Cade pulled his truck into the parking lot of a hole-in-the-wall restaurant. Caroline studied the dumpy exterior and couldn't understand how it was legally allowed to fully operate. She shot him a questionable look.
"Trust me. This place isn't much to look at, but they have the best food in town." She reluctantly stepped inside as he held the door open again. His hand rested on her lower back as she passed, allowing him to lead her to a table. He pulled her chair out and waited for her to get settled before he sat in his own chair next to hers. That interested her, considering Trevor normally sat across from her at a square table rather than beside her.
"What do you recommend?"
He answered without missing a beat. "Seafood gumbo."
She studied the lunch menu as the waitress came with two glasses of water. "Hey, Beau, how's it going?" She honed in on him like Caroline wasn't there.
He looked up and smiled. "It's good, things are good."
She continued with a lingering stare, obviously crushing on him. "You want your usual appetizer?"
He nodded. "Thanks, that'd be great."
Beau? Had she been asked out to lunch by the hot gardener? "I thought you said your name was Cade?" He looked up from his menu like he didn't understand what she meant. "That girl just called you Beau."
"That's what most people call me. Shortened from my surname."
"Oh. Okay, I'll bite. What is your surname?"
"Beauregard."
"Like the Confederate General?"
"Yep. I'm a descendant. General P. G. T. Beauregard was born in New Orleans. He was my G4 grandfather."
"G4?"
"Great to the fourth power," he said, grinning. "It's easier to say."
Caroline liked him. He made her smile. The strange comfort she felt with him though she just met him was confusing, but relieving. She needed a friend and awkwardness would complicate things.
"So tell me, sweet Caroline, if you know nothing about Louisiana or the history of your family, what exactly are you doing down here?"
"I came down here to visit my dad." Caroline didn't want to go into too much boring detail and ruin what was turning out to be a pleasant lunch.
"Your dad lives here? In Golden Meadow? I'm guessing since you're just visiting that you don't live close by?"
"No, I live in Chicago, actually." He leaned back in his chair with his hands clasped behind his head, and she saw the outline of his rippled abs. Trevor had an alluring body, but his wasn't as defined as Cade’s appeared to be. Cade's body was sculpted and strong. . .enticing. She found it easy to imagine his arms wrapped around her providing a shield of security and a sense of intimacy at the same time. Too easy.
"So that was your jeep with the Yankee tags." He smiled and winked.
"You know, that must be a guy thing to notice license plates of random cars in the parking lot. My boyfriend does that too and it drives me crazy!"
Now more captivated, he leaned toward her. "So let me get this straight. You're engaged and you have a boyfriend? Man, you really get around, don't you?" He shook with laughter.
Caroline realized what she said and felt the burn of embarrassment. . .again. "I meant to say my fiancé."
"Ah. . .but you didn't." His matter-of-fact tone would normally anger Caroline, but she couldn't think of anything but her embarrassment. What had gotten into her?
"We haven't been engaged very long, only a couple of months, so I'm still getting used to the whole. . .idea."
He observed her discomfort with the subject. "I understand, I guess." However, his generosity didn't last long. He added, "I mean, it's a life-altering decision, so I could see how it would be easy to forget." She threw an ice cube at his head causing him to burst out in laughter again.
"I am engaged and I'm very happy about that fact. Trevor treats me like a princess."
He leaned in really close to her face, his whisper a feather brushing her skin. "Yes, I hear you. . .but I don't believe you."
He had some nerve! She wanted to box him in right in that sexy mouth of his. "You just met me! You know nothing about me, so why should I care if you believe me?"
He smiled, amused with her flaring temper. "Okay, princess, if you're so happy to be engaged, where is your engagement ring? Isn't that supposed to be his token of undying affection that you're to wear proudly displaying your love for each other, or something like that?"
The waitress brought their drinks and a plate of something she didn't recognize to their table and took their order. Caroline appreciated the distraction as Cade motioned for her to order first.
"I'll have the seafood gumbo, please."
The waitress wrote in her little note pad without acknowledging Caroline. She looked at Cade. "And for you, sexy?"
He smiled back at her and then looked directly at Caroline. "I'll have the same."
She took their menus and walked away as Caroline glared at him.
"Oh, come on, I was just giving you a hard time. It shouldn't bother you unless you have reservations about your relationship or decision to get married, should it?"
He made a good point. She shouldn't care what anyone else thought as long as she and Trevor were happy together. We are happy together, right? She hadn't really thought about it from that perspective.
"You never know though, someone might just come along and treat you like a queen instead of a princess."
She ignored him. She had to. She could easily get lost in him with a line like that. "So how 'bout you, Beau? Are you dating or engaged? Married?"
He took a long drink of water and smiled. "Nope. I guess I haven't come across the one for me—yet." He winked.
Was he serious? This guy was excessively confident, but rather than annoying her, she was intrigued. She liked the attention. Caroline looked down at the dish their waitress had brought to the table. "What is that?"
"Blackened alligator. It's delicious." He stabbed a piece with his fork and dipped it into a creamy yellow sauce.
"I've never had alligator before. What's it taste like?"
He smiled while chewing. "Tastes like chicken. Come on, just try it. You'll like it, I promise."
She stabbed a piece just as he had, dipped it and ate it. It was amazing!
