Free A Wedding in Provence by Ellen Sussman Page B

spat.
    Sébastien lowered his head. They waited for him. Finally he looked up.
    “Je t’aime,”
he said, his face crumbling. “I made a horrible mistake.”
    “Go away,” Emily said.
    “Why did she show up now?” Olivia asked him.
    “She calls me. I will not talk to her. She threatened to tell you if I would not be her
amant
.” Her lover.
    “You should have slept with her again,” Emily said.
    “I could not sleep with her again. I did not want to sleep with her ever again.”
    “Mes amis,”
Olivia said. “I’ve got to go. I love you both but I hate this mess.”
    Emily nodded; her rage seemed gone. She looked tired and sad.
    Olivia left the kitchen. She pulled the door closed behind her, then passed through the entryway and out the main door. She heard a gate opening below and watched as Brody came through, his clothes wet against his body, his hair slick with sweat, his smile broad across his face.
    “My wife,” he said.
    “Not yet,” she told him.
    Later that morning, Olivia, Brody, and Fanny, Brody’s mother, borrowed Ulysse and went for a walk in the hills of Cassis. Beyond their inn, the road narrowed to one lane. It meandered over green hills and through lush vineyards. The morning mist settled into the nooks and crannies of the valley, coating everything with a whisper of white. Occasionally they’d see astone farmhouse or an old ivy-covered villa; they’d hear barking dogs from every property. The sun inched over the rolling hills to warm them as they followed Ulysse.
    “Rent-a-Dog,” Brody said, ruffling Ulysse’s fur. “That’ll be my new business. Wherever you travel you should be able to rent a good dog for companionship on a hike.”
    “And how do you manage this?” Olivia asked. “Where do you get your dogs?”
    “Shelters,” Brody said. “Get those dogs out of their crates and into the fresh air.”
    “Brilliant,” Olivia said. “Do it.”
    Fanny eyed him. “Are you serious?”
    “Yes. No. I’m not ready for retirement.”
    Olivia hated hearing him say it. And yet she knew it was there in the silences at the end of each day, while she talked about her work at the theater. Financially they might be able to make do on her income and his savings, but the guy needed to wake up in the morning eager to do something other than take a walk.
    “Go back to your work,” Fanny said. “You were so good at what you did.”
    “I can’t, Mom,” Brody told her. “No real demand for a large-animal vet in San Francisco.”
    “There must be places outside of the city. Isn’t there horse country somewhere near there?”
    “I talked to a vet hospital in Woodside and one in West Marin. No one’s looking to hire a guy in his fifties. They want new blood to train. And someone who will grow old with them.”
    “You’ve got lots of years before you grow old,” Fanny argued.
    “Tell the twenty-eight-year-old that. They look at me and see an old guy. An old guy who did things differently in the wilds of Wyoming.”
    “You did it just fine,” Fanny said.
    Olivia smiled. She liked Fanny and her gentle way with her son. No wonder he treated women so well.
    But she hated the notion that he had given up his career because of her. That he was bored and restless because of her.
    “Your father worked until he was seventy-five. It was good for him, gave him some meaning in his life. There were days—”
    She stopped speaking abruptly; both Olivia and Brody looked at her.
    She shook her head and waved her hand. “Never mind me,” she said under her breath.
    “You all right, Mom?” Brody asked.
    “Fine. I’m fine.” But the words seemed stuck in her throat.
    “I don’t understand him,” Brody said. “I can’t imagine what he’s thinking.”
    “Oh, Lord,” she moaned. “You didn’t bring me out on this walk to save my marriage, did you?”
    Olivia laughed. “Brody might make saving your marriage his full-time job.”
    “Nah,” Brody said lightly. “My mother has every