Bayou My Love: A Novel (31 page)

“How
did you know to come home?” I asked.

“Josie
called and said you hadn’t made it over yet. She couldn’t get you on the phone
and got worried.”

“Remy
said there was a big fire in a warehouse, that you were in it.”

“Yeah,
it was a bad one, but we were OK. When I got out, I got Josie’s message. So I
came over.”

I
felt another wave of nausea. If it wasn’t for Josie, I would have been the one
bleeding on the floor.

“He
set that fire,” I told Jack. “He admitted it. And the one here too.”

“Don’t
worry,” he said, squeezing my shoulder. “He’s going away for a long time.”

Andre
knocked on the doorframe. “Enza, I know this is a terrible night, but I need to
ask you a few questions.”

“It’s
fine,” I said, brushing tears from my eyes. I sat up straighter, and Jack took
my hand in his, sliding his thumb along my palm.

“The
paramedics will be here soon, but before they get here, can you tell me exactly
what happened?”

He
wrote down everything in a small notebook, nodding each time I answered one of
his questions. Jack’s arm tensed around me as I described the broken door pane,
the way I tried to talk to him, the way he shoved me against the wall.

Jack
brought my hand to his lips, kissing my knuckles.

I
squeezed his hand as Andre stepped aside to let the paramedics in.

