“What do you mean, you don’t know where she is? You know where everyone is.” Aaron paced Tante Lulu’s little kitchen while she continued to stir something on the stove.
“Stop yellin’. My ears are ringin’.”
“I’ll wring something if you don’t tell me where the hell Fleur is.”
“Now, he’s swearin’ at me.” She looked up at the St. Jude picture on the wall, as if she was talking to the saint. Then she swatted Aaron with her wooden spoon. “Sit down and have a bowl of gumbo. Then we kin talk things over.”
“I don’t want any damn . . .” He inhaled and exhaled to calm himself down. Fleur had been gone for more than a day, and even her cell phone service had been disconnected. He was frantic. Not because he feared for her safety. She had disappeared willingly. Still . . . “I don’t want any food. Just information.”
“Sit,” she ordered.
He sat.
After placing the bowl of gumbo and a slice of buttered lazy bread on a St. Jude placemat in front of him, along with a tall glass of iced sweet tea, she sat down across from him. “Tell me ’zackly what the problem is.”
“She loves me. She told me so. Just a few hours before she left Bayou Rose. I fell asleep, and then I had to run out to the airport to take a crew out to the oil rigs for Remy. When I got back, she was gone. She left a note.”
“What did it say?”
“Not much. After thinking things over, she decided that we have no future. So long, it’s been nice seeing you. Blah, blah, blah.”
“She did not!”
“Not in those exact words, but that’s the gist of it. Did she say anything to you?”
“Not really. She apologized fer not comin’ back here ta help me clean up and asked if she could work on my folk remedies somewhere else for a while. Said she’d come back some other time ta help replenish my stock.”
“And you didn’t ask where she was going?”
“Sure I asked, but she dint tell me. Said I would be tempted ta tell you if you tortured me or somethin’.”
He rolled his eyes at the torture notion. “I love her. I don’t know what I’ll do without her.” He couldn’t stop the tears that filled his eyes. It had been a day and a half filled with emotion, highs and lows, starting with the hospital yesterday morning. That seemed like eons ago.
Tante Lulu reached out and squeezed his forearm. “I do have one clue. I found it on the floor of my car.” She got up and went over to the counter where she picked up a folded piece of paper, then placed it in front of him.
He shoved the food aside and unfolded the paper. It was a receipt from a gynecologist’s office in Houma, dated yesterday. He frowned. “Why would Fleur have felt the need to go to a gynecologist yesterday?”
“Mebbe she wanted ta get some of them birth control pills.”
“Yesterday? In the midst of all the chaos at Bayou Rose?”
Tante Lulu shrugged. “There wasn’t so much chaos by then.”
Suddenly, he understood. “It’s because of the babies born yesterday morning. She told me a while ago that she probably couldn’t have children. I bet she went to a doctor to find out for sure.”
Tante Lulu nodded. “And the verdict musta been bad.”
“Oh, man! I can see it all now. I went on and on about the babies and how wonderful the experience was. I must have made her feel awful.”
The old lady narrowed her eyes at him. “Is that a deal breaker fer you? Havin’ yer own kiddies.”
“Of course not. Yeah, it would have been nice. But I’d rather have Fleur and no babies than another woman with a bunch of rug rats.” He ran his fingers through his hair. “This is a mess. A total hopeless godawful mess.”
“Hah!” Tante Lulu said.
“Now what?”
“You came ta the right place if yer feelin’ hopeless.”
I’ll second that, the voice in Aaron’s head said.
Beware of old ladies with plans . . .
It had been two weeks since Fleur left Bayou Rose, and she was miserable. It had been the right decision, she was convinced of that. But, oh, how she missed Aaron!
In fact, she missed Tante Lulu, too. And Aunt Mel. And all those people she had come to know so well in such a short time. Funny how sixteen years away from Bayou Black and she hadn’t missed her family, but a few weeks with those LeDeuxs and she’d been enfolded in their circle of love and friendship.
