by Hill Sandra
“What is it with you and that Cajun Sass stuff?”
She just smiled.
* * *
Love was in the air…
Justin was excited to show off Louise at the wedding reception because, frankly, he’d fallen hook, line, and sinker for the woman, and he wanted his family and friends to like her as much as he did.
Like? Hah! He was in love, all right, for the first time in his thirty years. Oh, he’d had all the usual teenage crushes and several long-term (like three months max) affairs, but he’d never felt like this. He couldn’t imagine the rest of his life without Louise in it. The logistics of it would have to be worked out, but he was confident that love would out.
Not that he’d said any of this to Louise. Yet. He was waiting for the perfect moment. Hopefully tonight.
“Are you as nervous as I am?” she asked.
They were in the circular driveway of the country club, two cars behind the valet stand waiting their turn.
“No, why would you be nervous? These people are the same as you and me. Maybe with deeper pockets, but that doesn’t make them better.”
“I don’t care about that,” she said with a wave of her hand.
She was sitting as close to him as he could get her, with his right arm over her bare shoulders. Every time she moved, he got a whiff of her rose bath oil, which sent a message direct to his favorite body part. Would he be like that Pavlov dog from now on? Every time he smelled a rose, he’d get a hard-on?
“I’m nervous because you and I are out in public for the first time,” she continued. “We’ve been discreet so far. I don’t want everyone knowin’ about the hanky panky we’ve been engagin’ in.”
He had to smile at her choice of words and squeezed her shoulder. “They probably have their suspicions anyhow. You know how bayou folks are, mindin’ everyone’s business.” He laughed and said, “If your daddy were alive, he’d be askin’ my intentions.”
She elbowed him in the side
They arrived at the valet stand. He got out to get his ticket while another attendant opened the door for Louise. He took her hand and led her forward.
“Wow!” she remarked as they walked up the wide steps of the old rice plantation house complete with columns and verandahs. The mansion had been converted to a golf club with a wrap-around terrace giving access to the interior through a half-dozen sets of French doors.
“I feel like Cinderella just arriving at the ball,” she said.
“Does that make me Prince Charming?” he asked with a grin.
“Oh, you a charmer, all right, cher,” she drawled.
“You’d better not lose your shoe.”
“Me, I’m more worried about turnin’ into a pumpkin.”
They both laughed and entered the crowd. The cocktail hour was still going on, so, people were scattered about in small groups both here on the terrace and in the reception rooms.
He recognized some of them, and Louise knew even more. They were constantly stopped for bits of conversation while he led her toward his parents and his brother and his new bride.
“Justin! Congratulations on your upcoming graduation.”
“Louise! How good to see you out and about. Are you still making those herbal remedies?”
“You must meet my niece, Justin. She’s a nurse.”
“What a lovely dress, Louise! Where did you buy it?”
“Now that you’re gonna be a doc-tor, Justin, you’ll need an investment advisor for all the moolah you’ll be rakin’ in. Come see me, eh? Ha, ha, ha.”
“Isn’t it time to trade in that old jalopy of yours, Louise? Ha, ha, ha!” said Dan Doucet from Dapper Dan’s Used Cars With Oomph. “Drop in to my lot on Monday and I’ll give you a deal, guar-an-teed! I have one with a rumble seat you might like.”
The place was decorated to the nines in ribbons and flowers, the round tables set with silver and china and crystal goblets. White-gloved waiters were walking around with trays of wines in stemmed glasses and bite-size appetizers. Swanky, just like Louise had predicted. His parents never would have been able to afford something like this.
After seeing this spread, he was finding it hard to believe that Lily Rose would be satisfied operating a little beauty salon inside the general store. He suspected his brother would have his hands full down the road, but that was their problem, not his.
Once he got to the area in front of the head table where his parents’ group was standing, he introduced Louise to the Fortiers, George and Sonia, as a well-known bayou folk healer. He could tell it surprised Louise that he showed pride in her work.
