by Lexi Blake
Sera couldn’t afford either. She couldn’t afford renting a room somewhere, not that she would because she wanted Luc to have something more than a bathroom down the hall. “It works to stay with Mom and Zep. It cuts way down on the need for day care. I tend to work days and Zep works nights. He’s surprisingly good with Luc, though I worry he’s already trying to teach him how to charm the ladies. He might be actively using Luc to help him pick up women. Wow, I’m basically a walking stereotype. Twenty-five years old, living at home. Single mom in a small town. Barely finished high school. Can’t seem to keep a job.”
“Hey, you’ve been at Miss Marcelle’s for six months,” Hallie pointed out. “You’ve settled in real nice there.”
“And you get your hair done in Houma.” That fact had not been lost on Sera.
Hallie blushed. “Well, I’ve been going to Darlene for years. It would be rude to ditch her now.”
Sylvie held a hand up. “And my momma would be real upset if I didn’t go to her. Black girl hair right here.”
Sera wasn’t all that great with white girl hair, either. She hadn’t expected Sylvie would be a client. After all, her mom—Miss Marcelle—did run the salon.
Hallie had complained about Darlene and her overuse of the scissors for years, but Sera simply sighed because she didn’t blame her friend. The truth was she wasn’t good at her job. She could do a serviceable haircut, but she wasn’t all that creative. She pretty much offered everyone highlights, and that was all she had. “Yeah, well, I do more cleanup than I do styling these days. I’m not very good. I don’t have a passion for it. I tried but the only people who still come in and ask for me are Lisa and her sister Lila. My clientele has become mostly men, and they stare at my boobs. Marcelle ran one out last week.”
“I heard she chased him out with a broom because that was how she took out the trash,” Hallie said.
Sylvie frowned, an expression Sera had seen her friend use on the most annoying of constituents. “Momma was so upset,” Sylvie added. “She tried to get the sheriff to track that jackass down. Then she tried to get me to make a city ordinance, since I am the mayor. I had to explain to her that grabbing a woman’s ass is already illegal and we don’t need an extra law.”
It hadn’t been a great day. Sera had been left in tears after that jerk had hit on her. “He grabbed my butt and asked if I did private haircuts. When did I become this girl?”
Hallie turned to look at her. “What girl?”
“The bad girl. The one men think they can play around with until the one they marry comes along.” It hadn’t been like she’d had a bad reputation in school. She’d dated Ben Reed for three years until he’d gone off to college and hadn’t come back. She’d never cheated on him, though he hadn’t liked Wes hanging around all the time. She’d made one mistake and it looked like she would pay for it forever.
Sylvie’s eyes had gone soft and sympathetic. “You aren’t that girl. No one really is. Men are jerks. At least a lot of them are. Most of them can’t see what’s standing right in front of them because they’re always looking off at something in the distance.”
“Oh, I think it’s more than that.” Hallie leaned against her car. “You want to talk about this? Because I avoid this subject like the plague, but I have thoughts.”
Sylvie stared Hallie’s way. “Hey, she’s had a day.”
Hallie shook her head. “Nope. If she’s ready to talk, then we should talk. You know it.”
Was Sera ready? If she wasn’t by now, she wouldn’t ever be.
“You think I should have told everyone who Luc’s father is.” She knew it bugged the hell out of her best friend that she wouldn’t tell her the secret.
“I think whoever Luc’s daddy is needs to step up, and it would go a long way to quiet down the rumors,” Hallie said.
Sera knew what the rumors were. “I’ve never slept with a married man. I told you. It didn’t even happen here. It happened when I was in Baton Rouge.”
“It shouldn’t matter,” Sylvie insisted. “It’s Sera’s business and no one else’s.”
