Trial by Fire

Chapter 18

On Monday after the wedding, Delphine and Agnes were still talking about how beautiful it had been. Delphine had had a spectacular wedding herself five years before, with four hundred guests. Francois’s parents were very social, and people from all over Europe had been there, aristocrats and royals, the cream of Paris society. And Alex’s wedding was exactly as she wanted it, with good friends, people she and Paul both knew from work, and a number of celebrities.

“You did a beautiful job,”

Delphine told Agnes, and then they all got to work. They had a busy week ahead. Dahlia had meetings lined up all afternoon. She was putting away her wedding file when Agnes buzzed her and told her that the video screens for her two p.m. meeting had just been delivered to the conference room and they wanted her to check them and direct their placement.

“Can’t you do it?”

Dahlia asked her.

“If you don’t like the way they’re set up, you’ll be frantic to have me get the delivery people back to correct it. You’d better take a look now while they’re here.”

Dahlia had so much to do, and Delphine wanted to meet with her during lunch to talk about the youth line she was creating, which was important too. There weren’t enough hours in the day to do it all. She hurried out of her office, and down the hall to the conference room. The screens weren’t set up when she got there, there was no one around, and she was about to leave when she saw him standing at the far end of the room, looking at her and smiling. It was Mark. Her breath caught as he walked toward her with a purposeful expression and when he reached her, he kissed her and she didn’t stop him. She was too stunned seeing him to know what to think. All she knew was how much she loved him.

“What are you doing here?”

she asked him, breathless from the shock of his being there, and from the kiss.

“You told me to take a risk and I did. It was worth it. You were right. We won the lottery, Dahlia. We did it. It was scary as hell, and it still is. But life isn’t worth a damn if you don’t take a risk, so here I am. And you can have me thrown out in five minutes if you want to. I can work remotely from here and fly to San Francisco when I need to. I’ve done it before with clients all over the world, and it worked fine. You need to be here with your business and your kids. I can do a lot from here if you’re willing to give it a try. I’m tired of playing it safe and the dead ends. I was wasting my life before I met you. You showed me that. I don’t want to play that game anymore. I want a real life with you. What do you say? Will you risk it with me? If you hate it or it doesn’t work for you, I’ll leave. I love you. I don’t want to lose you or give you up. It took me two minutes to figure that out when you left. I’ve been working out how to do this ever since. What do you think?”

He was terrified of her answer, as she gazed at him in disbelief. She was smiling and couldn’t stop.

“I think you’re crazy and I love you, and I don’t want to lose you either. Can you really do this? I can give you office space, and you could work here. I don’t want to be without you. And I don’t have to be here all the time. My kids did fine without me this summer for two months. They’re grown up. I didn’t see that before. I want to be here to run the business and guide them and teach them how. But I want more than that in my life. I need you, Mark,”

she said softly. She had never said that to anyone before.

“I need you too.”

He was willing to admit it without shame. “Shall we roll the dice and take a chance?”

Asking her that was the bravest thing he’d ever done. She nodded and he kissed her and stood holding her for a long time. He knew that wherever they were together was home. He had found her amid the fires and the smoke in an army surplus tent, and he didn’t want to let her go. She was the woman he’d been waiting for, and a little curly black dog had come through the fires to find them and had brought them luck. And he was never going to let that go now that he had found her.

She pulled away for a minute then and looked at him. “How did you get past Agnes, to trick me to coming to the conference room?”

She was usually a very efficient guard at the palace gates. “What did you tell her?”

He smiled when she asked.

“I told her that I was your lawyer in San Francisco and I’m in love with you, and I needed five minutes with you, as a surprise, and if you wanted me thrown out, I’d go willingly. I think she was so shocked that she agreed to do it. She must be a romantic at heart because when she left me in the conference room, she wished me luck. I think she knew that I was telling the truth when I said I love you.”

His honesty and courage were impossible to resist, and Dahlia didn’t want to. They weren’t betting on six weeks this time. This time all the chips were on the table, they were betting on a lifetime. Winner take all.