bug traveled along his fair skin, and he chuckled as it did.

“It’s tickling,” he said to me in French, sounding so cute I nearly let go of my anger. But then, the ladybug flew away, and with it, so did this charming moment.

“Maya, go back and play with your dolls until breakfast is ready, okay?”

“Can Elliot play with me?”

“No.”

She pouted. “But Daddy⁠—”

“Elliot is here to work.”

Maya’s lips started to tremble right before Elliot jumped in.

“We play later,” he promised her with his heavy accent. “D’accord?”

Maya smiled at Elliot before running back to her dolls. Hoping he also got the message, I picked up my newspaper when he huffed.

“I never realized you were such a little man,” he muttered.

And while his words boiled my blood, they mostly hurt because the last thing I wanted was for him to see me that way. And yet, at that moment, I couldn’t help but bite back.

“And I never knew you were such a spoiled brat⁠—”

“Oh, there you are!” My wife arrived at the worst of times, escorted by her tennis coach, whose name I never remembered. “Here I was just telling Lucas how starved I am.”

Oh, right, Lucas. What a stupid name.

“Bonjour, Claudia,” Elliot cheered from beside me as those two stopped by the table.

“I see Maya’s busy with her dolls.” Claudia glanced at our daughter before looking at us. “Please tell me breakfast is ready, Elliot. Honestly, all I could think about during practice was your… what did you call those delicious French toasts?”

“Pain perdu,” Elliot said, voice melodic and full of magic.

“Yes!” Claudia clapped her hands together. “I told Lucas all about those delicious pain perdu.”

When Claudia said the same words, all magic was left out of them. It might have been cruel of me to think that way, but it was the truth.

“She sure did,” the tennis coach said with an idiotic smirk that made me tense. “Please tell me there will be some leftovers for me?”

Elliot chuckled in response, and the sound danced on my nerves. Even more so when I noticed the way he just checked out Lucas, who stood there in those tennis shorts that showed off his thick, tanned quads. Moreover, I didn’t enjoy his handsome face and his wavy blond hair tucked behind his ears. I was even more displeased when he opened his mouth to talk again.

“Did I tell you I know French?”

Elliot’s eyes grew wide. “Seriously?” He switched to French when Lucas nodded.

“Oui. Learned it in high school.”

That made me roll my eyes, and with a grunt, I finally stood up.

“Do you know any words other than a simple oui?” I challenged this moron, who answered me with a smile.

“Maybe bonjour?” He butchered the word with his pronunciation. “Safe to say, I wasn’t the best student…”