“Thanks,
Enza,” Andre said. “I’ll get the rest from you later.”

~~~~

We
spent the night at Buck and Josie’s even though it meant waking them around
midnight. Jack called to let them know what had happened, and Josie insisted.

Josie
gave me a big hug when we got to the door. “Honey, I know you just want to go
straight to bed, so we’ve got your room all set. You sleep tight, and we’ll see
you at the breakfast table.”

“Thank
you,” I said. “I can’t say that enough times. You saved my life tonight.”

“Oh,
honey,” she said, grabbing my hands in hers. “We’re just so glad you’re all
right.”

“It’s
a good thing they arrested that jackass,” Buck said, his arms crossed over his
chest. “Because I’d like nothing more than to go over there and break him in
two.”

Jack
nodded, his face darkening. “Andre will take care of him.”

“Not
the way I would,” Buck said.

Jack
slipped his hand to the small of my back and led me toward the stairs. “Good
night,” he said to them. “We’ll see you in the morning.”

Upstairs,
Josie had just made up one room—the larger one I’d stayed in before. She’d
turned down the sheets and left a lamp on.

“Guess
she’s onto us,” Jack said.

I
smiled weakly as he walked across the hall and flipped on the light in the
other bedroom.

“Hey,”
I said, following him to the hall. “What are you doing?”

“I’ll
sleep in here.”

“Don’t,”
I said, taking his hand. “Stay with me.” I led him back into the room and shut
the door.

“I
figured you’d want some space after this morning,” he said. “After everything.”

I
slid my jeans off and climbed into bed. He stared at me for a long moment, then
unbuttoned his shirt and stripped out of his jeans. He eased into bed next to
me and turned to face me.

“I
was scared to death tonight,” he said, holding my hand in his.

“Me
too. I thought that was the end.”

“I
could have killed the guy, Enza. For a minute I thought I had.”

“I
know.”

“The
thought that he’d hurt you—”

“I
know.” I wrapped my arms around him and pulled myself tight against his chest.

His
body heaved with a deep sigh. “I love you,” he said. “I know you think it’s too
fast and too soon and too everything, but—”

“I’m
staying,” I said, cutting him off.

“What?”
he said, shifting so he could look me in the eye.

“I’m
keeping Vergie’s house. I don’t want to leave, either.”

His
brow wrinkled. “Just like that?”

“I
love you too.”

He
smiled, kissing me lightly on the lips, just as he had that first time when we
were all tangled up in the living room.

“I
tried to tell you earlier today,” I said. “But you were too busy freezing me
out.”

“I’m
sorry, darlin’. It’s only because you’d broken my heart.”

“Well,
then.”

“It’s
OK,” he said. “It’s healing up nicely.”

I
kissed him on the neck, and he sighed, folding me in his arms.

After
a while he said, “Not that I’m not delighted to hear your revelation, but what
about your father and the business?”

“I’ll
find a way to work it out. I could sell my house in North Carolina and pay him
back. I could go out on my own and flip houses down here.”

“Sounds
like you’ve been doing some serious thinking.”

“I
had a lot of time to mull things over while you were giving me the cold
shoulder.”

He
slid his finger along my ribs, tickling me as he held me tight against him. “At
least it made you come to your senses.”

I
laughed, wriggling against him until he stopped and let me go. I loved that he
could still make me laugh, even on a day like today.

He
looked at me, his eyes wide in the dim light.

“What?”
I said.

“I
absolutely love making you laugh in bed.”

He
slid his fingers in my hair and kissed me, pinching my lips with his teeth so
that my whole body tingled.

“I
love that you can,” I said.

Then
he looked me in the eye. “There’s one more very important question I have to
ask you,” he said.

“What’s
that?”

He
raised one eyebrow and said, “Are you still kicking me out of my house?”

“Are
you kidding? What landlady kicks out a perfectly good handyman
and
cook?”

He
grinned, kissing my neck, scratching me with his beard until I laughed and
squirmed in his grip, though being out of his reach was the last thing I
wanted.

“I’ll
happily fix anything for you, cher. Leaky pipes, missing tiles, jambalaya, you
name it.”

“Can
I get that in writing?”

“Absolutely.”

He
stilled, tightening his arms around me, and lay his head against my neck. I
felt myself finally relax as he kissed my shoulder and whispered, “I’m glad
you’re staying. I don’t think I could stand to watch you leave.”

I
laced my fingers in his as I closed my eyes, listening to him whisper in the
dark. My life was about to get a lot more complicated, but this thing with Jack
was starting to feel simple after all.

I
wanted to be with him. All the time. It didn’t get much simpler than that.

Chapter
25

Four
weeks later, I had a new living room. Buck had put up drywall, built a jig to
cut crown molding to match what was original to the house, and installed a new
set of built-in bookcases to replace the ones damaged by the fire. He and Josie
had insisted on helping me with all of it, from installing the new heart pine
flooring to painting the walls and ceiling. They’d been over almost every day
for two weeks, even making final repairs after I’d had the new sofa and chairs
delivered.

Today,
they’d called to say they had one more quick addition to make to the room. I
put some coffee on, and not long after, Bella started barking and ran to the
front door.

She
wagged her stumpy tail at me when I got there. She liked me now that I wasn’t
leaving her herd.

Josie
was standing on the porch with a vase of lilies and a bottle of bourbon.

“Hi,
hon. We brought you a little housewarming present.”

“Well,
thank you,” I said, taking both from her hands.

She
smiled and said, “Your real present’s in the truck. Wait right there.”

I
put the flowers and the bourbon in the kitchen, and when I went back to the
porch, Buck and Josie were carrying a coffee table up the walk. I grabbed the
middle as they barreled through the door and into the living room. We set it
down in front of the couch and stepped back.

“This
is lovely,” I said.

“Buck
wanted to make you something special,” Josie said. “And he knew you had a
particular style in mind.”

“You
made this?” The table reminded me of the Mission style: sleek and elegant, but
rustic. The top was made of slender boards held together with butterfly joints.
The boards had been stained, but still had slight variation in the color and a
smattering of scars. I ran my fingers over the surface. “This is beautiful.
Thank you.”

“Tell
her the rest,” Josie said, nudging him in the ribs.

“I
used some of the original floorboards from this room,” he said. “The ones that
weren’t damaged too bad. I hope that’s OK. I know you like to salvage too.”

“Oh,
wow,” I said.

Buck
smiled, resting his hands on his hips.

I
startled him with a big hug, and he chuckled.

“I
think she likes it,” Josie said.

“I
love it,” I said, hugging her too.

“We’re
so glad you’re staying,” Josie said. “But then, I knew you would.” She winked,
and Buck shook his head.

“I
haven’t seen Jack this happy in his entire life,” she added.

“That
woman thinks she’s psychic,” Buck said.

She
shrugged. “I just see things, dear. Call it what you like.”