A wide smile stretched across his handsome face in response to her enjoyment. "Yeah? See, I told you."
She nodded her approval, "It's magnificent!"
"So, who is it that you're doing research about from the 1800s?"
"My G3 grandmother." She smiled. He chuckled in appreciation. "At least I think that's how many greats it is. I'm not completely sure. It's a guess. All I really know is her name and how she died."
The owner of the restaurant made his way to the table with their gumbo. He smiled at Cade, set the bowls on the table, and patted him on the back.
"Can I reserve you this weekend for Saturday night from seven to midnight?"
Cade glanced at Caroline and looked back up at him. "Why, what's goin' on?"
"Jeff's band had to cancel, because Toby had to go to Lafayette for his grandma's funeral."
Cade's eyes genuinely saddened with the bad news. "Yeah, we can hook you up. We'll be here at six-thirty to prep, that okay?"
"Yeah man, thanks a heap. I owe ya one."
"You're in a band?" This guy gets more fascinating by the minute.
He nodded humbly. "My boys and I get together and play sometimes. It's no big deal."
"I'd like to see that sometime."
His head snapped up. "Come this Saturday night, then."
Caroline had no idea what her dad had planned for the weekend, if anything. But she desperately wanted to hear him sing again. "I'll have to check with my dad first, since I'm staying with him. I just got here a couple of days ago and I'm not sure if he has anything planned for me."
Cade nodded.
"So, you work at the library, moonlight in a band. . .what else do you do, Mr. Beauregard?"
He sat silently for a minute. "You can call me Cade. I like the way y
ou say it."
Caroline's cheeks grew hot.
"I like that too," he said with a big smile.
She tried her best to play it off. "I don't know what you're talking about."
He laughed aloud. "Oh, come on. Whenever I compliment you, your face turns five different shades of red. It's adorable."
She looked down, almost dizzy with embarrassment. "You noticed that, huh?"
He reached over to put his hand under her chin, and lifted her face back up to look at him. "You don't need to hide any part of this beautiful face from me. You have nothing to be embarrassed about." Her entire upper body was on fire. She wasn't sure if it was from embarrassment or the burning attraction she felt toward him.
"Is it hot in here? I'm burning up. Can you ask him to turn the air down a little?"
He chuckled. "I'm not hot, it's just you."
She reached back and fanned her neck, thankful she'd twisted her hair in a bun. He stared with a strange expression before he slowly took a bite of his gumbo and then a drink of water.
"I'm a landscaper."
She had forgotten she asked what else he did.
"I work at a couple of places around town, mostly large properties, maintaining the landscaping. I only do two properties once a week. So where are you staying? Who is your dad?"
"Until day before yesterday, I hadn't seen my dad since I was a toddler," she said. "He and my mom divorced when I was just a baby, and my fiancé thought it would be a good idea for me to reconcile with my dad before we got married. Honestly, I didn't want to come. But deep down I was curious about my dad, so I came."
"I'll be sure to thank your fiancé if I ever meet him," he said sincerely. "So who’s your dad?"
"Eddie Fontenot."
Recognition invaded his golden eyes. "Ahh, okay. That was your car I pulled out of the mud. You really had that thing buried. I should've caught that today, but I didn't recognize it all cleaned up. That's one of the places I do landscaping—the Fontenot plantation."
She nodded and smiled. "I know."
His head tilted, amused. "How?"
"Well, a couple of the ladies that work at the house were talking about the gardener and were calling him—you, Beau. I hadn't made the connection until the waitress called you by that name."
He smiled. "They were talking about me?"
"Yes, very highly, I might add."
His smile broadened and his brilliant eyes fixated on hers, melting her insides. "What about you? Did you talk about me?"
She shook her head, thankful she could answer innocently. "No, I didn't see you. I only heard you singing beneath my window Tuesday morning."
He frowned. "I'm sorry, I didn't think anyone was staying on that side of the house. If I had known you were up there sleeping, I would've been quieter."
She smiled again and took a drink. "It's okay. It was refreshing to wake up to such a se—pleasant voice."
He perked up. "You almost said sexy voice, didn't you?"
"No! I-I was going to say. . .um. . .soothing."
Clearly he didn't believe her for a second. "Right. Soothing. It's okay, I kinda like that you think I'm sexy. Well, my voice anyway." An amber fire smoldered in his eyes behind his long, black lashes. Caroline squirmed, exposed and vulnerable to his incredible charm.
She quickly looked down and ate another spoonful of gumbo. "You were right, this gumbo is delicious." He smirked at her pitiful attempt to change the subject. "So now you know where I'm staying. You said you haven't lived at home in years. Where do you live?" She raised her glass to her lips and cocked her eyebrow, challenging him.
"Well, I left home at eighteen for, um, work, then I came back after several years to live with my parents until I finished college. I've had my own place for a few years now. It's funny you should ask. We're kind of neighbors. I live in what used to be an outbuilding, but is now a renovated log cabin on the Fontenot plantation."
Swallowing her drink before she spewed it across the table on him, Caroline suddenly felt sick. The blood drained from her face as she realized his was the house she had trespassed in, and she had literally run into and touched his wet, naked body. She closed her eyes to make the panic go away. It didn't work.
Eleven
Deadline Page 12
