by Lexi Blake
He was going to have to figure out the name thing. Nurse Daley did feel weird. “Lila doesn’t know what it’s like out here. She also had a friend who was abused by her husband.” He hesitated to say anything else. It was her story to tell. “I’m worried she’s seeing something that’s not there, but I think we should check it out just in case.”
“Absolutely,” Roxie agreed. “Also, it’s not like I have anything better to do. This is the most exciting thing that’s happened to me all week. Another reason I like it better here. Working SWAT in New York was not relaxing. I like the fact that the most workout my heart gets is when I do cardio.” She sat up. “Is that what we’re looking for?”
There was a dock up ahead, another flat-bottom boat moored to the side. The Petrie family relied heavily on boats.
“Yes, it is, and it looks like we won’t have to go looking for the house. Hello, Mrs. Petrie.”
A stern-looking woman stood on the dock, a shotgun by her side.
It was a testament to how she’d settled in that Roxie didn’t put a hand on her gun. It had been a habit he’d had to rid himself of when he’d come home. Out here, shotguns were a necessity of daily life.
“Sheriff. Deputy. What can I do for you?” Mrs. Petrie had steel-gray hair and a look that could freeze the balls off a man at forty paces.
He had to handle this properly. “I wanted to come out and check on your daughter-in-law. I heard she took a pretty hard fall.”
He couldn’t come out and ask the woman if her son was abusive.
Lorna Petrie frowned. “That girl is always falling or walking into something. She’s fine. We sent her to see Doc yesterday. He knows how clumsy she can be.”
“Didn’t you hear? Doc retired.” Roxie stepped out of the boat and tied it off with an expert hand. She’d learned how to handle a boat. It was required training out here. “We have a new person running the clinic.”
“Mabel?” Lorna turned on her heels and started back up toward the house. “She’s the only one left with any kind of medical training. I might as well send her to Miss Marcelle and see if her hoodoo can fix the problem.”
Armie stepped off carefully and followed behind. It was interesting that Carrie hadn’t mentioned she’d seen the new nurse practitioner. “No need. We’ve got a nurse practitioner working under Doc’s supervision.” A lie, but he would keep it up or they could lose their only clinic. “Her name’s Lila Daley. She’s from Dallas. She used to work at a big trauma center there. I think she can certainly handle Carrie’s mishaps.”
Carrie was younger than he was. Considerably. He’d never thought about it, but she was a lot younger than Bobby, too. They’d married before he’d come back to Papillon.
“There’s some city girl running the clinic now?” Lorna asked.
“Doc wasn’t going to work forever.” He wasn’t sure what people had thought. Doc had been getting on up there in years. There wasn’t anyone else in town even vaguely interested in medicine.
Except his daughter, and that wasn’t something she could do online.
“We should have found someone like us. We shouldn’t have to go outside the town when we’re hiring.” She pointedly looked at Roxie.
“We’re lucky to have experts who are willing to come here and work with us.” It was obvious Lorna Petrie needed to get out more.
“Ms. Daley is very nice,” Roxie said, letting the obvious insult slide off her. “I think she’s going to be a great addition to the community. And she’s got strong ties to here. She’s Remy Guidry’s sister-in-law.”
Lorna turned her nose up at that. “His new wife is from the city as well. I’ve heard she’s making all kinds of changes at the restaurant. And she’s paying less for our hauls. All in all, I don’t think the new people are making a positive change.”
Good for Lisa. He’d thought that a lot of people had taken advantage of the Guidrys over the years. They were excellent restaurateurs, but none of them had been to business school like Lisa had. Her taking over the business end of Guidry’s likely meant it would be healthy and serving the community for years to come.
“Carrie! Get on out here. You have visitors.” Lorna strode up the porch steps.
The house had been standing for years, and he had to admit the Petries built houses to last. Despite their isolation, the house looked solid and well kept. Carrie stepped out on the porch, her left arm in a sling. She looked older than she had the last time he’d seen her. Not in a timeworn, normal way. Her youthful cheeriness had been replaced with a weary, haunted look.