Fleur was staying with Sara Sue, babysitting while her sister worked a double shift at an area restaurant. Fleur had sworn to secrecy her whereabouts to both Sarie and her brother Mickey, the cop, whom she’d also reconnected with. Not that Aaron would think to look for her with them, but still, she wasn’t ready to meet him face-to-face. Her emotions were still too raw, and, frankly, she wasn’t strong enough to resist the man. Not yet. She would be later, though, she vowed. If nothing else, Fleur was a survivor.
It was true what they said about love meaning sometimes walking away. Real love had to be unselfish. Aaron was better off without her. Eventually he would find another woman to love, who could bear his children. It was for the best.
Even so, it was hard.
During the past two weeks, Fleur had learned that her youngest brother, Frankie, now seventeen, had joined the Navy. Another child, born after she’d left home sixteen years ago, had died of a drowning. Her sister Lizzie, the one with Down Syndrome, had also died of some congenital heart condition; she would have been twenty-three by now. That left her older siblings, Joe Lee, Eustace, Gloria, and Jimmy.
Why was it that some people could pop out babies so indiscriminately, and then others couldn’t have even one? She swiped at her eyes and stared at the notepad in front of her. She’d jotted down a few questions related to the folk remedy book she was working on. After finally getting both Jason, the toddler, and Miriam, the baby, down for a nap, she was preparing to call Tante Lulu. Fleur hadn’t even given Tante Lulu her phone number, but she did promise to call every day at two p.m. to check in. It was that time now.
She scrolled down the contact list on her new phone and tapped Tante Lulu’s number.
“Hallo!”
“Tante Lulu? It’s me. Fleur.”
“I know that, sweetie. How are you?”
“Okay. I have a few questions for you. It’s hard for me to read some of the writing on these pages.”
Tante Lulu laughed. “MawMaw had terrible penmanship and she couldn’t spell worth a darn.” She proceeded to answer all of Fleur’s questions, then added, “I need ta pay you fer yer work so far. Where kin I send a check?”
Fleur had to smile at the blatant deviousness of the old lady. She hadn’t told Tante Lulu where she was staying, although she might have suspicions. “You can pay me next time I see you, and I’ll print out all the pages I have so far for you to proofread.” Actually, Fleur really could use the money. The five hundred dollars Mother Jacinta had given her when she left the convent was almost gone. She would need to find a job, even if she did go to college, as she planned.
“Well, see, you kin do that real soon. The baby shower is this Saturday at two o’clock, and yer gonna be there. I mean it, girl, I expect you ta come.”
Fleur felt bad that she hadn’t been there to help the old lady clean up her cottage following the break-in or to help her plan her big bash. And it would be big. A shower for multiple women in her family: Samantha, who had already had her twins, and Charmaine, Sylvie, Val, Rachel, and Celine, who were due to deliver in a few weeks.
“I’ve never even met most of these women. They won’t expect me to be there.”
“Oh, they’re expectin’ you, all right.”
That sounded ominous. “Why?”
“’Cause yer my associate. Besides, me and Mel need you ta come early ta help set everything up. You doan expect women the size of whales with swollen feet ta do any hard work, do ya?”
The guilt trip now! “Where’s this shindig going to be held?”
Tante Lulu paused before answering, “Bayou Rose.”
“Oh, no. No, no, no!”
“Now, girl, it’s jist gonna be us wimmen there. The men are gonna get t’gether over at the Swamp Shack. If yer worried about Aaron bein’ there, doan be frettin’. If he ain’t drunk outta his mind, or cussin’, or cryin’, he’s off ta Dallas helpin’ them Street Apostles.”
“Crying?”
“Mebbe not cryin’, but he’s sorta sad. Mostly mad.”
“What’s he doing with the Street Apostles?”
“I doan know. Mebbe he’s gonna become a priest, fer all I know. He stopped talkin’ ta me after I called him a cranky ass. Yer makin’ a mistake, y’know.”