Louise would probably have something to say later about how George had a good twenty years on his wife. His brother Leon winked at him as he greeted Louise, his dad gave her a warm handshake, acknowledging to everyone around that he not only knew Louise well but that he worked with her, and his mother gave her a long hug, probably hoping that Louise would be the key to Justin’s coming back to the bayou.
The Fortiers, including Lily Rose, were a little snooty in their greetings, excusing themselves to go off to meet someone important who’d just arrived, taking Leon with them. Not that they’d said it in quite that way. More like subtle snobbery. The whole bunch of them and their like thought the sun came up every day just to hear them crow.
His dad muttered something about people who were too big for their britches.
His mother said, “Shh!”
His dad persisted, “Didja see the size of them tiny sandwiches they’re passin’ around? ’Bout the size of mah thumb. Wouldn’t fill the stomach of a June bug. And some of ’em are filled with grass.”
“Thass water cress,” his mother explained.
“Lak I said, grass. I coulda sent over twenty pounds of boudin sausage, or some lunch meat, if I’d known they’d be so skimpy.”
“I caint believe you asked for a beer.”
“I caint believe they brought it to me in some fancy-pancy crystal glass.”
Justin and Louise looked at each other and smiled.
“Listen, honey,” he said to Louise a short time later. “I have to sit at the head table during dinner, but I’ll join you when the dancing starts.”
“I’m holding you to that.”
He’d promised her a night of dancing, and he intended to follow through, once his commitments were over. In the meantime, he led her to one of the tables up front where there was a name tag in front of her plate. She would be sitting with his parents, his Uncle Joe and Aunt Lizzie from Lafayette, his grandmother Marion Boudreaux, Dr. Clovis LeDeux, and Alan Despain, a new young lawyer from Houma, who was looking at Louise with more interest than Justin liked.
After seating Louise, he leaned down and gave her a kiss, in front of one and all, dammit, and whispered, “See you soon. Save the first dance for me.”
He could tell by her blush that his public kiss embarrassed her. But only a little, he suspected; she was in what she called her Cajun Sass mood.
Before he left, Dr. Clovis, who was sitting on Louise’s right, said, “Did your young man tell you I offered him a job?”
“Noooo.” Louise looked up at Justin in question.
“A full partnership with me in my practice, and mebbe even a home in the long run. Hasn’t given me an answer, though.” The doctor winked at her, as if she could convince Justin, and took a sip of what was probably his third or fourth bourbon on the rocks.
Not only was Louise interested in what Dr. Clovis had said, but his parents were listening avidly, too. Damn the man for spilling the beans. Justin hadn’t made a decision, and the old guy knew it good and well.
“You only made the offer a few days ago, Dr. Clovis,” Justin pointed out.
Fortunately, an announcement over the microphone said, “Everyone to their seats, please. Dinner will be served shortly.” But Justin knew he’d have some explaining to do later. A band had arrived and was setting up on a dais across the large room.
Justin squeezed Louise’s should
er and left for his seat at the head table.
It took more than an hour before Justin was able to be with Louise again, following a meal that he had to admit was excellent—filet mignon and fresh Gulf shrimp—a bunch of speeches, champagne toasts, and cutting of the cake, which someone whispered had cost five hundred dollars. The Fortiers had opted out of some of the traditional Cajun wedding rituals, probably too lowdown for the Fortier’s highbrow life style.
By the time he got free of his duties, the dancing was well underway, and Louise was already out on the dance floor, enjoying herself. Not just with the stupid lawyer, but every eligible bachelor at this dig had her in his cross-hairs. Like he’d thought, that dress of hers exposed a good amount of her legs, including some of her lower thighs, when her partners twirled her around. Which they did. A lot. Probably deliberately. Dammit!
The musicians alternated between big band music and Cajun songs. Just then, they segued from “In the Mood,” to “Jolie Blon.” Justin took that as his cue to cut in on Louise and her partner.
