Marisa Carroll - Hotel Marchand 09 (13 page)

“Unlock the weapons case. Break out a shotgun. I’ll swing by and pick it up on my way out of town. Boudreaux out.”

“I have to go, Sophie.” He lifted his hand but she took a step back before he could take her in his arms. She wasn’t ready for another mind-shattering kiss. She had too much to think about to have her thoughts clouded even more by passion and need. Alain’s life was a complicated one. Was she ready to take on the responsibilities of being stepmother to his children if she uprooted herself and relocated to Indigo? Was she ready to have Casey Jo popping up whenever she felt like it to disrupt all their lives? “Go. Chase off the gator, then see to Dana and Guy.”

“I’ll be back,” he promised. He didn’t touch her, but she could feel the brush of his fingers across her cheek as surely as if he had.

He would be back, she didn’t doubt his word.

But would she be waiting for him?

S
OPHIE SPENT
a restless night in her cozy suite tucked under the eaves. She was up early, foregoing the enticing smells of breakfast coming from the kitchen of La Petite Maison—except for a cup of Luc’s excellent French-pressed coffee. Instead she headed into Indigo even before the sun had burned away the mist clinging to the surface of the bayou.

She didn’t know why she was in such a hurry to return to Past Perfect. She would be better off spending the day in her comfortable, quiet room, perhaps sitting out on her little balcony, contemplating what she should do next.

Pack her bags and leave would be the most expedient choice.

But she’d done that twice before when Alain Boudreaux was concerned, and it wasn’t an option this time. She was tired of trailing loose ends through her life.

But instead of driving to the store, she found herself pulling up in front of Maude’s little house. The narrow, tree-lined street was quiet. Most of Maude’s former neighbors were older couples, empty-nesters and retirees, although there were one or two young families fixing up larger houses down the street, Sophie had noticed. Indigo might be a very small town, but it was in no sense fading away. The population was stable and even growing, if slowly. She got out and walked up to the front porch, key in hand. She no longer felt overwhelmed by grief for her godmother when she opened the door. Instead she felt a sense of peace, that tantalizing, elusive sense of belonging that was so absent from her life in Houston. Maybe that was why she had come here today, to soak in that feeling, to let it seep into her pores and her mind and help guide her thoughts to a decision about her future and Alain.

It was a nice house; she’d always thought so. She’d like to keep it, but it wasn’t big enough for a family. Alain was a package deal. He came with Dana and Guy in tow. That’s what she would inherit if she let herself fall the rest of the way in love with him. A ready-made family. And an interfering ex-wife. Was she ready to accept that responsibility, too? Her head swam with all the decisions that faced her. Career. Marriage. Family.

She shook her head to clear the confusion as she unlocked the door. All this internal upheaval after only a couple of kisses. Would she have any mental faculties left after they made love? She doubted it. Was that why she’d chosen to stay at the B&B, despite the expense, instead of moving in here? Because she didn’t trust herself alone with Alain with not one but two empty bedrooms only steps away? What would it be like to make love with him after so many years? She’d already asked herself that question, and answered it. She smiled; she couldn’t help herself. It would be wonderful. No doubt about that.

So mind-bogglingly wonderful she probably wouldn’t be able to make rational judgments afterward. So she needed to consider her options now.

“Hi, Sophie.” She turned her head to see Dana standing out on the sidewalk. She was dressed in jeans and running shoes and a long-sleeved green sweater made from some sparkly material that matched her eyes. Over that she wore her red Winnie the Pooh raincoat with a matching hat, even though the sun was shining. She was dragging a wheeled suitcase along behind her. It was pink, with a trio of Disney princesses printed on the front. The child was a walking rainbow, and to Sophie, at least, she looked adorable.

“Hi, Dana, what are you doing out and about so early this morning?” Indigo wasn’t Houston but it seemed very early for a seven-year-old to be out on her own, even here.

“I’m going to my grandma Marie’s. My mommy is staying there. She and my daddy don’t live together anymore, you know.”

“I know.” Sophie turned away from the door. She sat down on the top porch step and patted the seat beside her. It didn’t take an expert on child behavior to figure out why Dana was dressed for a change in the weather and towing her suitcase. She was running away from Alain to be with her mother. “Come join me.”

Dana looked over her shoulder. Her forehead crinkled into a frown. “I’m not supposed to stop and talk to people when I walk from Grandma Cecily’s to Grandma Marie’s. I’m supposed to go straight there.” She pointed on down the street to the elderly duplex where Marie Lesatz lived.

“I won’t keep you very long.” Had Dana really run away or did she have Cecily Boudreaux’s permission to go to her mother? Sophie decided she should find out. She patted the seat beside her again. “You can stay just for a minute, can’t you?”