“About what?”
“’Bout everything. I keep tellin’ people they gotta stop thinkin’ they kin plan their futures without help from Above. You know what they say? Let Go, Let God. Thass what you need ta do, girl.”
“Oh, Tante Lulu! You don’t understand.”
“I understand more than you think I do. Do you still have that St. Jude statue I gave you fer yer purse?”
“I do, along with the medal, and the prayer card, and—”
“Anyways, come over ’bout one o’clock. That’ll give us plenty of time ta talk and help Mel with the decorations and such.”
“I am not ready for this.”
“Yer ready if I say yer ready.”
After Fleur ended the call, she just stared into space. Maybe she was ready. Connecting with Tante Lulu and the women would be a first step. Maybe later, much later, she would be able to talk to Aaron. But by then, it might not be necessary. He would probably have moved on by then.
Yes, she would do this. And it would be fun.
She could swear she heard laughter in her head.
It wasn’t the God squad . . . it was the LeDeux squad . . . almost the same! . . .
Louise Rivard had called for a pow-wow of all the LeDeux family for Saturday morning at Bayou Rose. Oh, they would be long gone by the time Fleur arrived, but there was much to be planned before that.
Sitting at either end of the huge kitchen table were her and Aaron. Along either side were Luc, René, Remy, Tee-John, Daniel, Charmaine, Sylvie, Val, Rachel, Celine, and Mel. Rusty was outside playing ball with some of the kids and the animals. Samantha was at the hospital visiting the twins who hadn’t been released yet.
“First off, wear a nice suit, and ditch the cowboy boots,” Louise advised Aaron.
“What’s wrong with my boots?” Aaron asked.
“I think he should wear a T-shirt and jeans,” Charmaine said. “Tight jeans. You have a nice butt, Aaron.”
“I heard that,” Rusty yelled from outside.
“Better yet, wear nothing at all,” Tee-John said.
“Works for me,” Luc agreed.
Sylvie elbowed Luc in the side.
“What?” Luc asked.
“Behave,” she warned.
“Maybe Aaron didn’t misbehave enough,” Daniel remarked.
“Like you’re an expert on misbehavior!” Aaron scoffed at his brother. “Some people say you invented uptightness.”
“Who?” Daniel pretended to appear offended.
“Everyone!” was the communal response from all present, except for Louise. She didn’t see anything wrong with a little uptightness. “I still say we should have planned a Cajun Village People act out front for when Fleur arrives, and Aaron could be coming down the front steps—”
“—wearing nothing but his boots,” Tee-John finished for her.
Louise rapped Tee-John on the knuckles with her notepad. She’d been making a list of everything that needed to be done for the “Fleur Seduction Project,” her name for today’s event.
“Now for the food. Did you bring the raw oysters, Charmaine?”
Charmaine nodded.
“How do I know if Fleur even likes raw oysters?” Aaron remarked.
“For a man who’s bein’ helped by his family, you sure are soundin’ ungrateful,” Louise remarked.
“I should be doing this myself.”
“How’s that workin’ fer you so far, boy?” Tante Lulu inquired sweetly.
Aaron blushed and ducked his head.
“Well, if she does like raw oysters, I suggest a batch of oyster shooters. You got any bourbon in this house?” This from René, whose band played in enough bars on the bayou that specialized in that potent drink. A raw oyster with tabasco sauce in one shot glass which was downed in one long swallow followed by another shot glass filled with one hundred proof bourbon. Yum!
“Or you could offer her some of Sylvie’s love potion jelly beans. They worked on me.” Luc waggled his eyebrows at his wife.
“You said that you fell for me long before you scarfed off my chemical experiment,” Sylvie said. Sylvie was a chemist who once invented an honest-to-God love potion that she put in jelly beans.
“It was a combination of both, darlin’,” Luc said diplomatically.
“I brought the bouquet of white roses,” Val interjected.
