Chasing Horizons (Circle of Friends #2)

1. Finally In Paris

1

FINALLY IN PARIS

KYLIE

“I can’t believe we’re finally in Paris!” Tara grips my arm, a wide grin on her face while we stare up at the Eiffel Tower.

I laugh, reaching up to pull my long brown hair into a ponytail. “We’ve been here for four days already, lady! Are you planning on exclaiming this every time we see it?” I gesture towards the tall structure across the road.

Beside us, children are happily riding the most gorgeous merry-go-round I’ve ever seen.

“Yep. It will never get old.”

“I’m sure if you lived here, it would eventually,” I say with a smirk.

Tara sighs. “You’re no fun.”

“We both know that’s a lie. I’m the funnest person you know.”

“True. That’s why you’re my favourite.” She slides her arm through mine, and we begin to stroll closer to the tower.

We’ve been saving this for the first day of our official tour to bond with the other people in the group. So now we’re trailing along behind our tour guide and a few others who also decided to start their Parisian adventure by climbing its iconic landmark.

Well, climbing isn’t quite accurate - more like riding several elevators to arrive at the top and stare out through the chain-link fence.

All of Paris stretches out as far as the eye can see, and it’s breathtaking. I snap a few photos on my phone before stopping to stare out at the view.

Regardless of how I’d teased Tara earlier, it really is a pinch-me moment. We’ve been planning this holiday for over a year now. Our best friend, Brianna, was originally planning to join us, but she’d had to stay in Australia for work, so it’s just the two of us now. It’s Tara’s first time travelling overseas, and she’s been blown away by everything we’ve seen so far.

“It’s just beautiful. Nothing at home even comes close to this,” I say, turning to my right before realising at the last moment that Tara has moved and a very tall, very attractive blonde guy has taken her place.

“Whoops, sorry! I thought you were my friend,” I say with a smile.

“I mean, I could be your friend,” he says with a cheeky grin, and I detect an accent.

Given where we are, that isn’t surprising, but I’m pretty sure I saw him this morning at the hotel when we all met up for the start of the tour.

“You’re on the tour too, right?”

“Yep. I’m Lincoln. Or Linc for short. You’re Kylie, right?”

“Right. Good memory.” We’d all done the meet and greet at breakfast, but I was impressed he remembered, as there had been about forty other people there.

“I meet a lot of people with my job, so I seem to have developed a skill with remembering faces and names.” There’s that cheeky grin again. “You’re Australian?”

“Right… And you’re… I want to say you’re from somewhere in Nort h America…” I say, knowing that if I said the wrong country, it could lead to hurt feelings.

Lincoln throws his head back and laughs. “Very diplomatic. Yep, Canadian. I’m travelling with my buddy who’s here somewhere.” He looks around, trying to find his friend.

He gives up and looks back at me with a shrug.

“Cool. I’ve got family in Canada. My Dad’s from there.”

“Nice! I’m from a small town a few hours from Vancouver. Same as my buddy Seth, the one I can’t find right now.”

I smile, nodding. “I’ve been to Vancouver once, but my family is in Alberta, so that’s where I’ve been the most,” I say with a shrug.

Lincoln nods. “I travel for work and get to see a lot. Don’t know how I’d be if I had to stay in one place for an extended amount of time.”

“I’d love to travel for work,” I say absently while I look around for Tara, and I can see Lincoln scanning the crowd again himself.

I finally catch sight of her long, deep red hair. “Ah, that’s where she got to. Is that your friend she’s talking to?” I point towards the tall brown-haired guy, standing with his back to me, nodding at something Tara said.

Lincoln follows my gaze and nods his head.

“Yep, that’s Seth. Good, they found each other. Saves us time.” He moves towards them, and I follow behind, taking advantage of his ability to part the crowd with his height and broad shoulders.

“Hey, there you are!” Tara smiles at me.

“What are you talking about? You’re the one who disappeared,” I say with a laugh while I shake my head.

“Sorry, it was so crowded over that side, I thought you were behind me and then I got to talking to Seth here. He’s Canadian.” She waves her hand towards Lincoln’s friend.