“Hey, Hank,” he said. Hank Ishler, a teacher at the community college, was one of the ushers, a friend of Leon’s. “Thanks for taking care of my girl while I was busy.” Justin nudged him aside with his hip and took Louise in his arms. Hank gaped at him, as if to say, “What just happened?”
Justin didn’t care. He spun Louise around once, then tugged her closer into his arms, settling into a slow two-step. He had his arms looped around her waist; she had her hands laced behind his neck. He smiled at the sheer pleasure he felt just holding Louise. “Sorry it took so long.”
“That’s okay. I’ve been dancing.”
“I noticed,” he said, pretending to be annoyed.
She laughed. “I didn’t realize I would know so many people here.”
“It’s a small world, as the saying goes.”
“And the bayou is an even smaller world.”
“Yep!”
“Speaking of which…” She tilted her head in question, studying his face. “You never mentioned that Dr. Clovis offered you a partnership here on the bayou.”
Uh-oh! He’d deliberately not told Louise or anyone else, not even his parents, about Dr. Clovis’s offer because he knew they’d get their hopes up, and he was ninety-nine percent sure that he wouldn’t accept. After all his years of hard work, he would feel as if he was settling for less than his capabilities if he accepted a general practice in a backwoods office with an elderly alcoholic for a partner, without a major hospital nearby. On the other hand, there was talk of a new Terrebonne General Medical Center being built in Houma in the next few years. He would be in on the ground floor if he was already settled here.
“Nothing’s been decided,” he told her. “I still have to get through my medical exams.”
“Still, it’s a compliment to you, isn’t it?”
“It is,” he admitted. “But enough serious stuff for tonight.” He pulled her even closer into his arms. With high heels on…the first she’d worn around him…he still had a good four inches on her, but they were on a more level playing field, so to speak. And his batter was up and ready to hit a home run, so to speak. He grinned against her hair, deciding he wouldn’t share that crude thought with her.
Instead, he pulled back slightly to look at her. “I know you were reluctant to come to this affair tonight, chère. But looks to me like you’re havin’ a good time.”
“Mais oui! But I expect it to get better now.”
And it did.
He made sure of that.
And so did she.
Holy crawfish, so did she!
God bless Cajun Sass.
Chapter 8
With hope, anything is possible. Right, St. Jude?…
“I think I love you,” Justin said, leaning over her the next morning. His hair was bed-mussed, or was that sex-mussed? There was a bite mark on his one shoulder. And his mouth appeared a bit bruised from a whole lot of kissing. In other words, he looked wonderful. And why wouldn’t he? They’d made love on practically every surface in her cottage since they’d arrived home just before midnight, including her bed, finally, where they were now.
He’d already gone through one of those tins of prophylactics and was halfway through a second. At this rate, she’d laughingly told him last night, “You should buy stock in the company that makes them.”
He’d responded, “Right now, I’m so poor I can barely pay attention, let alone pay for stocks. Ha, ha, ha! But, yeah, once I’m earning some real money, and my checks no longer bounce, I’ll sure thing invest in rubbers. Bounce, rubbers, get it? Ha, ha, ha!”
Justin had a great sense of humor, or so he thought. Louise just shook her head at this particularly sorry attempt of his at levity.
She stretched and thought about getting up, but there really was no need for rush on either of their parts, it being a Sunday. Her car sat in the driveway, and his mother’s car was parked in the detached garage (just barely, considering its size). So, they were safe from nosy neighbors or passersby, for now. His parents presumably thought he went back to his apartment in New Orleans after dropping her off.
“Did you hear what I said, Louise? I think I love you. So much it kind of scares me.”
Oh, she’d heard him, all right. Loud and clear. “Think?” she asked with an exaggerated frown.
His face flushed with color as he realized his mistake. “I know I love you, but I think I’m in love with you, too.”
“Am I supposed to be pleased at that backward explanation?”
“You know what I mean.” He waited for her to say something then, and when she didn’t, he nipped her chin with his teeth and prodded, “Well?”
