We'll Always Have Paris Read Free

party because he couldn’t get a flight down.”
    In a world of change, the one constant was Ryan’s love for his daughters. He wanted the best for them and would do anything to make sure they got it.
    About an hour into the party, Kate was carrying a tray of shrimp appetizers into the living room when she heard familiar laughter ringing out in the front hallway.
    Ryan had rented a car at Logan Airport and driven down to Long Island through the storm to be there to celebrate his daughter’s engagement. Kate thought her heart would burst through her chest from longing when she first caught sight of him in the foyer. Snowflakes glittered in his hair beneath the overhead light. He laughed as he brushed them off and handed his scarf and jacket to a beaming bride-to-be.
    â€œMom, look!” Alexis said as Kate stepped into the room. “Daddy drove all the way down through the blizzard to be here with us.”
    â€œI thought you were bringing someone,” Kate said.
    Ryan frowned. “Where’d you get that idea?”
    They both turned to look at their middle child, who looked back with an innocent smile on her face. She wasn’t fooling anyone.
    â€œI hope you rented a four-wheel drive,” Kate said to Ryan. What had happened to Hello or It’s good to see you? Why did she have to go straight to the negative.
    â€œI’m crazy, but I don’t have a death wish,” he shot back. “I rented an all-wheel drive at the airport.”
    â€œThere’s a blizzard out there,” she pointed out.
    â€œThat’s not a blizzard,” he said. “You need higher winds to qualify as a blizzard.”
    â€œThat’s still an awful lot of snow.” Shut up, Kate. Where is this going? What’s the point?
    â€œIt was clear sailing from Hartford on. The worst is on its way to Maine.”
    Kate opened her mouth to pursue this meteorological debate, but the look on their daughter’s face stopped her.
    Alexis was looking from Kate to Ryan, her blue eyes wide with puzzlement. This was her day. Kate and Ryan could save their bickering for some other time.
    That look of puzzlement quickly turned into something very different when Gabe Fellini walked into the room.
    There was something both sad and beautiful about new love. Alexis and Gabe were so innocent, so trusting in their love for each other. They hadn’t a clue about the curveballs life would throw their way. Right now they believed that they were special, that the gods had decided to rain down all the blessings of the universe on their heads and protect them always from harm.
    She and Ryan had been that way, too, and for a second Kate thought she was looking at their younger selves.
    And Ryan saw it, too. Their gazes locked above their daughter’s head and everything else fell away. The years. The problems. The fact that they were a half step away from finalizing their divorce.
    They exchanged a smile in the foyer. They squeezed past each other in the back hallway. Shesmiled when she caught him watching her as she popped more crab puffs into the oven. She blushed furiously when he caught her peeking at him through the back window when he stepped outside to bring in some more firewood.
    By the time they found themselves alone on the back porch, the attraction between them was so powerful that they were in each other’s arms in the space of a heartbeat.
    He told her what he wanted to do to her.
    She told him if he didn’t do it in the next thirty seconds she would do it to him.
    In a flash they were in the backseat of the Toyota with the windows fogging up all around them. Hot. Sweet. Intense.
    Too intense. She was losing control and if she didn’t get out of there right that second she would say something she would regret. Something like I still love you or Maybe we should give it another try , and she would have to endure the look of pity in his eyes.
    Kate scrambled into her clothes as if the