They made love again two more times that night, and Samantha couldn’t be happier. Of course, she wouldn’t be able to walk when she arrived at Tante Lulu’s birthday party later tomorrow . . . rather, since it was past two a.m . . . but it was a small price to pay for the happiness she felt now.
“Are you smiling again?” he asked, turning his face to the side beside her. He was splayed out on his stomach, as depleted as she was . . . for the moment anyhow.
“Yes. I’m happy.”
“Me, too,” he said, sitting up and settling a pile of pillows behind them before pulling her over to rest her face on his chest. “Samantha?”
“Hmmm?”
“I promised myself that I wouldn’t rush you, but . . . oh, hell, will you marry me?”
“Yes.”
He held her away so he could see her face. “Just like that, yes?”
“Why not? I’m not a kid. I know what I want. Why wait? I’m excited to begin my life with you.”
“I feel the same way. Man oh man, I can’t believe what a difference there is in my life since this morning. Depression to euphoria.”
“Same here. Even Emily was getting sick of being around me, I was so sad.”
“Will Em be our flower pig?”
She laughed. “Why not?”
“I feel like I have a whole life of firsts with you to look forward to. First marriage. First honeymoon. First home together. First . . .”
As his words trailed off, she realized why he hesitated. It was the big elephant still in the room with them. Children.
“If you want children, Samantha, we’ll have them. Or at least one. I’m afraid, but I’ll find a way to overcome that. I know I can.”
She kissed him and said, “We can talk about that later. Truly, we’ve been handed a second chance here. We could have very well lost each other without ever confessing our love. Let’s savor that. Problems can be solved in the future.”
He kissed her, then asked, “Will you go to Tante Lulu’s birthday bash with me?”
“Yes.”
“Do you have to go back to your house to get clothes?”
“No, I packed an overnight bag. And Lily Beth is there to take care of the animals.”
“You were that sure of me?”
“No. Only hopeful.”
“Speaking of bags . . .” He jumped out of the bed and went over to the dresser where he dug into the bag she’d brought upstairs with her. “Aha!” he said, holding up two objects. “What’ll it be, baby? Balls or vibes?”
“Aren’t you tired? Aren’t men supposed to be incapable of doing it more than once or twice a night?”
“It’s amazing how a little nap can energize a fellow.” He held up the balls, in fact jangled them in the air, then held out the object in his other hand which began to Bzzz.
She laughed and chose both.
Hail, hail, the gang’s all here . . .
Even though it was only four p.m. they were late for Tante Lulu’s birthday bash at Luc LeDeux’s luxurious home outside of Houma. When he’d seen Samantha come down the stairs at Bayou Rose in that strapless, green, satiny sundress, wearing those fuck-me black high heels with the little straps around her ankles, highlighting an ankle bracelet, he just had to show her how good she looked. Afterward, she’d had to repair her makeup, but did she look like she cared? Hell, no, and thank God!
He glanced at her and smiled. Little did she know, there was a sex flush on her chest and neck, and her lips looked kiss-bruised. She smiled back at him in a knowing way. He figured he looked as if he’d had his coals raked, too.
God, how he loved this woman! Wonder filled him, that he had fallen so hard, so fast for her. And even greater wonder, she returned the sentiment.
He linked his fingers with hers as they walked side by side. They’d had to park more than a block away because there were so many cars. Even though this was supposed to be family only, and a few friends, Luc had told them, when they called to say they would be late, that he had expected seventy-five people, but at least a hundred had shown up so far.
It always amazed Daniel that he had lived more than thirty years in Alaska without knowing he had such a large family here in Louisiana. Not just Tante Lulu, who was a great-great aunt (or something) to them all, but there was Luc and his wife Sylvie and their three daughters, Blanche, Camille, and Jeanette; René and his wife Valerie and their kids, Jude and Louise; Remy and his wife Rachel and their six adopted children, Rashid, Maggie, Andy, Evan, Stephan, and Suzanne, plus their natural-born son, Michael; John LeDeux and his wife Celine and their sons Etienne and Rob, and daughter Annie; Charmaine and her husband Rusty and their daughter Mary Lou; and LaVerne, Amelie, and Simone, whom he’d never met. And those were just the ones he knew about!
Missing from today’s party would be Valcour LeDeux, the father of them all. He and Tante Lulu were archenemies. If he came within twenty yards of the old lady, she would probably shoot him in the balls with one of her pistols.
“You look good today,” Samantha remarked, pulling him out of his reverie.
He glanced down at himself. He wore a navy sport coat over jeans with a blue dress shirt and tie. Samantha had helped him pick out the tie, which had given him more ideas. He was probably overdressed for a pool party, but he’d wanted to please Samantha, who’d said he should be as dressy as she was. Did he mention her sexy dress with the cleavage down to here, and those fuck-me black strappy shoes? She was wearing the nipple rings underneath, at his request. He’d probably have a half hard-on all night just thinking about them. She had sworn that she would buy him a penile ring in retaliation, but he didn’t know about that!
Once they walked up the driveway and skirted around the house to the backyard, they saw that half the people were dressed like they were, while the rest were casual, or in swim attire, especially the younger ones. The patio was converted into a dance floor for the music that was already being played by René LeDeux’s band, The Swamp Rats. Right now, it was a raucous version of “Diggy Diggy Lou,” a Cajun song about a man in the doghouse again. People were scattered around the huge lawn on folding chairs and chaises, or standing about in small groups.
A tent had been erected for food which smelled delicious, even from here. Another tent held an enormous cake, which Tante Lulu would have insisted on making. It appeared to hold only a few candles. The old lady had always been cagey about her age.
Even though she had insisted on a “no gifts” policy, there was a pile of gaily wrapped presents, just the same. Instead, Luc had asked people to send little memories they had of Tante Lulu, and the enormous album that held those notes sat beside the cake. In fact, there were two big albums.