“Okay. But only one minute.” Dana parked her little suitcase by the step and sat down beside Sophie. “My mommy’s waiting for me.”

“Oh, then she knows you’re on your way,” Sophie probed gently.

Dana looked down at the toes of her scuffed runners. “Well, no. Grandma Marie works at night. She’s still asleep so I didn’t want to call and wake her up.”

“What about Grandma Cecily? Does she know where you’re going?”

“She’s at the hospital.” Dana started picking at a worn spot on her jeans. “Guy’s still asleep ’cause there’s no school. And
Mamère
Yvonne’s taking a nap on the couch. Her medicine makes her sleepy after she takes it in the morning. Everyone’s asleep but me.” She looked up. Her beguiling smile twisted Sophie’s heart. “And my daddy. He’s at work taking care of the whole town.”

“I know.” So she
was
running away. Sophie wondered if she should make some kind of excuse to go inside and use her cell to call Alain? If she did that, Dana would never trust her again, and she didn’t want that. But if she did nothing and Casey Jo left town with the little girl, Alain would never trust her again, either.

She decided to stall for time. “What’s in your bag?”

The smile faded. Dana scooted away from Sophie. “Just stuff.”

“Okay.” Sophie was running out of small talk. She decided to stop tiptoeing around the issue. “Dana, does your daddy know you’re going to visit your mama?”

Dana fixed her green eyes on the top button of Sophie’s sweater, not on her face. “I’m allowed.” Her little chin jutted out. “I’m allowed to go to Grandma Marie’s.”

“I think we should call your father and make sure,” Sophie said, knowing she had to act.

“No!” Dana jumped off the step and grabbed her suitcase so violently it tipped over sideways.

Sophie stood up and descended the steps to help her right it. “Your grandma Yvonne will be worried when she wakes up from her nap and finds you gone.”

“I can go to Grandma Marie’s by myself. I can.”

From the corner of her eye Sophie saw a bicycle turn onto the street from Lafayette. She recognized Guy and felt relieved that she wouldn’t have to be the one to rat Dana out.

From the opposite direction a ten-year-old Taurus pulled up to the curb and Casey Jo jumped out. She was wearing biker shorts and a faded Saints T-shirt and her hair was pulled up in a knot on top of her head. She wasn’t wearing makeup, and while she was still very pretty, she looked her age. “Dana, what are you doing here?”

“She took off without telling us,” Guy answered for her as he skidded up on his bike. “
Mamère
Yvonne woke up and found her gone and sent me after her.”

“She called us, too,” Casey Jo said. Her green eyes were fixed on her son’s face, as though she were drinking in his features. “You didn’t stop by to see me last night like you said you would.”

Guy dropped the bike in the grass and went over to pick up his sister’s suitcase and set it back on its wheels on the sidewalk. “I said I
might
come over. I was busy. Sorry,” he added grudgingly as he straightened to face her.

She reached out a hand to touch his cheek. “You’re so tall,” she said, tilting her head back a little to meet his eyes. “You didn’t look that tall in the pictures Grandma Marie sent me.”

“Yeah, well, if you’d show up here more than every year or so, it wouldn’t be such a shock when you see me up close and personal, would it?”

“Watch your mouth,” Casey Jo snapped, then made as if to pull him into her arms, her eyes filled with easy tears. “I’m sorry, baby. I shouldn’t have said that. I’m really sorry.”

Guy evaded her embrace. “Yeah,” he said, wrapping his hands around Dana’s shoulders. “That’s what you always say.”

“I’m busy, Guy. I have to earn a living. You’d see that if you ever came to visit me.”

“Trying out for
American Idol
isn’t making a living. C’mon, Dana, we’re going home.”

“No,” Dana whimpered. “I miss Mommy. I want to go with her to Disney World.”

“Come to Mama, darlin’.”

“Stay here.” Guy tightened his hands on Dana’s shoulders to hold her still and she started to cry.

“Ouch, you’re hurting me,” she sniffled, squirming to be set loose.

Casey Jo wiggled her fingers. “Baby, come here.”

“You’re not taking her anywhere,” Guy said, but he let Dana go. “I called Dad. He’s on his way.”

Sophie didn’t know what to say or do next. She felt like an interloper, a bystander caught in the eye of an emotional hurricane. Uncomfortable as she was, she stood her ground. Her heart ached for Guy and Dana and she didn’t intend to walk away and leave them alone with Casey Jo until Alain arrived.

“Why’d you do that, Guy?” Casey Jo said as she knelt and gathered Dana into her arms. “We could have sorted this all out at Grandma’s. Now we’ll have to air our dirty linen in front of her.” She flicked a damning glance at Sophie.

