Sweetheart Reunion (13 page)

“Since anyone has taken care of you?”

Her smile trembled a little bit. “Yes.”

“I’ll pick you up around six-thirty so we can get there early and stay late. I haven’t been into New Orleans in a while myself.”

Her smile was shy but steady. “All right. I’ll see you then.”

Julien paid his tab, left a hefty tip, smiled at Ramon Blanchard and then headed for the door. He couldn’t help but whistle a happy tune. Alma was going out with him Friday night. Two more whole days before he could get her away from her sister, her father and all the prying eyes in this town. Two more days until he could really have a nice, intimate talk with her and take her for a moonlit stroll in one of the most romantic cities in the world.

Yep, his morning had turned out very good. He had a date with Alma, finally.

He only hoped nothing bad happened between now and then.

Chapter Thirteen

T
hey were on their way over the Fleur Bay Bridge when Alma’s cell phone rang.

“I’m sorry,” she said, glancing over at Julien. Her heart was still fluttering about the way he’d cleaned up. He looked good in a crisp, short-sleeved, button-up white shirt that set off his tan and pressed navy pants that she was pretty sure he only wore to church and funerals.

“Hello?”

“Where are you?”

“Brenna?”

Her sister burst into a wail. “Yes.”

Julien shot her a concerned glance. Alma held up a hand to him, mouthed
my sister
and then listened into the phone while she clutched her lightweight cream wrap with her other hand. “What’s wrong?”

“I just needed to hear your voice,” Brenna said. “Jeffrey and I had another fight.”

“Besides the one you called Callie about?”

Julien pulled the old truck off the road into a small park after they’d made it across the long bridge. “I’ll wait here,” he whispered. Then he got out of the truck, probably to give Alma some privacy.

Alma tugged at the teal sleeveless dress she was wearing, her body suddenly chilled by her younger sister’s obvious despair. “Are you all right?”

“No,” Brenna said, sniffing. “I’m a basket case. I don’t normally burst into tears like this but I just don’t know if we’ll work through this.”

“What’s the problem?” Alma asked, her gaze moving over Julien standing there in the growing sunset. She really wanted to go on this date to test the waters between them. As usual, her sister’s timing wasn’t so good.

“It’s my family—us—me,” Brenna replied. “Jeff thinks we’re all backwater rednecks.”

“Well, honey, we kind of are.”

“But he’s rude about it. When I was talking about the wedding and the guest list, he made a disparaging comment about too many pickups and boats pulling up to the church.”

Alma had to smile at that. Jeffrey had probably come close to the truth, but the man was a helpless snob from old Baton Rouge money and that had been a bone of contention between Brenna and her soon-to-be husband since the beginning. “Oh, we’d leave the boats down on the Mississippi,” she retorted. “But we might ride up on a big ol’ alligator or two.”

“It’s not funny, Alma.”

“No, it’s not,” she said, sending an apologetic wave to Julien. The man was patiently staring out at the big bay that sprawled between Fleur and some of the barrier islands along the coast. “So y’all had an argument based on that.”

“Based on a lot of things,” Brenna said. “He doesn’t want my family involved in anything. He’s barely tolerating you and Callie as my bridesmaids. He wanted his snobby old sister to be my maid of honor. I don’t even like her.”

“But you’ll need to get along with her if you marry into the family. Maybe she could be a bridesmaid with us.”

“I can deal with the woman, just not standing by me when I get married. I won’t have Papa paying triple for the kind of designer features she’d demand in my wedding. I want to keep the overhead simple and inexpensive, and I want you and Callie there with me, along with a couple of my sorority sisters, of course.”

“Of course.” Alma thought Brenna had picked up on some of that snobbishness, but her sister tried to walk between two worlds—her old simple-folk one in Fleur and her new artsy-wealthy one in Baton Rouge. “Bree, you know Papa only wants you to be happy. He doesn’t mind the money.”

“Well, I do. I know he’s got money tucked back for all of us, but I won’t bankrupt my own daddy just to please Jeffrey and his uppity family.”

“Do you even want to marry into that kind of family?”

“I’m not so sure.”

