Butterfly Bayou

by Lexi Blake

  “Really?” There was a wealth of skepticism in her sister’s tone.

  She didn’t have to lie about this. “Absolutely. From my brief stay here I’ve figured out that everyone in this town is nuts and they need an adult at the helm.”

  Lisa pointed her way and Lila had the bad feeling she’d stepped into a trap. “There it is. That’s what you can’t do here. You can’t walk in here and act like you know everything.”

  “I’m not acting. I do know everything.” She couldn’t resist poking her sister.

  Lisa shook her head. “I know you’re smart and good at your job, but you’re not in an ER now. You’re going to be the main source for healthcare for the whole parish. We’re isolated. These people need you, and I’m worried if you put them off, they won’t come and see you. I’ve already heard some rumors that people don’t understand what an NP is.”

  She shrugged. “They’ll learn or they’ll go without. Like you said, I’m the only game in town. They can’t stay away forever. When they get sick they’ll come and see me.”

  It seemed like a pretty simple thing. She would explain her education and training to them and they would understand. If they didn’t want to see a female practitioner, there wasn’t a lot she could do about that. She’d been assured that Doc Hamet would happily hand over his patients, and part of that had to be getting them ready for the transition. According to her new nurse, she had a full afternoon tomorrow. Three physicals, two follow-ups, a well-baby exam, and there would surely be a couple of walk-ins. All in all it sounded busy for a sleepy little clinic.

  Her business was going to be the center of her world. It would be her baby.

  “I hope it works like that. Sometimes the people here can be stubborn about change. Be patient with them,” Lisa said. “Are you sure you’re completely done with Brock?”

  Her ex-fiancé was in her rearview mirror. Like the rest of her life in Dallas. “Like I said, I figured out he wasn’t the one. I knew I didn’t love him. I guess I thought I should get married. It was like checking something off a list. Go to college. Get a job. Get married. I’m sure if I’d done it I would have scheduled sex and built a family plan.”

  “I know that sounds like the way to do it, but it’s not. You have to let some spontaneity in. You can’t plan love.”

  “Well, I don’t intend to plan love. It wasn’t love with Brock.” She’d never been in love, wasn’t sure she was capable of the emotion. “I’m not planning on getting involved with anyone.”

  “That’s what I was afraid of. I’m going to ask you for a favor. I’ve done everything I can to make this transition easy, and you asked me if you could do anything to pay me back.”

  Lisa had done a lot to make this happen. She’d been the one to deal with the paperwork on the house and the inspectors. Her husband had put in his time, too. “Of course.”

  She had a little money left over. Not a ton, but she wouldn’t be surprised if Lisa needed a loan. The restaurant industry was infamously tough. It wouldn’t be a loan, though. She would never ask for it back.

  “Keep an open mind.”

  “What is that supposed to mean?”

  “It means you’re still checking things off that list,” Lisa explained. “It’s just that the list has changed. You went through something horrible and you’ve got a plan for how to get through it. Tell me your therapist didn’t mention a change of scenery.”

  Oh, she had. “I don’t think she meant for me to take it this far. She was talking about a vacation or a retreat for a couple of months.”

  “But you like to do things big,” Lisa pointed out. “Lila Daley doesn’t do anything halfway. You throw yourself in one hundred percent. You take over and get the job done, but this isn’t a job. This is your life, and I think you made the right choice coming here. I think if you’d stayed in Dallas, you would have eventually found another Brock and gotten back on your path. You might have changed hospitals, but you wouldn’t have essentially changed your life.”

  “I assure you my life changed.” She could barely sleep through the night without dreaming about it. “I didn’t need to do anything to have my entire life turned around but go to work and be in the wrong place at the wrong time. That was spontaneous.”

  “No.” Lisa shook her head vigorously. “That was planned. He’d planned to kill her for years, and you know it. That wasn’t your fault and I pray you figure that out soon or I worry you’ll let your life slip by and you won’t ever know the truth.”

