The Pepper In The Gumbo: A Cane River Romance (29 page)

            Alice
shook her head and went back to her desk. It made her slightly sick to see
adults reduced to crawling around on their knees to win a contest. Even if it
hadn’t been Paul’s idea, it left a bad taste in her mouth to see it right in
front of her door. But Charlie said it was all his idea and that made it worse,
somehow. He was manipulating people, watching them debase themselves for his
games.

            Darcy
jumped down from the top of a range and stalked over to her. “I wish I could be
like you, Darcy.” Alice reached down and tried to pet him, but he dodged her
hand and continued to the back of the store. She straightened up and wrapped
her arms around herself. If she could just stay out of the fray, happy to be by
herself, not needing anyone else, then she would be safe. Even though Alice thought
she had been cocooned in her quiet life, she hadn’t been safe at all. Paul had
walked right in, with his shy smile, and his poetry, and his smooth Creole
words. He’d walked right in and broken her heart. And it was all her own fault.

If the human race wants to go to
hell in a hand basket,

technology can help it get there by
jet.― Charles Mengel Allen

            Paul’s
phone rang and he didn’t move to answer it.

            “You
can’t ignore her forever            ,” Andy said. He didn’t lift his eyes from
the screen where he was working.

            “Says
who?” Paul muttered. Holly had been calling nonstop since she arrived the day
before. His mother had managed to get her settled into one of the old-time bed
and breakfasts, but Holly was convinced they would be spending lots of time
together. Her voicemails included detailed descriptions of the canopy bed and the
antiques in the bathroom. Paul was waiting for the ugly moment she realized he
wasn’t going to be joining her. He gritted his teeth. None of this was his
fault. He’d never given Holly any kind of encouragement, but here she was
anyway.

            “After
this is all over, maybe we can take her on our bream fishing trip. Or the frog
gigging. You did promise some frog gigging, if I remember correctly. That would
scare her away.” Andy said.

            “Oh,
man. I’m sorry.” Paul dragged a hand through his hair. “I’ve been so wrapped up
in these―”

            “Girl
problems,” Andy said.

            “
Business
issues,” Paul said, “that I completely forgot I was supposed to be making a
Southerner out of you.”

            “Well,
maybe I better find another mentor. Maybe you’re not the right guy for the job.
In fact, I think you just might be a Yankee in disguise,” Andy said, pretending
to be disgusted.

            “Huh.
I’m so Southern, I’m related to myself,” Paul said. “Just because I can pass in
two cultures, doesn’t make me a traitor.”

            “Seriously,
though. We should take an afternoon and get out of here.”

            Paul
nodded. “I think you’re right. Nothing like a Tuesday afternoon spent on the
river.” He didn’t know if he could take running into Alice right now. Every
day, every hour, he went through the same cycle of emotions: anger, sadness,
acceptance, hope. No matter how it started, it always came back to hope, even
though there was no chance it would work out for them.

            “Let’s
do it, then.” Andy pulled out his phone. “I’ll move the meeting we had this
afternoon and let’s just go hang out in a leaky boat somewhere.”

             “Sounds
like a plan.” He stopped, thinking hard. “But I don’t know where a good spot
is. I suppose we could hire a river boat or book one of those fishing tours.”

            “Doesn’t
sound like we’d have much privacy.” Andy knew what it was like sometimes.
Anything they said could and would be held against them, if someone was offered
the right price. It got old when they had to watch every word.

            “Well,
there might be someone…” Paul hauled out the phone book. After a few minutes he
dialed the number. “Mr. Beaulieu? It’s Paul Olivier. I was wondering if you
knew any good fishing spots.”

            Paul
flashed Andy a thumbs up. “Great! And would you like to join us? We can meet
you in about thirty minutes. I’ll stop for night crawlers at the shack down on
Bayou Pierre Cutoff Road.” He beamed at the response. “See you there.”

            After
he hung up, Andy asked, “Who’s that?”

            “Bix.
From Alice’s shop.” Paul started to shut down his laptop, feeling lighter than
he had in days.