“I fixed the sound system so Fleur will be able to hear Barry Manilow songs playing the minute she gets out of her car,” René said, “though why anyone would want to listen to that crap is beyond me.”
“Hey!” Mel said.
“Oops! I meant to say that Barry would be serenading Fleur with sweet music in case Aaron doesn’t have the words to say how he really feels,” René amended.
“How do you really feel?” Daniel asked his brother.
“Bite me,” Aaron replied. Under his breath, Aaron muttered, “This is a goat fuck waiting to happen.”
Louise overheard. “Yer not so big I cain’t soap out yer mouth.”
After that, conversation swirled around recent and upcoming events. Yes, there would be an actual baby shower for the six women. Next week.
Mel reported that all of the rescued girls had been taken care of in one way or another, and that included the ones who had been taken to the convent in Mexico, according to Mother Jacinta. There was still some flak over local and federal authorities investigating the circumstances surrounding the rescues, but thus far no connection had been made with the Magdas or the Street Apostles. No one seemed too concerned.
Aaron said that Brother Brian and Brother Jake were already talking about a new mission, this time in the Philippines, of all places. He wasn’t sure if he would be involved or not because of the distance and pilot licensing issues.
Daniel told them that he and Samantha would be bringing the babies home next week. With the help of Aunt Mel and a daytime nanny, they figured they could handle the boys themselves. Louise had seen the little critters at the hospital and they were adorable. She was already thinking ahead to the day when they would need their own hope chests. She might not be around that long, but she would make sure they got them anyhow, in her will, maybe.
She couldn’t wait for all the other babies to be born, too. It was a glorious time. A blessed time.
Daniel also informed them that he and Samantha would be moving to Baton Rouge in two months. After that, Aaron would be on his own here. Or not, depending on today’s events.
Finally, everyone had gone, except for Charmaine and Rusty, who were waiting for her in the driveway out front, and Aaron, of course. All the vehicles were gone, even Aaron’s truck which had been parked out near the sugarcane fields, out of view.
“So, are you ready?” she asked Aaron.
“I will be.”
“I have somethin’ fer you.”
“What?” he asked suspiciously as she reached a hand into her big carry bag. He backed up a step.
What did he think, that she was going to pull out a snake or something? Instead, she handed him a velvet box.
“What’s this?”
“Remember how I allus tol’ you boys, when you were back in Alaska, that I had a gift fer you from yer grandmother.”
Aaron nodded. “You gave Daniel a ring from Grandmother Doucet before he married Samantha.”
“And this one is from yer Great-Grandmother Chaussin, from the other side of yer fam’ly. It’s not the usual kind of engagement ring, and the stone is small, and the setting’s kinda old-fashioned, but I think it’s nice.”
Aaron opened the box to see a pale blue stone in a filigreed silver setting, maybe platinum. A few tiny diamonds circled the stone. Aaron didn’t know much about jewelry, but he liked this ring. He thought it would suit Fleur. If she would accept it.
He hugged Tante Lulu and said, through a choked voice, “I love you, you old bat. You know that, don’t you?”
“Of course,” she answered matter-of-factly. “Now, go say a quick prayer ta St. Jude and get ready.”
Then Aaron was alone.
And he did pray.
Sometimes being punk’d isn’t all that bad . . .
Fleur was driving Sarie’s twenty-year-old Volvo, which was on its last legs, when it gave up the fight. At the bottom of the horseshoe-shaped driveway leading to Bayou Rose. So much for horseshoes and good luck!
At least she hadn’t broken down some distance away and at least it was a balmy day, not too hot. And at least she was dressed for the weather in the same white sundress of Charmaine’s, the one covered with bright red peonies that had been hanging in Tante Lulu’s closet, not the coral one she’d borrowed later. And at least she wore flat-heeled white sandals, no stockings, for her short trek to the house.
