The agent led them away from the stairs. “Says here there’s been an addition to the original.”
They all filed through the kitchen, which had been a decent size until cramming four people in it. She stood on one side of the counter as Mom went into the small room with a cool bay window that opened on an overgrown garden.
“Looks like a small suite,” the agent said. “I see what the problem is. They can’t market it as a mother-in-law apartment because it’s open. But it has a bedroom with a full bath and a walk-in closet. This sitting area is adequate.”
Mom vanished into the bedroom, and Violet couldn’t stand it any longer. She squeezed past her dad and the agent and followed into a bedroom that had windows to the backyard with a patio table and lots of plants that needed trimming.
Violet was completely, totally in love.
“OMG, Mom! This is perfect. GigiMarie will have a place to hide when I have all my friends over.”
“That she would.”
They exchanged a glance and Violet knew right then they were both thinking the same thing.
Perfect.
She grabbed her mom’s hand. “Come on.” They scoped out the bathroom, the closet, the little paved area outside the window with a bird bath and yard gnome. Then they headed into the sitting room that connected to the kitchen.
Just enough space for GigiMarie to make a cozy little space with a comfy chair and an ottoman and a lamp brighter than the sun so she could knit.
Perfect.
There was a back door in the kitchen leading to a laundry room that was sort of outside, but still covered by an overhang. Washer and dryer. Yard needed a boatload of work because everything was growing wild, but Mom said, “It just needs some tender loving care.”
Then they headed upstairs to see the loft, which had another small sitting area overlooking the living room.
“You could put a desk for schoolwork here,” Mom suggested.
For her notebook computer, thank you. “And some chairs. It’ll be like my own living room to hang with my friends.”
The bedroom even had a dormer window and a pitched ceiling.
“This is sweet. It’ll be my best room yet!”
Mom laughed. “Let’s check out the rest of the house. There has to be someplace for me to sleep, too.”
There was. Another bedroom on the bottom floor, below the stairs with a full bath and the same floor-to-ceiling windows as the living room, only these opened onto a back balcony.
Violet wedged up against Mom in the doorway and wrapped her arm around her shoulders. Mom rested her head against Violet’s and they stood quietly together for a few minutes.
“Are you seeing it?” Mom asked.
“I’m seeing it.”
“What about school? We’ll keep looking, but you may need to compromise. Think you can handle that?”
She’d be around family without having to abandon Mom—again. “I will if I have to. The police chief needs to get with the program. Think it’ll take long?”
Mom smiled. “I can’t honestly say. I haven’t seen him in fifteen years, but he’s a smart man. Always was. He seems to genuinely want a good relationship with you, so I’m thinking he’ll make the effort to figure it out.” She tilted her head until they were forehead to forehead and eye to eye. “If you’re patient and realistic with your expectations. He is who he is. You need to give him a chance and get to know him, too. Lots of things about you remind me of him.”
“Did you love him a lot once upon a time?”
Mom got this stupid grin on her face and gave a funny little sigh. “With my whole heart and soul.”
Perfect.
“MAKE MY NIGHT, JURADO,” Nic told the deputy chief when he arrived at the station. “Otherwise I’m not going to be happy to be here on a Saturday night.”
“Cut me a break, Chief.” Jurado scowled. “And on a holiday, too. Only thing making this okay is that I’m going to miss the Easter Vigil. Madeleine isn’t happy, but work’s work. And Bouyelas isn’t on shift, either, you should know. He’s in there working his butt off because he likes you.”
Nic liked Bouyelas, too. He never needed much of an excuse to make a Starbucks run for his shift.
“Well, then, show me what you got so we can all go home.” He glanced at his watch. “But don’t talk too fast. If we’re out of here before eight-thirty, you’ll be on your way to church.”
“That is one long mass,” Jurado agreed.
They entered the interrogation room the officers had commandeered to spread out and review a year’s worth of cases. The sheer number of files almost stopped him. “Damn. Looks like the judge has been earning his salary.”
“Hey, Chief.” Bouyelas glanced up. “Don’t get crazy. We yanked another six months of case files a few hours ago.”