  “What’s the truth?”

  Lisa leaned toward her, eyes shining. “That you are worthy of love, sister. That you deserve every bit of happiness you can find. That it’s time to let go, to find that person who can lift you up the way you always did for me and Laurel and Will. Somewhere along the way you forgot that you need support, too, and I’m going to be here for you.”

  Emotion welled hard and fast, but she shoved it down. This was too much after an already rough day. “How about you help me find something to eat in this town?”

  A smile lit up her sister’s face. “That I can do.”

  Lisa started talking about the new foods to try, and Lila prayed she got through the night. Tomorrow would be better. Tomorrow she could leave all the emotional crap behind and get to work.

  Tomorrow her new life began.

  * * *

  • • •

  Armie stalked into the station house, his stomach grumbling, but he’d promised Noelle he would stop eating greasy burgers and that was about all he could get at this time of the day. It wasn’t like he could eat a salad in his car. Not that he wanted to eat a salad.

  He bet Lila Daley ate a lot of salads. She had that I-think-about-my-cholesterol glow about her.

  Damn but he hadn’t been able to get that woman out of his head all afternoon.

  He needed intel. That was what had gone wrong today. He’d gone into battle without proper intel. He should have found out that the woman got irrationally angry about perfectly reasonable ticketing practices.

  “I can’t believe you gave her a ticket for going thirty miles over the speed limit.” Noelle looked up from the book she’d been reading. “Do you have any idea how much that is going to cost her? You’ll be lucky she doesn’t run you over the next time she sees you. You realize that woman is now in charge of your yearly physicals?”

  “I have to administer the law equally to everyone. I can’t favor the woman who’s going to take my blood pressure.”

  “How about the woman who can order your colonoscopy?”

  That made him stop. Another thing he hadn’t thought about. “She’s obviously a professional.” At least he hoped she was. A man’s colon was a sacred thing. A doctor knew that. “Our first meeting didn’t go as well as I thought it would, but there’s always next time. We have to work closely with the clinic. I’m sure I can find a reason to get over there soon.”

  “There’s a next time?” Noelle asked.

  He wasn’t going to get into this with his teenage daughter. “Don’t you have homework to do?”

  “I’m three weeks ahead of pacing.” She shut the lid to her laptop and wheeled herself from behind the desk.

  A junior. His baby girl was a junior in high school. Oh, sure, that high school was online, and she didn’t do what other girls her age were doing—like going on dates with boys and giggling with her friends at Friday night football games—but she was a junior.

  Had he made the wrong call by not sending her to a physical school? Had he made the right call letting her hang out at a station house most of the time?

  Being a parent sucked.

  “She’s doing great, Armie,” a familiar voice shouted across the floor. “She took her calculus quiz and got a ninety. Smart as a whip, that one.”

  He sighed and started toward the three cells at the back of the building. It was basically a dru
nk tank, or a place to hold a prisoner before the marshals came to get him. Or her. Except he rarely had female prisoners. Nope. He did have Zep Guidry. He pretty much always had Zep.

  “Do you do this to save on rent?” Not that Zep had rent. He was a twenty-four-year-old who still lived at his momma’s. If the kid wasn’t so good-looking, he’d be considered pathetic. Somehow those movie-idol looks of his kept the women coming even after they figured out he was the worst bet in the parish.

  “I love it here. It’s my happy place.” Zep sat back on the cot and crossed one long leg over the other. “This particular incarceration isn’t my fault. Look at me. I’m perfectly sober and I didn’t even get into a fight. What you are looking at is false arrest. I’m going to get an attorney this time.”

  The only attorney in town was Quaid Havery, and he might bail Zep out, but he was smart enough to know Zep had probably deserved it. There would be no help from that direction. “What did you do?”

  “He irritated Roxie.” Noelle moved in beside him. “She’s out back gassing up her vehicle. I don’t think it really needed it. I think she wanted to get away from Zep.”