~~~~

After
they left, I went outside to plant the azaleas I’d bought the week before. It
was easily a hundred degrees, but I’d started to get used to the heat again.
Vergie had always been able to make anything grow; now I hoped to channel a
little bit of her—just enough for my azaleas. I was starting small.

I’d
made decent progress in my plans to wrap things up in North Carolina and begin
a new life in Bayou Sabine. I’d formed a business plan and put my assets in
order. I didn’t have many, but I had some savings set aside and my house in
North Carolina to sell. But before getting started with the business, I wanted
to sell my house first and pay my father what I owed him. I wanted to settle as
many debts as I could before flipping another house.

My
new business seemed like it could have some potential. There were plenty of
houses down here that had good character and needed a makeover. Jack was
interested in helping with repairs to share profits, and he’d mentioned the
idea to Buck too. Together we could knock out quality projects fast, and with
Buck’s knack for using reclaimed wood, vintage fixtures and other salvaged
parts of historic buildings, we could make impressive transformations. I
already had my eye on a house on Buck’s side of the canal.

I
spaced the azaleas out in front of the porch and started to dig. My mother’s
letters still gnawed at me. I couldn’t help but wonder what had happened to
her. Was she living near here? Had she moved a thousand miles away to start over?
Sometimes I pictured her in California, or Maine, or some nondescript place
where she could just disappear. I’d trained myself to think of her that way
over the years, but at Vergie’s funeral, when I thought I’d seen her, when I’d
realized that was a real possibility—I’d thought my chest would collapse. If I
asked enough questions around here, I could untangle the truths. Like Jack
said, everyone knew everyone’s business. Someone would know about Vergie’s
daughter. Someone would know if she’d come back here, and someone could tell me
where she’d gone. If I wanted to look hard enough, I could find her. The
question was: How badly did I want to find her?

After
an hour of digging holes, my shirt was clinging to my skin. I was streaked in
dirt, but I’d planted azaleas all along the front of the porch. Bella, splayed
on her side like she was melting, watched me from under one by the corner. I
was soaking the soil around them one last time when I heard the truck rumble
along the driveway. Jack parked under the big oak tree and ambled across the
grass in that slow, easy way of his that always made me feel like I was the
only thing in his line of sight. He was still wearing his turnouts—the bottoms,
anyway. Under the dark red suspenders he wore a tight white T-shirt that was
gray with ash.

He
stopped at the porch and smiled his crooked smile. “Hey, you.”

“Hey,
yourself,” I said. “You always wear that when you’re off duty?”

“Gets
me lots of free drinks,” he said, looping his thumbs in the suspenders.

“I’ll
bet.”

“I
was in a hurry,” he said. “Just got finished with our training session, and the
guys were going back to the station to eat. I knew that would take hours, and
frankly I couldn’t wait that long to see you.”

I
smiled at that, thinking of tackling him in the grass.

“Doing
a bit of gardening, are you?”

“Maybe
this bunch will survive,” I said. The first shrubs I’d planted had died in a
week. Josie had told me they were invincible, but she didn’t know my history
with flora. I’d crossed my fingers and hoped for good mojo as I’d poured water
over these. I’d even opened up the last gris-gris Duchess had given me and
mixed it in with the soil. It couldn’t hurt, I thought.

His
eyes drifted over me, as if he were deciding where he would kiss me first.

“That
was a long two days,” I said.

“Does
that mean you missed me?” He stepped closer, his body a few inches from mine.

I
slid my fingers down the length of the suspenders, stopping at his waist.

“Is
it bad that I want to tear those pants off you with my teeth?” I asked.

He
grinned, sliding his hands beneath my shirt, to the small of my back. “I’m
going to hold you to that.”

“I
have a surprise to show you inside.”