            “Is
that a good idea? I mean…”

            “Why?
It’s not like we’re divorcing and we have to split up the friends.” Paul
shrugged. “I only met the guy a few times. Seems real nice. I don’t think Alice
cares what the old guy does on his own time.”

            “Well,
I sure hope you’re right.” Andy closed his computer and stood up. “I’ll go
change into my overalls and plaid shirt.”

            “You’d
be better off with a life jacket. The skimmers are feisty, but some of these older
bream can grow to fifteen pounds.” He looked up at Andy’s expression. “Don’t
worry. I won’t let you get dragged down to the bottom.”

            Andy
wandered away, muttering under his breath about a conspiracy to get a new CTO.
Paul tried not to laugh as he cleared up the table, gathering packets and
papers. He picked up an envelope and, as he touched it, he remembered the book
he’d scanned. Paul stood there, staring down into the loose pages of
The
Duke’s Secret
and wishing he’d never responded to
Alice’s message. It would have been a lot better for everyone. It certainly
would have saved him a lot of heartache.

                                                            ***

            Alice
was just setting the alarm when she looked out the front window and saw Bix
pull up neatly in front of the shop. But it couldn’t have been Bix driving the
bright green Caddy, because he didn’t drive along the curb for twenty feet until
he saw the big sign in the front of her building. The sun reflected on the
windshield, but she could see several people in the car. Ruby didn’t drive.
Alice was already out the door, heart hammering in her chest, before she
thought of any other people who could be in the driver’s seat.

            She
arrived at the car, worry giving her speed, just as the engine switched off.
Alice crouched down. She spoke to a man in a hat through the cracked driver’s
side window. “Is Bix okay? Did he crash?” She turned as Andy pulled up behind
them in the rental car. A moment later, she realized her mistake and stepped
back.

            Paul
opened the door and angled out. “Bix is fine. I just thought it would be better
if I drove back from the fishing spot.” He stepped closer and whispered, “People
kept running to get out of the way when they saw us coming. He’s blind as a bat
and shouldn’t be driving.”

            “He’s
fine,” Alice hissed back. It was true Bix was unfit to drive, but she didn’t
want Paul to be the one to make that decision.

            Paul
frowned down at her. He wore a wide-brimmed straw hat like her uncle used to
wear when he spent the day out on the boat. He wore jeans and a T-shirt with
Pac-Man on the front. There was a smear of dirt on one shoulder and he smelled
like the river. Alice thought of how well he seemed to fit in here, and what an
illusion it all was. Paul reached up and swiped the hat from his head, but said
nothing more.

            “Oooh,
the fish are bedding ‘cause it’s near the full moon. The shellcracker and
bluegill were there, too. Three cane poles, a can of wigglers, and we got us a
whole bucket of sunfish.” Bix made his way up to her on the sidewalk. He
reached over and kissed her cheek. “I had a great afternoon,
sha.
I
haven’t been fishing since my cousin Petey passed on. Just not as fun by
myself.”

            Alice
managed a smile. It was if Bix thought she was going to be mad that he was out
fishing with Paul. Well, she wasn’t happy. Paul was obviously focused on damage
control. But she hadn’t told Bix anything about Paul buying her building. Now
she wished she had. “I’m glad. I know how much you love fishing.” Just like he
loved reading. Two things Paul had done for Bix that she couldn’t. He was good
at finding a person’s weak spot.

            Andy
came up behind them. “Hi, Alice.” He sounded cautious, as if she might bite his
head off.

            Alice
smiled sweetly at him. “Hey, Andy. How’ve you been? Probably nice to have the
place to yourself.”

            He
frowned, looking from her to Paul and back again.

            “I
mean, since Paul’s staying with Holly.” That woman was a terror. She and Paul
fit well together. Crazy and crazy made a good team.

            “Oh,
no.” Paul shifted his feet. “She’s not… I didn’t invite her here.”

            “I’m
sure you didn’t. But girlfriends have a habit of showing up at the worst
times.” Alice turned to Bix. “I’m going to go lock up. I’m glad you had a good
afternoon.”

            Bix
tipped his hat up on his head. “See ya tomorrow.” He seemed amused. It was
probably pretty funny from the outside. But from Alice’s perspective, love
triangles were rotten no matter which angle you occupied.