  If she wanted to get away from him she shouldn’t have arrested him. There was an idea.

  Noelle frowned like she knew exactly what had gone through his head. “Dad, you are not going to arrest the new doc so she has to listen to you.”

  It had been worth a thought. “What’s he in for? And can we get rid of him before I have to feed him? He eats a lot, and the mayor told me I can’t put prisoners on bread and water.”

  “We don’t have any bread,” Noelle said helpfully. “We’ll have to order out.”

  “I’ll take the gumbo. Wait, we have to heat that up. Maybe a sandwich. Yeah, I’ll have a BLT. Tell my brother to not skimp on the bacon,” Zep said, like eating in lockup was an everyday occurrence.

  There were times when he wished his deputy hadn’t fallen hard for that idiot. Mostly those times were always. He could try to point out that Roxie was showing her affection by arresting him, but that could only make matters worse.

  “I’m not calling your brother.” He had plans for the night and they did not involve hanging out with a prisoner. Roxie was on nights this week, and he wasn’t going to leave those two alone. The world could explode. “What’s he really in for?”

  “Roxie pulled him over for ignoring a stop sign,” Noelle explained.

  “I paused,” Zep claimed. “Damn, man, there’s no one out there for me to hit. I like to think of that particular stop sign as more of a suggestion.”

  “Then, according to Roxie, he argued with her for twenty minutes, refused to take the ticket, and suggested that she shouldn’t be on patrol during her time of the month.” Noelle shook her head.

  Damn, he’d stepped into it. Still, Zep could cause trouble down the line if he ever did find a lawyer who would do more than try to get him out of his numerous parking tickets. Armie’s hands went to his keys and he stopped because he had wanted intel and Zep’s brother was married to Lila’s sister.

  He could use this.

  “Noelle, go ahead and put that order in,” he said. “I think I should talk to our friend here. Put him on the straight and narrow.”

  Noelle sighed and turned her chair around. “He’s going to grill you about Lila Daley. I’ll go see how much money’s in the emergency fund because I want some fries. You two should settle in because I’m having Roxie take me out there to pick up the order and we’re going to eat there because fries do not travel well.”

  “I’m actually kind of hungry now,” Zep started before he looked to Armie. “Or I can wait. I’m good.”

  It was nice to know his stare could still make a man think twice. Especially since it didn’t do anything to the women in his life.

  Zep made himself comfortable as Noelle went off to find Roxie. “So you’re interested in Lisa’s sister. You’ve come to the right place, my man. I’m kind of a love doctor.”

  He was absolutely certain if he wanted to have a skanky one-night stand and end up needing antibiotics or worse, Zep would be his go-to guy. “I only want to know what she’s like. I do not need advice. I saw her back at Remy and Lisa’s wedding. I was sitting at the table next to hers. I might have listened in. She seems funny and smart.”

  He wasn’t sure why, but she’d sparked his interest in a way no woman had in years.

  “Well, if you want my advice,” Zep began.

  “I just said I didn’t.”

  Zep was not listening. “You should find someone with less baggage. That girl has a ton of it.”

  “She’s a woman.”

  Zep shook his head. “According to Lisa, she’s kind of controlling. She also called me a moron more than once.”

  That was not a disqualifying characteristic for him. Zep was a moron at times. “Why did she decide to leave Dallas? Most people do the opposite.” Not a lot of kids stayed here in Papillon.

  He was damn lucky Noelle showed no signs of leaving. He wouldn’t be able to breathe with her out there. The last time she’d left the comforts of her home, she’d come to his in that wheelchair.

  That got Zep sitting up straight. “You didn’t hear about that?”

  He didn’t listen to gossip unless it was about an underground drug-running operation. “No. The only thing I’ve heard is that she had a high-profile job in Dallas and that she’s taking over for Doc. I’m not sure how great that’s going to work. I know she’s not married and she didn’t like Remy at one point in time, but I didn’t like him, either. He was an asshole for years.”