When she smiled his way, the expression didn’t come close to her eyes. “Hello, Sheriff. Is there something I can do for you?”
Her tone didn’t waver. There was no look of surprise in her eyes. When he showed up unexpectedly, it was almost always bad news. One of the worst parts of his job was the look that came over a person’s face when they opened the door and saw him. There was none of that in Carrie’s expression.
“I heard you broke your arm.” He needed to get her away from Lorna. She wouldn’t talk honestly around her mother-in-law.
“Yeah, I fell. I was feeding the chickens and tripped,” she explained.
“You have chickens out here? Those coops better be up to code.” Roxie turned and walked off the steps.
“There’s no damn code out here.” Lorna took the bait fast, nearly running after Roxie as she started looking for the chicken coops.
He had a couple of minutes. “Are you all right, Carrie?”
She glanced the way her mother-in-law had gone. “I’m fine. The nurse fixed me up. I’ll be out of the sling soon.”
“Is Bobby treating you right?”
Her eyes flared and then her gaze wouldn’t meet his. “I said everything is fine.”
Damn it. Lila was right. Something was going on. “If he’s hurting you, I can help.”
“I’m clumsy. That’s all.” Her chin came up, and he saw a grim resolve in her eyes. “I should have known that woman would be trouble. Tell that nurse to keep her nose out of my business. I’ll find another place to go if I get hurt again. She’s got no right to make accusations.”
“She’s an expert, and she sees a pattern of injuries that don’t work with your explanation,” he pointed out. “If you’re worried no one will believe you, you’re wrong.”
“Is there a problem, Sheriff?” Lorna was back, her stare going from him to her daughter-in-law as though assessing the situation.
“There’s no problem, Mother Petrie.” The calm smile was back on her face. “Apparently the new lady at the clinic is very thorough.”
“I’m surprised you didn’t mention that it wasn’t Doc you saw.” Lorna managed to make the statement into an accusation.
“I told Bobby about it,” Carrie replied. “It wasn’t a big deal. Now, Sheriff, please let the nurse know that I’m fine. I’m feeling much better and won’t need to come back for a follow-up.”
Lorna huffed. “Follow-up? What an idiotic notion. She’s fine. She’s already working. The girl’s tough. She don’t need some uppity city nurse to turn her into a whining baby like the rest of them. Now go and get out of here. We have things to do before the men get back. And tell that deputy of yours that we’re unincorporated land here. She’s got no right to check on anything at all. Only code out here is the Petrie code.”
Roxie simply smiled. “The coop’s perfectly fine to me. Not that I know a lot about them, but the chickens seemed happy, too.”
Lorna shook her head. “Ridiculous rules.”
“Unincorporated land or not, I’m still the law here, and you would do best to remember it.” He turned and walked away, knowing Roxie was right behind him. He got on the boat and looked back.
Carrie stood in the doorway, half in and half out, a shadow over her face.
Lila was right and something was happening wi
th that girl, but damn if he knew what to do about it.
“We can’t bring the husband in if the wife won’t tell us anything’s wrong,” Roxie pointed out as she pulled the rope in. “Unless you want to start asking around. See if anyone’s seen something.”
He started up the motor. “No, I would have heard by now. They keep to themselves. I thought it was because they simply liked to live that way. Now I have questions. But they’ll have to wait.”
He wasn’t going to be able to avoid Lila.
He steered the boat away from the pier, his brain working on the problems.
* * *
• • •
Another day, another list of canceled appointments. It was enough to make a woman wonder if there was something wrong with her deodorant.
At least she had a friend now.
“You know, for a dog who managed to make it all the way home, you don’t seem like you want to stay there.” She stared down at Peanut, who thumped his tail against the floor and gave her a big doggy grin.