“I see,” Alma said. She glanced back at Julien and saw him check his watch. “Listen, honey, I have to go. I’m on my way to New Orleans—”

“New Orleans? Why?”

Like I don’t have a life,
Alma thought. “Well, I’m on a date, actually.”

“A date? You?”

“It happens,” Alma shot back, trying to hold her bitterness inside. Brenna was a bit self-absorbed these days.

“Who is he?”

Did she dare tell her high-strung sister about Julien?

Alma took the plunge. “It’s Julien. Julien LeBlanc.”

“Your old boyfriend? The one you kissed?”

“Uh, yes. We’ve gotten close again lately so we’re seeing where it goes.”

“Okay, so he kissed you and now you’re dating again? I can’t believe that. You said you’d never forgive him. Ever. I was only fourteen, but I remember a lot about that bad breakup.”

Alma winced at that statement. “Yeah, well, I’ve said a lot of things, but I’ve learned that never is a very long time.”

Brenna’s tone chilled a bit. “I’ll let you go, then. I’m sorry I bothered you.”

Now, of course, Alma felt badly that she’d interrupted her sister’s rant. “Are you sure you’re okay?”

“I will be. I needed you to tell me to snap out of this crying jag. This is so not me. Should I marry Jeffrey?”

Why did she always get the loaded questions, Alma wondered. “Do you love Jeffrey?”

“Yes. But I’m not so sure I like him.”

“Well, you still have a few months until the wedding. You can stop the whole thing right now. But, Bree, you
do
need to snap out of this diva-having-a-tantrum routine. You’re right—that is so not you.” Close, but not this bad at least.

“Do I sound that awful?”

“You sound like a nervous bride. Change is never easy. Even a good change. If you don’t want this wedding to happen, you need to decide now and not later. The longer you wait, the worse it will become.”

“I’m thinking about it. I love Jeffrey so much, but I can’t imagine having to deal with his criticism all the time. I’m better than that, Alma. I’ve worked hard and I love him. I’ve tried to compromise on a lot of things, but he won’t budge on anything. What more do I have to do? I’m so confused.”

“But you’re sounding stronger already. You need to decide what you can deal with and what you don’t want to settle for. Money and prestige are great, but not at the expense of your soul, honey.”

“Okay, now I have something to chew on, as Grand-mère used to say.” Brenna’s whine had turned into a decisive tone.

Alma smiled into the phone. “That’s what I’m here for. I’ll call you tomorrow, okay?”

“Okay. Love you.”

“Love you, too.”

Alma hung up then motioned to Julien. He came bouncing back to the truck.

“Everything okay?”

“I’m not sure. Brenna’s engaged to a rich Baton Rouge man and…they can’t seem to make their different backgrounds work.”

He cranked the truck. “At least we come from the same background, huh?”

“Yes. We do.” She stared out the window, some of the excitement of this night sizzling out. She’d just advised her younger sister not to settle, but was she about to do that herself? “Maybe I should go up to Baton Rouge and visit with her. Callie and I went a few months ago to help her start planning the wedding and to shop for bridesmaid dresses. I know she misses Mama right now.” And it would be an excuse to find some space to think.

“
Oui.
Girls like having their mama at wedding time.”

Alma could relate to that and more. “All the time.”

He gave her a sympathetic look. “I miss my daddy every day.”

Thoughts of finding distance evaporated right out of her mind. “We have that in common, too, don’t we?”

“Yes.”

They were quiet for a while, the sunset chasing them, the water coming and going with each twist of the road. The truck moved over the bridges and waterways and into the city, a silver-gold glow from the last of the sun gliding down over the buildings and inlets.

“I’m glad you agreed to come,” Julien said as he drove the truck down the off-ramp and into the stream of New Orleans traffic. “I hope you like the restaurant.”

“Italian will be a nice change,” Alma said, suddenly shy for some strange reason. “We don’t have that much around Fleur.”

He hit the dash when the radio died. “I just wish I had a better car for you.”

“Julien, don’t apologize. I love this truck.”

He seemed surprised at that. “You do?”

“Of course. I love your old truck. I’ve always been a Chevy girl.”