Truth to tell, she knew she was in love, but she wasn’t about to be the first one to say it. She was basking in the glow, though. Ever since she’d learned that Justin was offered an opportunity to practice medicine right here on the bayou, the doors of her heart had flown open. Any reservations she’d had about him were gone. It was a dream come true, a life she could only hope for before. Now, despite her best intentions, she found herself fantasizing about the life they could have together. Him a doctor, her a folk healer, a combination that would succeed because of its very uniqueness. In fact, they complemented each other professionally. She had a vision of herself with Justin, Adèle, and maybe one or two other children. Maybe they would even be living in Dr. Clovis’s mansion once he retired, as the old guy had hinted. Or they could put an addition onto her cottage.
Hope was a wonderful thing.
But for now, she knew Justin was waiting for her response to his declaration. “I think I’m in love with you, too,” she said, leaning up to give him a quick kiss.
“Ouch! I see how that sounds.” He rolled her over so that she lay on top of him, bare skin to bare skin. “I have an idea for what we can do today.”
She laughed. “You and your ideas.”
He pinched her buttock and said, “Not that kind of idea, although now that you mention it…”
A half hour later, he was on his back, and she was on her side, tucked under his arm, both of them sated. Turned out it was a really good idea.
“What I was going to suggest, Miss Know-It-All, before you so rudely diverted my attention is—”
“Me? You’re the one who’s insatiable.”
“Thank you,” he said, as if that was a compliment. “Anyway, let’s spend the day at the beach. We can pick up Adèle and go to Grand Isle. What do you say?”
“That sounds wonderful.” She was especially touched that he picked an activity that would include Adèle. “But don’t you have to study?”
“I can bring my books with me.”
By noon, they crossed the causeway which connected the mainland to the narrow barrier island, which was a mere eight miles long and at most a mile and a half wide in spots. Another hour later, and the three of them were settled on the beach at Grand Isle. Louise was sitting on a heavy woven blanket watching Justin as he held Adèle’s h
and, running along the edge of the water, laughing as she shrieked every time she got wet from all the splashing, inching farther and farther out until finally Justin quickly dunked them both. Instead of being frightened, Adèle came up with a big smile on her little face. She was a beginning swimmer, at the dog paddling stage, but a little water didn’t bother her.
Louise smiled and leaned back on her elbows. She was filled with such a feeling of utter peace. Hope did that to a person, she supposed.
Suddenly, for the first time in weeks, that voice spoke in her head. St. Jude. Well, thou art partly right. Actually, it is faith, hope, and love, according to the Bible.
Picky, picky!
Be careful what you wish for, child.
Child? I’m hardly a child.
We’ve noticed.
Was he referring to the sex? Uh-oh.
Thou can sayeth that again!
The inner voice quieted when Justin called out to her, Adèle sitting on his shoulders as they approached, both of them waving wildly. “Tante Lulu! Tante Lulu! Look at me. Ahm a giant.” Adèle called out.
“And I’m a giant’s stepstool,” Justin said with a grin.
The good thing about being on a beach, she decided then, was that you could ogle a man’s body, head to toe and everywhere in between, without appearing to be a pervert. And Justin’s body was a work of art in his low-riding swimming trunks, and nothing more, to be admired…and, yes, ogled. He wasn’t overly muscular, like some athletes or body builders, but he did have muscles in all the right places, including his wide shoulders, his rippled abdomen, and, well, lots of places.
Even his big, narrow feet were kind of sexy.
And his belly button? Well, it gave her ideas that would make a strip tease artist like Gypsy Rose Lee blush.
Truly, this man…her lover…was hotter than a jalapeno’s coochie.
Justin grinned at her, noticing her perusal, and gave back an equal full-body survey to her body in her red and white striped, one-piece, halter bathing suit in that new, stretchy material that clung to a lady’s curves like a girdle, or made it appear there were curves when there were not. Suddenly, the modest suit felt transparent. The blush which still heated her cheeks probably matched her cherry-red toenails which matched her lipstick and the red stripe in her suit.