“Where’s Prescott?”
“Making a dinner run. Want me to call him? We can probably catch him if you’re hungry.”
“No, thanks. But dinner’s on me if you were able to find something.”
“If we’d have known that, we’d have sent him into the Quarter for Easter dinner,” Jurado said.
“Madeleine will be cooking tomorrow, so don’t worry about it.” Nic grabbed a chair, spun it around and sat beside Bouyelas. “Show me what you got.”
Bouyelas made a neat lineup of case files side by side on the table. “Take a look and see if you notice anything odd.”
As Honorable Hugo A. Dubos was chief judge of the parish criminal district court, he tried cases that looked a lot like the reports during any night shift when Nic had been on the job as the Eighth District commander. Crimes, misdemeanors and offenses committed within the parish that weren’t vested in some other court. Nic scanned docket information and case files, one after another.
A repeat offender charged with battery with a deadly weapon out on a five hundred dollar bond?
An ex-felon in possession of a firearm out on even less?
The list went on.
“These cases are trending with stupidly low or, hell, even no bail.”
“Bingo, Chief.” Bouyelas rocked back in his chair and hooked his hands behind his head. “Here and there, going back a year and a half so far, but they’re spread apart on the docket so they likely wouldn’t be questioned.”
“Bondsmen?”
“You ready?” Bouyelas was grinning like a fool. “Abram’s, E-Z Credit and Surety.”
Nic slanted a glance at Jurado and exhaled a surprised breath. “So technically bondsman.”
Abram’s Bonding Agency, E-Z Credit Bonds and Surety Services were a multigenerational family operation that had been serving New Orleans for thirty years that Nic knew of. He’d also believed grandfather, father and sons had been running reputable businesses.
This was their first real break.
“Good work, gentlemen,” Nic said, pleased. He’d been expecting the surveillance to kick-start the investigation, but this was just as good a place to start.
“Looks like today’s your lucky day, Chief.” Jurado hailed him with a mock salute. “You get to buy us dinner.”
OKAY, MEGAN COULD HANDLE this. All she had to do was take a deep breath. Another. There, that was better. If she kept breathing, she’d be fine. She was only responsible for a few dishes, after all. And she’d already done the bulk of the work last night with Violet’s help.
They’d no sooner walked in the door from their house-hunting excursion when Mama DiLeo had informed her that she’d heard Megan liked to cook.
Thank you, Violet.
Would Megan be interested in helping out by cooking some Chilean dishes for Easter Sunday dinner?
Of course, Megan would help out, which meant a breakneck trip to the French Market, where she’d been able to get the ingredients that would make her Chilean dishes successful.
Violet had been helpful in deciding the menu and thrilled with the trip, of course; not so much when Megan had recruited her as sous chef upon their return. But they�
�d accomplished everything they could with prepping, and dessert had been chilling overnight in the fridge.
They’d decided on arroz con leche, which was a rice pudding with milk, sugar and cinnamon, and sémola con leche, which was a flan with sweet corn flour and caramel. Both would be perfect for the large crowd Mama expected after the parade through downtown and mass at St. Louis Cathedral.
So right now Megan stood over the stove in a moment of blissful quiet before the storm, bringing milk and breadcrumbs for the marisco to a slow boil with a steady stirring motion. She wanted everything assembled and ready to pop into the oven before the parade was over.
Violet was still out of sorts with Nic because he’d asked her not to ride on Damon’s float. As a consolation prize, though, Nic, along with Tess and Anthony, had taken Violet to the parade. Megan and Mama would catch up with them for the mass.
“Do you have everything you need?” Mama asked, appearing in the kitchen, looking lovely and very put-together in a yellow silk suit that was gorgeous with her olive skin.
“I’m not in your way, am I?”
“No way. I feel like I’m on vacation with all your help.” She grinned. “I made up baskets for the grandkiddies. Wanted everyone to have a little something special today. Thought an egg hunt would be fun, but the twins are too young and Violet too old. She’s not too old for a basket, is she?”
“Not if it has candy in it.”
“It does, along with a few other things.”