She would have to call a towing service. Fortunately, she should be getting some money from Tante Lulu today, in payment for her work. Otherwise, she probably couldn’t afford even the tow, let alone any repairs.
She took out the reusable grocery bag that held her wallet and the paperwork for Tante Lulu’s project, along with a bunch of wrapped gifts for the shower. Nothing expensive, of course. Just hand-painted enamel Christmas ornaments for babies that she’d found in a boutique. They could be monogrammed with a marker later with the babies’ names and birth dates. She’d already filled them in for David and Andrew LeDeux.
As she walked up the driveway toward the mansion, she noticed something strange. There were no cars. None at all.
Did I get the date wrong?
No, I’m sure Tante Lulu said Saturday. Come early at one, she’d said. The shower will be at two.
Oh, well, maybe Tante Lulu and Mel had run to the store for some last-minute necessity.
She walked through the ground-floor corridor leading past the storage rooms, the laundry, and then into the kitchen, which was spotless, and empty. That was odd. Where was all the food for a party? She peeked into the fridge and saw a platter of raw oysters on ice and some picky-type sandwiches, both covered with plastic wrap, but nothing that would do for a large gathering.
They must be having the event catered, and were forced to go pick up the food themselves for some reason, she concluded.
But why didn’t they leave a note for me?
Because I’m not that important to this party, that’s why. They would have had other things, and people, on their minds.
Then she noticed something else. No animals. Even the bird was quiet. Hmmm.
Fleur walked out the back door. All quiet. Too quiet.
Walking around the side toward the St. Jude birdfeeder shrine thingee, she stopped in her tracks.
Oh. My. God! And that was a prayer on her part.
Aaron was sitting on a bench, facing the statue. He was wearing a dark suit with a white dress shirt and a red tie. And those ridiculous cowboy boots. Which looked new. And they were red! He was sitting with his legs spread, elbows on his knees, chin propped on his fists, deep in thought, or prayer, or something.
“Aaron?” she exclaimed before she had a chance to catch herself and perhaps sidle away without his knowing she was even here. But then, she had no car for a getaway. Hard to make a quick exit when hoofing it.
He stood abruptly, almost knocking over the stone statue pedestal of the bird feeder. “Fleur! I didn’t hear your car.”
“It broke down at the end of the driveway.” She cocked her head to the side. “What’s going on, Aaron? Where is everyone?”
Aaron shifted from foot to foot.
“You look nice, Fleur,” he remarked. “Is that a new dress?”
Pfff! How like a man! This was the second time he’d seen her in this dress. But she didn’t bother to point that out. She was too busy trying not to notice how handsome he looked . . . even with red boots.
What kind of man wears red boots? she asked herself.
One who’s up to no good, she decided.
“Oh, hell! I’m not good at playing games,” he told her when she didn’t respond to his compliment. “Not this kind of game anyhow.”
“Games?” Definitely no good!
“Yeah, you’ve been punked. Sort of.”
“What do you mean?”
“This was a setup.”
She wasn’t so much angry or even surprised as she was panicked by this news. “By you?”
“By everyone. Masterminded by you-know-who, but everyone in the family got involved. Butted in, actually,” he revealed, with disgust.
She didn’t want to ask what he meant by “everyone,” but she suspected that she was going to be embarrassed around a whole lot of people, most of them with the surname LeDeux.
“Why?”
“Isn’t it obvious? So you and I could be alone.” He dropped down to one knee and took a small box out of his pocket.
“Oh no! Get up, Aaron.” She took a hold of his arm, trying to make him stand, to no avail.
He wouldn’t budge. “Hear me out, Fleur. C’mon, sit down here and just listen.”
What choice did she have? The image came to her, again, of her trotting, conspicuously, down the driveway, and along the several miles of lonesome road to the nearest gas station, where she could use her last five dollars to call a cab. She sank down to the bench.
But Aaron remained on one knee before her.
“What if I found out that you had cancer, Fleur? Do you think I would leave you?”
