Brown Eyed Girl (9 page)

He laughed. “I believe I’m the same Red I’ve always been.”

“
Some co-workers went and told me how nice it was. No smoking right?”

“
That’s right.”

“
What made you do that when Louisiana still hasn’t passed the law?”

Red walked over to a flower bed and bent over to pull a stray weed. “My Uncle Ben, dad’s brother, died from lung cancer due to smoking. It’s the one thing I can do.”

Tiffany followed him to the bed of pansies and leaned over to pluck some winter grass from between the bright purple and gold blooms. “Doesn’t it hurt business?”

“
There are a lot more non-smokers out there than smokers. I have four rules. No cigarettes, no drugs, no fighting, and no drunk drivers—we’ll call them a cab. We ask for a decent sized cover charge, and in return people have a nice time. So far, we have a lot of repeat customers.”

“
You said you went to LSU, right?”

“
Yes, business degree.”

“
Bachelors?”

“
Initially—I got my degree summa cum laude. I got a job after graduation and went to night school for my Masters.”

“
Top honors while playing Tiger baseball?” she asked.

“
You sound skeptical,” he said, flashing that devilishly handsome grin of his. “Would you like to see my degree? It’s framed and everything.”

“
How would I know it’s real?” she teased.

He grinned down at her. “I’ve got the documentation to back it up. We had several Magna cum Laude graduates in my family, but you are looking at the one and only Summa cum Laude of the McAllister family, honey, and don’t think my mom wasn’t above throwing
that
around at the Garden Club meetings.”

Tiffany smiled, imagining Mrs. Vivienne doing just that. “Did you study harder? Did you do less partying than the rest of your siblings?” she asked, curious to know more about this man.

He chuckled. “I partied plenty—the truth is I have this ability to retain and recall information. Facts, numbers, notes, quotes, music, and lyrics, it all comes easily to me. If I read or hear something once, I remember it.”

She snorted. “That’s the kind of thing that annoys a roommate.”

“
Yeah, it used to irk the hell out of Jackson. We bunked together during my sophomore year when he was a freshman. Then he got hurt and transferred out of the athletic dorm. You know about the shoulder injury, right?” When she nodded, he continued. “It didn’t matter though. By then we were best friends.” He looked down at his watch. “You know we missed the kick-off, right?”

Not wanting to end the conversation with him, she met his gaze. “You ready to go inside?” The slight shift of his head let her know he felt the same way.

“
Not really,” he said. “So, did mom give you any advice you could live with?”

“
She absolutely did. You and your siblings are lucky, you know.”

“
We realize that.”

Tiffany turned toward the patio doors. “I was watching your parents in there and I realized that I don’t have one single memory of mine showing affection for each other. Their marriage was always more like a business arrangement. My dad has always had his mistresses and mother has her kept men.”

Red’s voice betrayed a genuine sadness at her confession. “I’m sorry for you.”

She met his gaze again, letting him know with a look instead of words that she appreciated his concern. She started to say something then thought better of it.

“
What is it?”

She smiled, wondering why she wasn’t surprised that he could tell she was holding back. “It’s just that it worries me—maybe they warped Drake and me. That’s one reason I’ve stayed with Tanner. If I hook up with someone decent, I’m afraid I wouldn’t know how to act. I’d probably scare him off.” Red emitted a low chuckle that caused a fluttering in her stomach.

“
I have serious doubts you could ever do anything to scare
me
off, Doc.”

Tiffany cleared her throat and turned so he couldn’t see her reaction to his statement.

<>

She turned away from him, but not before he caught the slight flush of her skin. He smiled, pleased that his statement had that effect on her. “Besides, look at Jackson. Fifteen years with Chloe only made him appreciate Giselle more.”

“
Maybe you’re right.”

“
But, you’ll never know unless you cut him loose. It’s not likely Tanner will make as sudden an exit as Chloe did.”

“
I should hope not,” she said, tapping the heel of her boot on the pavers.

“
Hey, if you want to keep talking and watch the game, I’ve got a big screen in the pool house. Interested?”

She rocked back and forth balancing on her heels, and gave him a brief nod. “I’d like that.”

He led her inside to two chairs and a table in front of the large screen set hanging on the wall. “Do you want a soft drink or a beer?”

“
I’ll take water since I’m on call.” She rubbed her belly and grimaced. “Besides, if I drink a beer after all that food I’ll be down for the count.”

Red turned the set on and found the game. “So, did my mom reveal any family secrets?”

“
She told me the sweetest story about when your dad rescued her and her sore toes.”

He handed her a bottle of water and sat next to her. “Ah, the Everly Brothers...My old man could work it, couldn’t he?”

“
Your maternal grandfather helped him out a little.”

“
Yeah, gave him the all clear. Did she tell you about how my dad’s parents met?”

“
No, were they both Irish?”

“
My grandfather came over from Scotland after World War II, but my grandmother was an Hebert (
pronounced A-bear
) from Gardiner. My mom was a Broussard (
Broo-sard
) and she was from there, also. Those names are common in south Louisiana. So, I’ve got strong Cajun roots with a Scottish last name.”

“
How’d your grandfather end up in Gardiner?”

Red sat forward and rested his elbows on his knees. “He came to the states looking for a place to work as a farm hand. Gardiner, being a farming community, was the ideal place for him. He didn’t know anything about rice farming, but he told the man who hired him that he was a quick learner.”

“
How did he meet your grandmother?”

“
She and her sisters had gone to a dance and she saw him standing alone in a corner. My grandmother decided to be polite and went over and introduced herself. Pops had been in town less than a week, and spoke with a Scottish accent so thick my Maw Maw could barely understand him. But they danced together all night long. She taught him all the Cajun dances, and by the end of the night he was an expert.”