            Seconds
later she was safely in her store and all her anger slowly evaporated. Even
though Paul had schemed and lied, seeing him still made her heart feel as if it
was stuck in a vise.

                                                                        ***

            “Don’t
say anything,” Paul muttered as Alice walked back into By the Book.

            “Bust-ed,”
Andy said, drawing the word out in a long whisper.

            “I
heard Louis talking down at The Red Hen this morning. Your girlfriend has made
quite a stir in town. Alice is right to be jealous,” Bix said.

            “No,
Holly and I aren’t―” Paul started.       

            “Oh,
I figured that. I ain’t seen you two together and when a man’s in love with a
woman, he ends up in her general vicinity whether he wants to be or not.” Bix
winked.

            Paul
stared down at his shoes. He’d done his best to get out of town for a while and
it wasn’t his fault she’d run out to see what happened to Bix. But he couldn’t
argue there was some truth to Bix’s statement. He had found himself talking to
Alice over and over in the past few weeks, and usually directly after deciding
he should stay away.

            Paul
sighed. They’d managed to get through a whole afternoon of fishing without
approaching the topic of Alice and her misunderstanding.

            Bix
went on. “Now, sir. Alice just has the wrong end of the stick. As soon as she
comes around, you’ll see how sweet she can be,”

            “I
don’t know. I don’t think it should be this hard.”

            Andy
put his hands in his pockets and leaned against the green Caddy. The expression
on his face said it all. Nothing good came from a start like this. No matter
how much Paul wanted it to be otherwise.

            “You
know Ruby is my second wife? My first one passed away ten years ago. Took me a
long time to get over her,” Bix said.

            Paul
nodded that he understood, but inside he was thinking that nothing Bix could
say would touch what was happening in Paul’s life.

            “What
you probably don’t know, is that my Ruby is my first wife’s sister.”

            “Whoa,”
Andy said quietly.

            “Yep.
We had thirty years of Thanksgiving dinners all together, with her husband and
my wife. He was a good buddy of mine, too, God rest his soul.” Bix sighed,
brown eyes misting over for a moment. “You can imagine the ruckus that got
kicked up when we announced we was fixin’ to get married. Her kids worried she’d
lost her marbles and my son was convinced she’d seduced me. It was a right
mess.”

            Paul
couldn’t hold back a laugh. He’d thought Bix was going to tell him some story
about being late on a first date. The smile faded from his face. “But you knew
you wanted to be together. We can’t even get to that point.”

            Bix
clapped a hand to his shoulder. “Don’t give up, son. I’ve known Alice a long
time. There’s not another woman like her. People like Alice, we say they put
the pepper in the gumbo. Life just ain’t the same without them. Whatever you
have to do to untangle this mess, she’s worth it.” He walked to the Caddy,
opened the door, handed Andy a bucket full of fish, and got behind the wheel.
Andy jumped away from the car as he started driving, tires squealing alongside
the curb until the end of the block.

            They
stood there, watching him go. Andy spoke first. “Well, that was pretty powerful
stuff. Too bad you never take advice.”

            Paul
shot him a look. “Come on. We’ve got fish to fry.”

            It
was true, Bix’s words had touched him, making him rethink what he saw as a
hopeless case.
The pepper in the gumbo.
He hadn’t noticed his life
needed anything until she came along, but now he couldn’t imagine it without
her. The thought of going back to New York City and his old life seemed bland
and cold.

            But
there was one problem with smoothing things over. Alice was the one who was
going to have to eat crow. And she didn’t seem like the type of woman to do
that more than once.

                                                            ***

            Alice
opened her eyes, then closed them again. Friday morning had never looked so
bleak. She lay still, listening to the low thump of bass music from down the
block. The grand opening of ScreenStop would be going on all day, culminating
in a release party at midnight for the newest game. Alice sat up, prying her
eyes back open. She’d kicked her quilt onto the floor in her sleep. Mrs.
Gaskell and Rochester were curled at the end of the bed. “Don’t let Jane Eyre
see you,” she said, and scratched them both behind the ears.