“Considering you’re standing on my property, I should be the one asking you to leave,” Sophie replied. Casey Jo Lesatz had caused her to cut and run once. It wasn’t going to happen again.

“My mama said old Maude Picard dropped over dead and left you everything.” She gave the little house a dismissive once-over before turning her gaze back to Sophie. “Some people just naturally fall into the honey-pot, don’t they?”

Sophie remained silent, determined not to be goaded.

Alain’s SUV pulled up behind Casey Jo’s run-down compact and he ate up the distance from the curb to the porch in half a dozen strides. “What’s going on?” he asked, taking in the four of them with a single sweep of his eyes.

“Dana snuck out of the house,” Guy said before anyone else could speak. “
Mamère
Yvonne dozed off, and when she woke up, Dana was gone. We figured she was walking to Grandma Marie’s and we were right. Here she is.”

“Mama figured the same thing and I came lookin’ for her the minute your grandmama called,” Casey Jo inserted. She stood up, holding Dana tight against her. “She wants to go to Florida with me and I’m taking her.”

“I thought we thrashed this all out last night,” Alain said, his tone patient but hard-edged. “It’s seven hundred miles to Orlando. That’s too long a trip to make in three days.”

“We’ll have four days if you stop jawing at me and let us get on the road,” Casey Jo shot back.

“How do we know you’re even planning on coming back?” Guy interrupted. “For all we know, you’ll just keep Dana with you.”

“Why, I’d never do that,” she said bitterly. “Your father would probably have me hauled off to jail if I did.”

“Daddy wouldn’t do that,” Dana whimpered, throwing her arms around her mother’s waist. “Would you, Daddy?” She’d grown very quiet after Alain arrived, the excitement in her animated little face replaced with anxiety. “We’ll come back, won’t we? I get to clean the blackboards next week. And it’s my turn to take our class hamster home for the weekend.”

“Sure, sweet baby. Mama will bring you back here on Sunday. I promise.” For the first time Sophie felt sorry for Casey Jo as she saw the other woman absorb the sting of Dana’s words. She might be far from the best mother in the world, but no woman should have to hear her children tell her they didn’t want to stay with her.

Alain must have seen the hurt the innocent statement inflicted because his voice softened when he spoke again. He hunkered down in front of the little girl. “Dana, you won’t get to stay at Disney World very long. Florida is very far away. You know you get carsick when you have to ride a long time. It’s not too late to tell Mama you would rather go some other time.”

Dana shook her head, her eyes filling with disappointed tears. “I won’t get carsick. I want to go with Mama. Please. We’re going to have so much fun. She promised.” All the pent-up anticipation of a seven-year-old poured into her words and her voice.

“She always promises,” Guy said, shoving his hands into the pockets of his jeans. “You know that.”

“We’ll have fun,” Dana insisted. “Daddy, please.”

Alain remained balanced on the balls of his feet, his arms wrapped around his daughter. Sophie ached for him. For the decision he faced. Around them she heard the neighborhood come to life. Dogs barked, doors slammed and car engines rumbled as people went off to work and morning errands, but Alain remained silent.

Finally he lifted his head and set Dana away from him. He rose to his feet and turned his full attention to his ex-wife. “Have her back here by 7:00 p.m. Sunday or I’ll come after you myself. And yes, I will have you arrested. I’ll do it in the blink of an eye. Do you understand?”

Casey Jo’s eyes glittered like green glass but she didn’t contradict him. “I’ll have her back on time.” She turned to Guy, the angry line of her mouth transforming into a dazzling smile as she held out her hand. “Come with us, Guy. Give us a chance to get to know one another again.”

Guy threw up his hands in disgust. “No! I’m not going with you. And I can’t believe Dad’s letting Dana go, either. You’ll just mess it up like you always do and she’ll come home crying. I hate you both.” He turned on his heel and jumped on his bike.

“Well, thanks for that, Alain,” Casey Jo said bitterly, as she watched Guy ride away. “I could have talked him around if you hadn’t put up such a damned fuss over this whole thing.”

Alain picked up Dana’s little pink suitcase and walked toward the car. “No, you couldn’t, Casey Jo. He’s not seven. He’s fifteen and you can’t talk your way around him anymore. And if you screw up this visit with Dana, you won’t be able to paper over the cracks with her as easily as in the past, either. Remember that.” He tossed the suitcase into the backseat, leaned down and buckled Dana into her seatbelt. He gave her a kiss and shut the door. Resting both hands on the top of the car, he stared at Casey Jo over the roof of the vehicle and the steel in his voice sent shivers up and down Sophie’s spine. “Don’t blow it, Casey Jo, or you’ll never be alone with her again.”