  “Preach, brother,” Zep agreed. “Remy treats me like I can’t do anything right.”

  He did not bother to mention the man was in jail. Zep Guidry wasn’t the most self-aware individual he knew. “So she decided to come to a tiny parish and take over the practice of a doctor whose patients could likely fill a mental ward?”

  Zep turned serious for a change. “Something happened. She had this friend named Maryanne she worked with at the hospital. Maryanne’s ex-husband walked in and shot her. He held Lila in a room until he was sure his ex was dead and then he shot himself. I think she’s coming here because it’s as far away from Dallas as she can handle.”

  Damn. “So she’s not looking for fun, huh?”

  Zep’s eyes found his, a gravity in them he wasn’t used to seeing. “No. She’s looking for something, though.”

  Peace. She would be looking for peace. The last thing she needed was some man trying to climb all over her.

  He pulled his keys out and made his decision. “You can go on home, man. Stay out of Roxie’s way. She’s a good woman.”

  Zep was on his feet in a heartbeat. “I never said she wasn’t.”

  “Treat her with some respect or you won’t be in that cell, you get my meaning?”

  “I do.”

  He let Zep head out and went to find his daughter and his deputy. He would take them all out for supper. They could take a radio and close up the station for an hour or so.

  The next time he saw Lila Daley, he would be polite, since he knew what it was like to survive hell.

  Now he only hoped she could survive Papillon.

  chapter three

  “Why would she cancel? It’s time for her yearly. It’s actually past time. She’s three months late.” Lila stared at her receptionist. The day was not going the way she’d planned.

  After getting next to no sleep, waking up to a ridiculously cold shower and finding the button closet—she should never have opened that door—she’d come to the clinic hoping to lose herself in work.

  What she’d found was apparently a full-on revolt.

  “Miss Armintage said she’d managed to make it forty-seven years without a woman touching her vagina and she intended to make it forty-seven more. She said it’s not natural.”

  L
ila shook her head. “A gynecological exam from a female isn’t natural? But a male doctor putting her in stirrups and shoving a speculum up to her cervix is?”

  Mabel shrugged. “Her words, not mine.”

  The door to the clinic opened and a woman walked in, her baby in a sling.

  “Hey there, Mabel.” She smiled as she reached the front desk and turned to Lila. “I’m here to see Doc. Hi, I’m Hallie Rayburn. We haven’t met yet. Are you taking over for Mabel? I hadn’t heard Mabel was retiring. Oh, she’s the best. You’ll have big shoes to fill.”

  It was becoming brutally obvious that Doc Hamet hadn’t mentioned her at all to his patients. Her patients. “I’m sorry. Doc Hamet is moving into more of an advisory role here at the clinic. I’m taking over. Mabel will stay on in her capacity assisting with the running of the clinic and helping me with patients.”

  Hallie’s eyes widened and she shook her head like she couldn’t quite believe the words she’d heard. “Seriously? But Doc’s been here for years. He delivered me. I thought he would deliver all my kids.”

  “Contrary to popular belief, the man’s not immortal. He’s getting on up there. He needed a younger person to take over his practice, so I’ll be delivering all the babies. Is this Gracie? I saw from her records that she had a little jaundice when she was born. Let’s see how that light therapy worked. Come on in the back.” She’d spent the morning going over files and making sure she was ready for her appointments. It was a total about-face from her previous job, where she put out fires all day. Literally, sometimes. Now she was the one who would prevent the fires from happening at all.

  Hallie took a step back, holding her baby close as though someone was going to snatch her. “I need to think about this. I don’t know anything about you. Is Doc here? Can I talk to him?”

  “No. He went fishing.” He hadn’t mentioned that to her, either. He’d simply handed her the keys, laughed maniacally, to her mind, and driven away. He’d promised to sign every report he needed to with the state—provided she filled them all out for him. She had the number for a GP two parishes over who would oversee her if she needed help.