“Don’t be naive. You grew up here, too. This is a small town and an oil town,” Hallie pointed out. “You know how the wives can be. They’re very territorial. When you find a man who can take care of you, you protect your marriage. At least that’s the way these women work. You remember when the company sent out a single female engineer? They went crazy. The woman literally made twice what their pot-bellied, middle-aged husbands made and they thought she was going to steal one of them. Like she spent four years at Texas A&M getting a degree in petroleum engineering so she could steal a rigger from the arms of his wife.”
That poor young woman had had a time of it, and she’d hauled herself right back to a nice cushy job in Houston the minute she’d been able to. Sera didn’t have anywhere to go. “I’ve never dated a married man. I’ve barely dated at all. I turn down almost everyone who asks me. I liked Jackson.”
Hallie sighed. “Yeah, I did, too, until he turned out to be an ass. I wish I’d never introduced you to him. He seemed like such a nice man.”
She’d learned some guys were good at hiding their intentions. “I’m sure he’s great with Johnny. He was great with me until I wanted to get serious.”
Sera, you can’t think this is going anywhere. I want to get into management. I know it sounds stupid, but wives can make or break a career here. You would break mine. But we can have some fun.
“I didn’t like that man,” Sylvie said. “He was pretty and all, but he had my jerk alarm going off. Sera, you can’t let a man like that take you out of the game.”
“It’s not just him.” She blinked back tears, pushing the humiliation down. “You would think in this day and age that no one would care. I’m not the only single mom around here. It’s like I’m wearing a scarlet letter.”
“But it wouldn’t be if you would fess up about who Luc’s dad is,” Hallie insisted.
No, if she told who Luc’s daddy was, the town might explode. And according to Angie, she might lose custody of her son. “I don’t remember his name. It was a crazy night and I can’t even regret it because I love Luc.”
Would things be different if she moved? She looked up at the house she’d loved since she was a child and realized this might be what her aunt had wanted. For her to leave Papillon behind and start all over again. If she moved to Houston or New Orleans, no one would care that they didn’t know who her baby’s father was. She would be one more anonymous woman trying to make her way in the world.
Though it made her heart ache, she might have to sell this place. Not might. She knew what she had to do. There would be no gorgeous B and B where she served muffins and planned weddings, where Luc ran wild all over the bayou. She would have to take everything they could get out of this place, move to the city, find an apartment and a job she would likely hate, and survive.
“There’s nothing wrong with you.” Sylvie was always a positive voice in her life. Despite everything she’d been through, somehow Sylvie always saw that silver lining. “It’s their problem.”
“It will get easier.” Hallie sighed as though she knew she’d gotten everything she was going to get.
“Will it?” There were things Sera hadn’t considered. “Or will it get worse as Luc grows up? Will everyone be watching to see if they can see their husband in my kid’s face? How will they treat him?”
Hallie’s eyes went wide. “They won’t be nasty to Luc. I can’t believe they will. You’ve got friends. No one is freezing you out. It’s just the stuff with Jackson that’s bringing it all back. And who cares what those crazy women think. Once you meet someone great and settle in, they won’t see you as a threat. Right now you’re a gorgeous blonde who does yoga every Wednesday. It’s intimidating when you’ve got three kids and a husband who’s gone most of the time. You’ll see. Now, I know I made a mistake with Jackso
n, but I was thinking . . .”
Sera put her hands up. “Absolutely not. I’m done dating. I’m going to work on this house and try to figure out where to go from there. No more men.”
She gasped as something moved behind Hallie. The overgrown bushes shook and she could hear the sound of leaves rustling. Sylvie backed up.
Hallie turned and grabbed her arm. “What is that? Is it a gator? I heard rumors that Irene had them trained to attack. She found them as babies and raised an army.”
Sylvie snorted. “I could see that happening.”
Her aunt hadn’t been the mother of gators, but they were close to the water. It certainly wasn’t unheard of for something scaly with big teeth to lumber through the area.
“Okay, we’ll get in my car.” Sylvie touched the button on her keys and there was a chirping sound as it unlocked.
They were closer to the car than the house. If it was a gator, he would mostly just hiss and look scary, but it was never a good idea to hang out with one. Unless it was Otis, but he stayed closer to the wharf.