“I don’t have cancer, Aaron. And I’m not about to die,” she answered with exasperation.
“Precisely,” he countered, as if he’d just scored a point.
When she didn’t concede, his shoulders slumped and he went on, “Here’s a hypothetical for you. Suppose you and I were a couple—don’t interrupt—I need to get this out, my way. Suppose we were in love—a couple—and you found out that I was sterile. Sit down or I’m gonna tie you down. Anyhow, suppose I was sterile from some holdover from childhood mumps, which I incidentally never had. Just sayin’. Or suppose my sterility was the result of some battle injury, like it was with Remy. Would you have dumped me because I couldn’t give you any kids?”
Fleur closed her eyes for a moment as pain struck her heart. He knew. Somehow, Aaron knew. “Of course not,” she answered, “but this is different.”
“How, Fleur? How is this different?”
“Will you get up? I can’t talk to you when you’re kneeling.”
“It’s only a one-leg drop down, not a kneel, and I’m not getting up until I get my answer.”
“What answer? To why it’s different?”
“No, to the other question. The big one.”
She blinked away the tears that burned her eyes. “Don’t do this, Aaron,” she whispered on a moan.
“Will you marry me, Fleur? Will you be my wife and share your life with me? For better or for worse, and believe me, I would be getting the better end of the bargain, please, please, say yes.”
She went down on her knees in front of him. “But—”
“No buts.” He took the ring out of the box and slid the ring on her finger. “There isn’t anything we can’t work through if we love each other enough. I’ll love you through your baby issues. You’ll love me through my issues. Have I mentioned that I snore, and I’m really stubborn sometimes, and my boots stink when I wear them without socks, and I’m inordinately attached to my twin brother, so if you take me, you get him, too, and, boy, if you think I’m a pain in the ass, you should see—”
“Yes.”
Is it as simple as that? All this grief and angst these past two weeks, and a mere mention of reversed roles, and I succumb?
“—how much he interferes in my life. To be honest, I butt into his affairs, too. But . . . yes? Did you say yes?”
She looked down at the beautiful ring on her finger, then nodded.
He said nothing.
At first, she didn’t want to look up because he would see how tears were streaming from her eyes. She felt like such a fool.
When she finally raised her head to look at him she saw why he was remaining quiet. Tears filled his eyes, too, and he was gulping to hold them back.
“Oh, Fleur, I love you so much.”
“I love you, too, Aaron. I tried not to, but I couldn’t help myself.”
“Good thing you gave in because I’m pretty sure Tante Lulu was going to bring the entire gang back to serenade you with a Cajun Village People act until you agreed.”
“What?”
“Oh, I forgot to turn on the sound system. You were supposed to hear Barry Manilow bellowing over the bayou when you got out of your car. Some romantic I am! Should I go turn it on now? No? Did you notice my boots? I bought them just for you. Well, for me, to seduce you. That’s the name of the boots. Yeah, some boots have names. These are ‘Seducible You’ by Sexy Leather Goods. I’m sorry. I’m talking too much. I am just too damn happy!”
Which caused her to burst out crying, again.
And then he was kissing her tears away, looking at her in wonder, then hugging her tight, as if he wouldn’t ever let her go, then kissing and hugging her some more. Not surprisingly, they fell over onto the grassy plot.
But then, Aaron sat up abruptly and pulled her up beside him. “I’m sorry, darlin’, but I can’t make love to you in front of St. Jude. It just seems perverted.”
“And perverted bothers you all of a sudden?”
“Well, yeah.”
“Aaron, perverted would be if I dressed up like a nun and did a strip tease in front of the statue.”
“Hmm,” he said with a laugh.
“Do you think St. Jude had anything to do with us getting back together?”
Aaron took her hand and was about to lead her toward the house. “I wouldn’t be surprised. I was getting pretty hopeless.”
“So was I.”
It might have been a flicker of sunlight, but it looked as if the statue winked at them.