Samantha’s grandfather Stanley Starr, who was a friend of Tante Lulu, came up and kissed his granddaughter, asking her if she was all right following the whole Nick Coltrane business. Stanley Starr was a character. Aside from being an astute businessman, he dressed in true Southern gentleman style (despite his Scotch heritage and other family members’ proclivity to kilts), complete with white suit, white hair, mustache, and goatee, and a straw hat, a la Colonel Sanders. They talked to him for several moments before an older lady, Fleur Robicheaux, Charmaine’s mother, called Stanley over. Fleur was more outrageous in attire and mannerisms than Charmaine, Daniel had learned soon after moving to Louisiana. Can anyone say aging stripper?
Tante Lulu saw them and waved. She was in rare form today, too, wearing a sleeveless pink dress, pink wedgie shoes, and even pink highlights in her gray hair. Her makeup defied description. Suffice it to say, there was pink lipstick. And pink dangly earrings. Samantha’s Aunt Maire would love her!
When she got closer, Tante Lulu looked at them suspiciously, as if she knew what they’d been doing, all night and all morning, even when Edgar arrived to work on the cabin. Then Tante Lulu smiled widely and said, “Thank you, St. Jude! The thunderbolt has done its work again.”
Samantha blushed, but he gloated. Let the old lady have her fun. He had the prize, and for that he could put up with her taking all the credit.
“Daniel, come with me. I jist remembered somethin’,” Tante Lulu said.
He glanced at Samantha who was now talking with Charmaine, who matched her aunt in a matching pink dress and pink wedgie shoes, but on her they were hubba hubba hot (Yes, he’d been hanging around Tante Lulu too much and picking up her expressions.) He squeezed Samantha’s hand and said, “I’ll be right back. I’ll bring some drinks with me.”
She nodded and blew him a kiss, just to tease.
He blew one back, just to tease.
Tante Lulu watched the byplay and smiled as if she’d invented love. She took his arm and walked with him toward the house, speaking to family and guests along the way. When they went through the sliding glass doors into a den, she went straight for her big carry bag and pulled out a small box. “I finally remembered where I put yer Grandma Dolly’s gift.”
Daniel had begun to think there was no bequest. He took the box and eyed her suspiciously. “You knew all along where it was, didn’t you?”
She eyed him back and said, “And you knew all along that I knew but dint want ya ta know that I knew.”
Talking with her was like going around in circles. You always forgot where you started.
“Dolly Doucet always regretted the way her family treated yer mother, but her husband was a mean man. It was hard fer a woman in those days ta defy her husband.”
That made Daniel feel a little better about that side of his family, but not by much. Hell, Valcour LeDeux on the other side was no better. Past history!
“So why are you giving me this now?”
“It’s the right time.”
He opened the box and saw a sparkling diamond ring in a gold setting. He frowned in confusion.
“It belonged to yer Great-Grandma Doucet. I figgered ya might wanna give it ta Samantha fer an engagement ring. ’Course it might be too old-fashioned fer her and the diamond too small, but ya kin allus have it reset and add some other stones.”
“If I got a ring, what does Aaron get?”
“He gets a ring, too, but not till the time is right. His is from the other Great Grandma. She was a Chaussin.”
Touched more than he thought he could be for a gift from a side of his family he’d never connected with, nor wanted to, he merely nodded, and said, “Thank you, Tante Lulu. Thank you very much.”
“Thass all right, honey.” She tugged him down and kissed his cheek. When he put a hand to his face, he said, “Dontcha be worryin’ ’bout no lip print. I’m usin’ the kissproof lipstick Charmaine gave me.”
He didn’t dare ask why.
When he went outside, he bypassed the drinks table, for now, and went up to Samantha, who was talking with Aaron, who was looking good tonight, but then he always did, no matter what he wore. Tonight he was in rare form with a crisp blue, tapered dress shirt (Like minds and all that!) worn outside navy blue shorts with his bare feet tucked into Docksiders. Daniel saw several women eyeing Aaron already. The boy was going to get lucky tonight. If he wanted to. One never knew with Aaron.
Surreptitiously, Daniel slid the ring onto Samantha’s finger while she was talking to Aaron. She felt the movement and glanced down, and then did a double take. “Daniel!” She raised her hand and gasped. Tears immediately filled her eyes. “Daniel!” she repeated.
“If you don’t like it, you can have it reset. I know it’s small, but—”
“It’s perfect!” She wrapped her arms around his shoulders and gave him a big kiss, right in front of everyone.
He wasn’t even embarrassed.
After that, Aaron said, “Congratulations, little brother,” and yanked him into a bear hug, from which he wouldn’t let go. Holding on tight to him, Aaron whispered against his ear, “Be happy!”
When he drew back, he could swear Aaron had tears in his eyes.
“Where did you get this?” Samantha asked. “You had no time to go shopping today.”
“I’ll explain later,” he promised, wrapping his arm around her shoulder and tugging her closer to his side.
They moved through the crowd then, ate heartily from the array of gumbos, jambalayas, étouffées, rices, and various desserts, and even danced to a slow version of “Jolie Blon.” Once again, he marveled at how well he and Samantha fit together. Especially with the high heels, they were almost the same height.
Later, they listened to Tante Lulu give a little speech after blowing out the few candles on her birthday cake. “I wish everyone was as happy as I am t’day. I have been blessed with a long life filled with love and family.” She raised her champagne glass and said, “Ta love and family!”
“To love and family!” everyone shouted, and drank. And drank.
It was a wonderful party, everyone agreed, but the best part for Daniel and Samantha was when they went home. And, yes, Bayou Rose was beginning to feel like home, to them both.