She’d spent her morning cleaning him up. He was in surprisingly good shape for being on his own for months. She’d pulled two ticks off him and his hair was short enough it hadn’t matted. He’d needed a bath and food and water, but he was going to be fine. When the time had come for her to go to the clinic, he’d followed her to the door. When she’d closed him in, he’d whined and cried so loud, she’d gone back to check on him. He’d taken the opportunity to run out to her car and jump around like he knew they were going for an adventure. She hadn’t been able to leave him behind.
She should start looking for someone to take him in.
Not today, of course. He’d been through a lot and needed TLC. In a couple of weeks she would start looking around to see if anyone needed a pet.
“Oh, he’s attached to you now,” Mabel said, leaning over to give Peanut a pet. “That dog went everywhere with Bill. I’m not surprised he found his way back home, and now he’s imprinted again.”
“I can’t keep him.” It was what she’d thought about as she’d tried to fall back asleep the night before. She’d thought about the dog and the man who’d been occupying her living room, and how she probably couldn’t keep either one of them.
“Why?” Mabel asked.
There were many reasons. She’d wanted a dog while she’d been in Dallas, but it hadn’t seemed fair to the dog. It still wasn’t. As for Armie, it probably couldn’t work for all the same reasons. “I work long hours. I work weird hours. Well, I will if anyone ever actually makes it to an appointment.”
Armie worked crazy hours, too. And wasn’t his position elected? She couldn’t see herself as anything but a liability in a campaign. It might be different if she could tempt the man into some stress-relief sex that didn’t have to necessarily end in some kind of happily ever after.
She knew that was something that wouldn’t happen for her. She’d lost that chance, or maybe she’d never had it at all.
Mabel shrugged like that was no big deal. “So? Take the dog to work with you. He’s perfectly housetrained. We can get a pooper-scooper, and there’s a nice patch of grass out back. He’s been around town his whole life, and he’s a sweetheart.”
There was only one problem with that. “You can’t have a dog in a clinic.”
“Maybe you can’t in Dallas, but I don’t know if you’ve noticed, hon, this is not Dallas. Now tell me how Armie LaVigne was in bed. I know I’m married and my Dale is a gentle lover, but I’m not dead.”
Lila stopped, hoping she hadn’t heard right. “What?”
Mabel shook her head and leaned against the reception desk. “Hon, if you wanted to keep it quiet then Armie shouldn’t have parked that big old parish vehicle of his in the front drive. Angie Jones runs the post office. She gets up real early, and she definitely noted that Armie was at your place. She told Dixie, who owns the café Angie eats at every morning. Now, I personally think Angie would do well to avoid Dixie’s waffles given those thighs of hers, but that’s none of my business. Dixie told her fry cook, who got on the phone with his wife. Now, Frank’s wife is Marie, who works with Miss Marcelle at the hair salon. She told Miss Marcelle, who told Delphine Guidry. Delphine told her daughter, Seraphina, who told everyone in her morning yoga group. I know it seems very big-city, but Emma Lorraine got some crazy ideas in her head when she went to L.A. Now a whole group of them meet out in the park and do yoga in the mornings. The pastor of the First Baptist Church has tried to stop them because he calls it devil worship, but they claim it’s just a nice way to stretch their lower backs and don’t pay him any mind. Kenny overheard the yoga-girls-slash-devil-women, depending on who you talk to, and he told me that you and Armie are having a baby.”
She felt her jaw drop. “Oh my god.”
“Kenny says that he was there because the park is nice at that time of the morning, but I think he’s a pervert and he’s watching those women stretch. I should talk to Armie about that. No. Now that you’re going to be his baby momma, you should. You tell Armie those women don’t need creepy Kenny staring at their butts, though Armie might also tell them that those leggings they wear are damn near obscene.”
It was a lot of information to process, but one fallacy stood out. “I’m not sleeping with the sheriff.”
“Okay, ‘sleeping with’ is a phrase we use because we’re ladies and don’t want to use the other phrases. But it’s a euphemism, hon. I know there wasn’t a lot of sleeping going on.”