The bush rustled again and a big creature rushed out, but Sera relaxed. Normally the sight of a German shepherd running her way would scare her, too, but this one had the goofiest, happiest look on his face. His tongue was hanging out and his tail wagging like he’d been playing a game and he’d won.
“Hey, boy.” Sera got down on one knee.
Sylvie breathed a sigh of obvious relief. “I’ll take dog over gator any day. I know I’ve lived here most of my life, but I will never get used to massive reptiles running toward me.”
Hallie took a step back. “That’s a big dog you don’t know.”
Hallie obviously didn’t speak dog the way Sera did. The big guy scampered up and treated her like an old friend. “Nah, this is a sweet boy. And he’s got a collar.”
Sylvie reached out to give the dog a pet. “He’s a pretty boy. Or girl.”
She was betting this was a boy. “What are you doing out here, buddy? Did you get lost?”
“No, but I might have,” a deep voice said. “And he’s a boy. You can tell from the way he finds every woman he can and tries to get her to pet him.”
She looked up and into the eyes of Harry Jefferys. Gorgeous, stunning Harry. He was more casual than he’d been yesterday, wearing a tank that molded to his muscular frame and showed off beautifully sculpted arms. He’d traded the jeans for basketball shorts and boots for sneakers. She stopped at the sight of metal where his right leg should have been. The shorts were long, covering his knees, but there was a metal rod in the place of his calf, ending in a sneaker. He had pulled the ear buds out of his ears and they dangled around his neck.
He glanced down to his leg. “Sorry. I wasn’t expecting to meet anyone out here. We were going for a run. Shep, you should leave the nice ladies alone. Again, sorry, he’s never met a stranger. I also don’t have a leash. I didn’t think I needed one out here. I thought I was still on my aunt’s land.”
It was so good he’d reminded her who he was. He was far more than a hot bod and a face to die for. He was a Beaumont. Oh, maybe not in name, but he was Celeste Beaumont’s kin and that meant they were on opposite sides. She straightened up. “No, you’re on my land now.”
Sylvie grinned. “Ooo, you said that like a lady boss, Seraphina. My land. I like that.”
Harry put his hands on his hips as he surveyed the house. “Yeah, Cal mentioned you’d recently come into some property. You should get it fixed up before they appraise it. It looks like you’ve got a couple of areas to work on.”
For some reason his comments stung. She wasn’t sure why since she didn’t care what he thought. “Thank you for pointing it out to me, Mr. Jefferys. I will be sure to do that. And you’re more than welcome to run through here if you need to. We don’t have fences up for a reason.”
She bet Celeste would be putting one up the minute she found out who her new neighbor was, though.
“But you should look out for traps,” Hallie said.
Harry looked back at her. “Excuse me?”
“There are no traps.” The last thing Sera needed was parish inspectors coming out to make sure her aunt hadn’t left a bunch of traps in the woods for tourists to run into. Sera had gotten all of them. She hoped. If Harry mentioned that to Celeste, she might get to thinking about creative ways to make her life hell.
“That’s only a rumor,” Sylvie explained. “Irene Guidry was what we like to call a character. She was kind of isolated, but she was a lovely soul.”
Yes, there was Sylvie’s positivity. And Irene would have been far more likely to take a shot at someone she considered an intruder. She’d kept her trusty shotgun with her all the time. She’d even refused to go into a nursing home at the end because her shotgun hadn’t been welcome. Or at least that had been her excuse. Sera rather thought she’d simply wanted to die in her own home. Irene hadn’t liked to go into town much. She’d been happiest here where she’d grown up and lived all her life.
Had she been afraid to get out and see the world? It was funny because Sera was afraid she wouldn’t get to stay. She didn’t want to leave. She loved this place, but it was starting more and more to look like staying wasn’t a good idea.
“Seriously, I don’t joke about things like traps or mines.” Harry frowned her way. “How do you think I lost this leg?”