He found a parking place in the public lot near the Quarter and then leaned over toward her. “You used to be my Chevy girl.”

“Yes.” She left it at that, her heart pounding too hard to let her find a breath. This truck was that old, and she remembered many a night sitting here beside him near a body of water, talking, laughing, kissing.

Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea after all.

She used to be a lot of things, but she had changed. And after hearing her sister lamenting about whether to get married or not, Alma wasn’t sure if she wanted to dive back into a serious relationship after all. Too many complications.

But when Julien came around the truck and opened the door for her, the hope in his dark eyes grabbed hold of her and held her. That hope gave Alma the courage to step out of the truck and take his hand. They both needed this night away from everything.

After all, they did have that much in common.

* * *

Julien escorted Alma through the Quarter, the charm of the old buildings reminding him of all the things he loved about his home state. He shot covert glances toward Alma to see if she was enjoying their stroll toward the restaurant. She looked so pretty in that blue dress. Her hair was pulled back in some kind of curling upswept ’do that begged to be let down. He wanted to run his hands through her dark curls and tug them free.

“Have you ever eaten at Mama’s Pasta and Pizza?” he asked to distract himself. He hoped this would be a new experience for her.

“No.” Her smile lit up her face. “Is that where we’re going?”

“Yeah. I wanted to surprise you but I couldn’t wait. I also wanted to make sure you’d like going there. It’s kind of off the beaten path, but well worth the long walk.”

She bobbed her head. “I’ve heard a lot about the place. Back when I was searching for jobs outside of Fleur, I actually filled out an application to work there.”

“Really?” Julien’s heart did a flip-flop. What if she had gotten that job? Would he have seen her again? He stopped underneath a street lamp and held her arm while they waited for the foot traffic to die down. “Have you ever regretted staying in Fleur?”

“Yes,” she said, her eyes open and honest. “I stayed when my mom got so sick and there were times when I wanted to run away. But I’m okay with that now, I think. I’m glad I stayed to be with her in her last days.”

“And now?”

She looked in the window of one of the antique stores lining Royal Street. A fancy clock ticked away, its gilded face sparkling in the dusk. “And now, I like my work. I can cook up anything I want and test it out on the locals or serve it up to the unsuspecting tourists. I’m content.”

Julien didn’t believe her. Was he doing the right thing, pursuing her and trying to make a life with her? That had always been the overriding question in his life. “Why haven’t you left? I mean, you always talked about it. Why not just do it?”

She gave him a startled little look. “I…uh…told you, I stayed because my mama got sick. Somebody had to help run the café. After a while, it seemed as if I was destined to be there. I love cooking and I love being with people. I can do that in Fleur same as anywhere else.”

They were almost to the restaurant, but Julien stopped her again. “So you settled?”

Anger and shock clouded her blue eyes. “I didn’t say that.”

“But you did settle. You always wanted to travel, explore, work in exotic restaurants.”

She gave him a long look. “I’d still like to do that one day maybe. I don’t know.” She shrugged. “Every now and then, I hear about openings in other restaurants and sometimes I even send in a résumé and application, thinking it’s time to move on. But Julien, why are we discussing this?”

A crowd of teenagers walked by, jostling Julien right into Alma. He grabbed her arms to keep from knocking her off the sidewalk. Then he glanced down at her and saw the confusion in her eyes. “I don’t want to sway you, Alma. I didn’t want to hold you back then and I don’t want to hold you back now.”

Her anger disappeared right along with the noisy teenagers, but a dark wariness came into her eyes. “No one is holding me back, except maybe me, myself and I. So stop worrying about it.” She touched a hand to his face and Julien felt the rasp of work-worn calluses on her fingers. But to him, those raw, raspy slivers felt like shreds of warm silk against his skin.

He reached up for her hand and kissed the rough places on her fingers. “Alma, I just want you to be sure this time.”

She stared up at him, her eyes misty now. “
I
want to be sure, too. I want so many things. Can we please enjoy this night without anything heavy weighing us down? Just for now?”

“
Mais oui,
I think we can do that. That is why I brought you here.”