“I’m not having sex with Armie LaVigne.” Not yet anyway. He turned out to be a very prudish, hot-as-hell alpha male. He didn’t want her to use him for sex. It was ridiculous. “Peanut showed up at the door last night and I’m ashamed to say I called 911. The sheriff came out to see if I was okay, and he ended up sleeping on my couch.”
“Did he scratch on the door and scare the crap out of you? I can understand that. But why did Armie sleep on your couch?”
Well, she had tried to kick him out. She hadn’t been successful. “I told him I was fine, but he thought I would sleep better knowing I wasn’t alone in the house. I can’t imagine he was comfortable on that couch. It’s not very big. But he insisted.”
After he’d kissed her and gotten her hot and bothered for the first time in forever. Wicked man. Mean man.
Mabel gave her a knowing look. “He’s courting you. I know that’s probably not a word you use a lot in the big city.”
“I know what courting is.” And Armie wasn’t doing it because that would be ridiculous, too.
Mabel continued on like she hadn’t said a thing at all. “That is when a man does all kinds of silly things to attract a woman he wants to spend time with. It’s like in the animal world when a male bird puffs out his chest. Armie is doing the same thing, except he’s damaging his spine because I remember Bill’s couch and it was from the sixties. It couldn’t be comfortable. Didn’t he give you a ticket? That was probably his way of showing masculine power. Like a gorilla beating on his chest.”
“Well, I didn’t find it sexy.” She was still thinking about fighting that damn ticket. “I think that was more about a new coffeemaker than it was about tempting me.”
He was so tempting. Something was definitely happening to her. She didn’t lust after men. She carefully chose her sexual partners. Well, all two of them. There had been a college boyfriend and then there had been Brock, who’d hit on her sisters because according to him, they were way more spontaneous than she was.
She’d tried to be spontaneous with Armie and that way had led to frustration.
The door opened, bell jingling, and a woman walked in. She looked to be in her mid-thirties, maybe early forties. She had brown hair she wore in a neat bun on the top of her head. She had on a perfectly pressed business suit and carried in a plate of what looked like cookies or brownies or something.
Not a patient, then. It said something abo
ut her that she was disappointed that the person walking up to her wasn’t covered in blood or didn’t have a bone sticking out. She would settle for a nice concussion.
“Oh, lord, it’s starting. Batten down the hatches,” Mabel said under her breath.
She wasn’t sure what was starting, but the woman seemed to zero in on her.
“Well, hello, Ms. Daley. It’s such a pleasure to finally meet you. I’m Miranda Jossart. I worked with your younger sister Lisa to get you that jewel of a house. I thought I would stop in and welcome you to Papillon.”
Jewel? “Yeah, we should talk about that house. There is nothing jewel-like about it. Well, there’s a whole collection of rocks, but the coal sample he has isn’t even close to diamond status. Nothing works. I have to kick the washer to get it to start. I won’t even go into the hot-water heater. Do you have something going with the inspector?”
Mabel’s eyes widened. “I think what Lila is trying to say is that she’s had a few troubles with the house. Last night her lights went out.”
“Did they, now?” Miranda set her tray down on the counter. “Well, you’re used to a high-rise apartment building with all those rich things inside it. You’ll have to understand that things work differently here on the bayou.”
“Electricity works differently?”
“A lot of things do,” Miranda replied as if everything she was saying made sense. Which it didn’t. “You’re new in our town and it can be hard to fit in, hard to know where the boundaries are.”
She got the sense that there was something underneath the woman’s words, some subtext she wasn’t getting. “Okay. Hopefully someone will let me know. Is there a pamphlet?”
There was a nasty smile on the woman’s face. “A lot of fitting in is about good sense. You should take your time. Concentrate on your business. I’m sure a clinic like this operates on the goodwill of the people. You need to ingratiate yourself with influential members of the community. I heard you had a little trouble yesterday.”