I turn to smile at him, and I finally get my first look at his face. And my mouth immediately goes dry. He is possibly the most beautiful man I’ve ever seen. I’m no stranger to attractive men, but this guy could be a model. Or a movie star. At least six-foot-four with broad shoulders and tanned skin, his piercing blue eyes shine with amusement while I try to find my voice and stop looking like an idiot.

“Hi,” I manage to squeak out.

How on earth has Tara been talking to him without turning into a puddle at his feet?

My friend is clearly finding this all very amusing, because she covers a laugh with a cough. I was never one to drool over guys in the past, so seeing me now turn speechless must be quite the spectacle for her.

“Hi. Seth,” he says, sticking his hand out.

I shake it, and he squeezes it lightly while continuing to hold my gaze.

“Kylie, Tara’s friend. It’s nice to meet you.”

“It’s nice to meet you too, Tara’s friend Kylie.”

Lincoln snorts beside me and introduces himself to Tara.

“So, what were you ladies planning to do until dinner tonight?” he asks, and Tara and I shrug.

“We’ve been in Paris for a few days already, but we haven’t been to Notre Dame or checked out Montmartre yet,” I reply. “What about you guys?”

“Yeah, we got here two days ago. We haven’t done those places yet, either. Would you mind if we tagged along?”

Lincoln is clearly the chattier of the two guys, and I notice Seth shoot him a wary look while I turn to Tara.

She nods. “Sure, why not? Are we done with the Eiffel Tower?”

We all nod, heading off to explore Paris together.

Two hours later, we find a cafe in Montmartre to have some lunch and rest our legs. I always forget just how much walking happens when I am in a new city .

“So, where in Australia are you ladies from?” Lincoln asks.

Seth hasn’t really spoken much, looking content to let his friend do most of the talking, though I have noticed him watching me, looking away each time I’ve tried to catch his eye. He produced a baseball cap from his back pocket earlier, and the way that he’s casually wearing it backwards while sprawled out in the cafe chair has my heart fluttering in a strange way.

I force myself to focus on Lincoln. “We live in Brisbane. I’m from Sydney originally, though.”

“Oh yeah, I know Brisbane. We were there a few years ago for work, remember Seth?” Lincoln looks over at his friend.

“Yeah, I remember,” Seth replies before taking a mouthful of coffee, giving his friend another indecipherable look.

Weird.

“What do you guys do for work?” Tara asks.

The guys look at each other for a moment, some sort of silent communication occurring.

“We both work for the same company. We work for a professional sports team, so we travel a fair bit,” Lincoln answers for them both.

“Oh, that sounds really cool. It’s way more interesting than my job. I work in insurance,” Tara says, grimacing.

She and Lincoln begin to chat easily amongst themselves.

I peek over at Seth every now and again. He is watching his friend with a small smile and catches me looking at him.

My cheeks redden. “So you guys work together? That’s cool you can travel at the same time,” I say, taking a sip of my drink to hide my face.

Seth shrugs, reaching up and scratching the back of his neck. “Yeah. It’s the off-season, so easier to get time off. But we’ve known each other since we were kids, and he convinced me to go on this trip with him. Work’s been a bit… rough.”

I can tell he isn’t going to elaborate further, so I nod like I have any idea how a job working for a sports team could be rough .

“Have you guys been to Europe before?”

“Yeah, but never for fun. Linc talked me into it a few weeks ago, so here we are.”

“Wow, a few weeks ago? Tara and I have been planning this trip for an entire year,” I say, marvelling at how someone could just leave it until the last minute to plan a trip like this.

“Sure. It’s not like we needed to do much. We just get on a bus and go to all the places they pick for us, right? What’s to plan?” Seth asks with a shrug.

“I guess. But when you are travelling from as far away as Australia, planning is kind of required.”

“Very true.”

We fall into silence while our friends continue chatting. I shift, feeling a little awkward. While I’ve never been good at dealing with silence, Seth doesn’t seem like the chattiest guy. I pull out my phone and start scrolling through social media while we wait for our food, glancing up every now and again to find him either staring at his drink, or, surprisingly, at me.

But he looks away each time, and I can’t tell if it’s because he’s interested in me or if he’s trying to work out how they can ditch us.