“I’m so sorry. I didn’t realize,” Sylvie offered, the politician in her trying to smooth things over.
Hallie turned a shade of pink no human being ever should. “I’m so sorry. It was a joke.”
Harry’s lips curled up in the most spectacular smile. That smile could light up a room. Maybe a whole house. “I was, too. I heard a bunch of stories about this place. You’re all crazy, but that doesn’t scare me. I like a little crazy.”
Sera took a breath. At least they hadn’t completely offended the man. “I was worried you had lost your leg to a mine.”
“I did,” he replied. “Blew it right off, but the good news is I can’t lose much more of it, and I would bet any mines your great-aunt could get here aren’t as bad as the ones I came up against in Afghanistan. I’ll try to make sure if I step on one, I only lose the prosthesis. It’s surprisingly replaceable and they’re always innovating. I wouldn’t mind checking out the new ones. I have my eye on a sweet new C-Leg. Besides, Shep here used to sniff out mines and munitions. He’s pretty good. I know I wish he’d been with me that day.”
“I’m so sorry.” Sera needed to be nicer to the man. Just because he was Celeste Beaumont’s nephew didn’t make him a bad person. “We shouldn’t joke about things like that.”
“Hey, if I can’t laugh about it now, why did it happen?” He’d moved in closer to her, and though there was still at least a foot of space between them, she swore she could practically feel the heat from his body. He’d been running and a fine sheen covered his skin. It did nothing to make him less attractive. “I have a whole repertoire of one-legged jokes. Well, it’s really more like one and a half. I still have my knee and the thigh. I have some spectacular scars. Does the leg bug you? I normally wear full-length pants.”
She found everything about the man fascinating, but then she thought he probably got that a lot. “The leg doesn’t bother me. I’m sorry I stared. I haven’t seen one like that before. My brother has a couple of friends with prostheses. He was in the Navy.”
Harry smiled again. “He was a SEAL. He was the Navy. Yeah, I talked to him yesterday. He seems like a great guy.”
“Remy’s the best,” Hallie said, staring at him like he was a rock star and she was a twelve-year-old girl with a crush. “And thank you for your service.”
Harry nodded her way, but Sylvie was muttering something under her breath about marriage, to which Hallie again reminded everyone her eyes still worked.
If Harry was bothered by the shenanigans, he didn’t sho
w it. “Are you going inside? You should take an inventory first. Did the lawyer do that for you?”
“No, and knowing what Quaid charges per hour, I’m glad he didn’t,” she explained. “It was a real simple will. She had items for my mom and my brothers, but everything else came to me. I feel like I’m being selfish.”
“You took care of her,” Sylvie said softly. “You were the one who visited her and made sure she had food.”
“And dealt with those cats.” Hallie wrinkled her nose. “Did anyone clean up all that kitty litter or did you inherit that, too?”
Oh, she’d dealt with it. “The cats are in happy homes. And luckily my brothers feel the way y’all do.” It was time to make her retreat. She turned to Harry. “Like I said, you are more than welcome to run through here. Now I need to go inside and make a few lists. It was nice to see you again.”
“If you would like, I could come in with you,” Harry offered. “Old houses like this are a hobby of mine. I might be helpful. Why don’t you let me see inside, Seraphina?”
When his voice went low like that, her mind went a little blank. If he’d only been gorgeous, she could have dismissed him, but he was charming, too. And Remy had talked about him after the funeral, telling her stories of how he’d earned his medals while he served his country.
But he was connected to the Beaumont family and that meant he was off limits. Totally and completely, full stop.
She held her notepad up like it was a shield. “I wouldn’t want to take up your time. Thank you. Good afternoon, Mr. Jefferys. Hallie, Sylvie, I’ll be inside if you want to come in. If not, thanks so much for coming out here with me.”
She didn’t look back as she started toward the porch. The sooner she got this place ready to sell, the better.
* * *