“Oh?”
He had a devilish glint in his eye.

I
backed into the house, inching out of his reach each time he got close. He
looked at me quizzically as I dodged his hands.

“You
playing hard to get now?” he asked in a throaty voice.

He
lunged toward me, and I bolted. He followed me into the living room, and I
pointed to the table.

“Surprise!”

“Lovely,”
he said, reaching for me again.

I
laughed, taking his chin in my hand, turning his face toward the table. “Buck
made it. From floorboards he saved from this room.”

“Beautiful.”
He turned back to me, tugging at the buttons on my shirt.

“Hey,”
I said, gently smacking his hands away. “You’re getting me all dirty.”

“I’ll
show you dirty, cher.” He lunged again, and I yelped, running into the bedroom
as he bounded behind me. I stumbled into the room, thinking he was right on my
heels, but when I turned, he was gone. I paused, listening for the sound of his
boots, expecting him to tackle me on the spot.

Instead,
I heard the stereo come on in the adjoining room, the volume rising as a sultry
brass band pierced the air. There was the wail of a slide trombone, a slow bass
line that I could feel in my chest. I heard a thump, then another, and there he
was in the doorway, tossing his boots to the floor. He slipped his suspenders
down, his eyes burning into mine as he walked toward me.

He
took his shirt off, slung it once around his head and tossed it at me. I
chuckled as he hooked his thumbs in the suspenders, swaying to the music and
smiling his crooked smile.

I
didn’t dare move and break the spell.

“I
think you missed your calling,” I said.

“No,
no, darlin’,” he said in his husky voice, “I don’t do this for just anyone.”

He
unfastened his pants, and he slid them to the floor, hopping on one foot and
then the other as he struggled to step out of them and still maintain a bit of
dignity.

He
looked as clumsy as a foal, trying to stay on his feet, but I was completely
smitten. He was disarming that way—strong on the outside but not without his
adorable moments of awkwardness. I laughed, and he sauntered over to me,
stripped down to a pair of boxers with little red crawfish.

“Something
funny?” he asked, sliding one finger along my arm.

He
slipped his other hand along my ribs, where he knew I was most ticklish, and I
squirmed, laughing.

He
grinned and swept me onto the bed, kissing my neck, scratching me with his
stubbly cheek.

I
squirmed underneath him. “Cut it out,” I said, laughing and writhing in his
grip. “You know that drives me crazy!”

“Mmm-hmm,”
he said, squeezing me tighter. The more I laughed, the more he tickled me,
brushing his lips over my ribs, my hips. He’d memorized my most ticklish bits
and zeroed in when he was feeling merciless.

“I
love that laugh,” he said, his lips moving against my neck. “I want to hear it
the rest of my life.”

I
liked the sound of that. It was a distinct possibility.

He
loosened his grip long enough to pull my shirt over my head and toss it to the
floor. With one forearm resting by my head, he slid his free hand along my hip.

I
wound my fingers in his hair and said, “How did I get lucky enough to find
you?”

He
kissed me lightly on the lips, his eyes steady on mine. “Vergie’s one hell of a
matchmaker.”

I
smiled, thinking she’d managed to look out for me one last time.

“You
know, I’m really glad I didn’t kick you out of here on that first day,” I said.

He
snorted. “You couldn’t have kicked me out. You were hot for me.”

My
jaw dropped, and I swatted him with a pillow.

“I
thought you were cute too. That wild hair and those beat-up cowboy boots. I
dreamed about you for days.”

“Jack
Mayronne, are you trying to tell me you thought you had me from the start?”

He
grinned. “Not even. I just knew I couldn’t let you go.”

I
narrowed my eyes. “You’re lucky I didn’t send you packing, mister. With that
mouth on you.”

He
grinned as he slid his fingers along my cheek. “Yes, I am, cher. Luckier than I
ever dreamed.”

He
leaned in to kiss me, and I clutched him tight. I was where I was supposed to
be, and I was feeling awfully lucky myself.