“
Now I know where you get your dancing skills,” she teased.

“
Maw Maw told me when she got home, her older sister asked if she didn’t mind all of that carrot red hair. Maw Maw told her she’d never noticed the color of his hair—all she’d seen were his blue eyes. She called him her red-haired, blue-eyed devil from Scotland—said he had just enough mischief in him to make life interesting. That’s who we have to blame for the red hair and freckles.”

Tiffany’s eyes sparkled with laughter. “Don’t forget to give him credit for those beautiful blue eyes of yours. Besides, I don’t see any freckles on you.”

Red groaned. “I outgrew them, thank God.”

“
Do you remember your grandparents?”

“
I remember my grandfather a little—he died when I was four. Maw Maw Bess was the sweetest lady. She passed away just after I graduated from college.” Red’s eyes misted over at the memory. “She missed that old man until the day she died.”

“
Is that possible anymore, Red? Do people still have marriages like that?”

“
Sure they do. Look at my parents.”

“
I mean people who get married today
.
Are there any marriages like that for couples just starting out?”

Red leveled a serious gaze on her. “Mine will be—I’m counting on it.”

“
Good luck with that. It doesn’t seem possible with today’s lifestyle and divorce rate,” she added.

“
That’s because too many people settle,” he said, as she sent him a look of amusement.

“
That’s big talk for a thirty-eight year old bachelor.”

He raised one brow. “I don’t want to settle.”

“
Maybe you’re afraid of commitment.”

Red gazed straight into Tiffany’s eyes. “I’m not afraid of anything. Not anymore.”

“
Well,” she murmured, once she seemed to get past the hitch in her breathing. “Maybe you should be.”

He held her gaze, wanting to prove how ready he was to take this on...to take her on.

Tiffany tore her gaze away first and walked around the room checking out his display of photography. She stopped in front of a grouped collection of LSU baseball shots. “I’ve seen these before. I’d forgotten you and Tanner played the same years. What position did you play?”

Red gradually closed the gap between them, and stood with his mouth near her ear. “First base,” he said, near enough to disturb her hair with his breath. He studied her delicate ear, fighting off the sudden urge to nibble on the velvety lobe. “What about you?” he asked. “You’re thirty-six and unmarried, so does that mean you’re afraid of commitment?”

She twisted a lock of her hair around one finger. “I definitely have a problem with commitment, but at least I’m engaged.”

“
For how long?”

“
Um…Two years now.”

“
Set a date yet?”

“
No.”

“
Why not?”

“
Problem with commitment, remember?”

He stepped closer. “Could be you have a problem with Tanner.”

She took one step away from. “Could be,” she said, continuing to look at pictures until she stopped at a large leather bound book with the name
Scott Brendan McAllister
and the date
January 28
^th
stamped in gold on its cover. “May I?”

“
Go ahead.” Red watched her sit on the double lounger to open the book. She turned to the first page and gasped.

“
I didn’t realize it was a photo album.”

“
My mom went online to a company and had one made for each of us for Christmas last year.”

“
I can’t imagine my mother going through that kind of trouble for Drake and me. You were a beautiful baby,” she said, referring to his first studio portrait.

He cleared his throat. “I believe the word ‘handsome’ is a better description.”

Her eyes sparkled as she touched the photo. “Babies are beautiful
,
and contrary to belief, not all babies are beautiful, but you definitely were,” she said.

“
I was kind of cute, huh?” He sat next to her, enjoying the nearness, wishing it would last, hoping she wouldn’t find some excuse to leave.

She flipped through pages as he answered her questions about the photos. She laughed at the photo of him in 5
^th
grade, the year he seemed to have an abundance of freckles, and groaned at pictures of him with braces. “That brings back bad memories,” she told him. “I hated my metal mouth pictures.”

Tiffany saw pictures of him playing t-ball at five and six, on through coach pitch and finally baseball clear through high school. One page had his high school graduation photo with the words
Gardiner High School Valedictorian – 4.0 GPA
underneath. There were several photos of him with the Tiger baseball team and shots of him in action, as well as a few good shots of him and Jackson together. There were college graduation photos with the words “
Our own Summa Cum Laude graduate!”
in a bold font.

She glanced at him with one brow lifted in amusement.

“
I told you so,” he said, flashing a confident grin.

She smiled back at him. “I believed you.” She returned to the book, chuckling at the last several snapshots of him wearing nothing but a pair of swimming trunks and a cheesy grin while flexing his muscles for the photographer. “Who took these?”

“
Mom,” he said, seeing the caption under the photos that said, “
It would be such a waste if these genes weren’t passed along!”

He blushed at Tiffany’s look of amusement. “She always tells me if I don’t procreate before she dies, she’s going to haunt my ass,” he explained.

She laughed nervously, but didn’t stop staring at the photos. “When were these taken?”

“
That was…the summer before last, after I finished my pool at the place in Lafayette. We had a huge birthday bash for mom and I was playing around. I can’t believe she put those in there,” he said, shaking his head.

“
You’re lucky they didn’t end up on the internet,” she said.

Red removed a pack of snapshots from an envelope and handed them to her. “Here’s some of the club I opened up about three years ago. That’s my oldest brother, Chad and his wife, Julia,” he said pointing to a smiling couple sitting at the end of the table. “He’s the only one you haven’t met here today. They’re separated but we’re all hoping they’ll work it out. Julia was offered the chance to work in England for two years and Chad decided to go all macho jerk about it. He told her he wouldn’t move.”