Megan didn’t ask. She didn’t want to know. Mama DiLeo was proving to be a bit more of a character than Megan remembered.
Stepping aside, she allowed Mama to open the oven door and check on the bread dough rising inside.
“Should be done in plenty of time so we can start everything cooking,” she announced, lowering the dish towels into place over the dough.
“How does this work, exactly?” Megan was a little unclear on the details since Mama looked as if she’d dressed for church. “We’re not catching up with everyone for mass?”
“Of course we are. Write down what goes in the oven on what temperature for how long and Vince will see that everything gets in and out of the oven. He’s quite good at that.” She laughed fondly. “He’s had a lot of practice. He hasn’t made a mass with this family since he started medical school. Spreads his schoolbooks out on the table and studies when we’re all gone. Claims to like the quiet. Can’t imagine who he takes after.”
She shut the oven door gently, allowing Megan to move closer to the pot she hadn’t stopped stirring. “I’m going to come right out and ask. How are you and Nic doing? Everything working out okay?”
Nic had been trying to talk with her about that night, but Megan didn’t share that with Mama. She had an opportunity here and seized it with both hands. “Much better than I had any right to expect. You all have been wonderful. Please know how much it’s appreciated.”
Mama met her gaze levelly. “You’re welcome. Things don’t always work out the way we think they should, but they do always work out. You’re raising a lovely girl and that didn’t happen by accident. I know because I’ve raised six kids.”
“Thank you.” Megan had no other words.
“You seem to be willing to play fair now that everything’s out on the table. That’s really all I’m interested in, Megan. Nic’s happiness. He deserves to be happy. He’s always the one to count on. He manages to shove past all the nonsense and get to what’s important. That’s what makes him such a good police chief. It’ll make him a good father, too.”
“That was never a concern.”
Mama smiled as if she knew she was putting Megan on the spot with her candidness. “He’s had loads of practice around here. He’s responsible to everyone he loves. Except himself. He needs to make more time to live his own life.”
“I’ve dropped more responsibility into his lap.”
Mama reached up and patted Megan’s cheek. “I think you and Violet are exactly what the doctor ordered.”
Then she strolled out of the kitchen again, leaving Megan staring after her, wishing she felt the same way.
It took a lot of emotional energy to deal with this mess. She hadn’t intended to add sleeping with Nic to the list. Nor had she intended to find out she was still in over her head with him. She simply couldn’t deal with that right now.
Was her whole life about avoidance?
But she’d made some of the decisions that had had the biggest impact on her life in the heat of reacting to Nic.
And right now she needed to reason. Her daughter needed parenting to establish a foundation for a solid, realistic relationship with her father. Nic, too, had recognized the transition would be much easier with Megan around, which equaled an admission on his part that he could use some help getting to know their daughter. Their headstrong daughter who was so very much like him.
Add to that trying to figure out the relationship with her parents, solidifying details for the Helping Hands project and making arrangements for the relocation, and Megan simply couldn’t handle any more. And particularly not Nic. Not yet.
They’d slept together. Period. Aside from the fact that they were both a lot older, how was that any different than it had ever been? He’d kiss her. She’d wind up naked. No difference there. The only difference now was complications from all the decisions she’d made. Now Violet was making decisions that impacted all of them. And Nic, too. These were the important things. The things they needed to focus on. They were adults with a responsibility to their daughter. Period.
But as she took the pot from the flame, a nagging voice inside accused Megan of adding fear to her list of sins. Fear that Nic could never overcome their issues. Fear of facing how much she wanted him to.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
MEGAN WAS PRACTICALLY vibrating by the time they arrived back at Mama’s house. Mass, which usually left her feeling calm and contemplative, had been of the supersize variety as St. Louis Cathedral was the final stop along the historic parade route. Half of New Orleans had attended.
Still, she was too busy smiling and greeting people when they arrived back at the house where, true to Mama’s word, Vince had managed the cooking skillfully. The Chilean dishes seemed to be going over well, vanishing apace of Mama’s more traditional Italian fare.
“Is there going to be enough?” she asked Mama at one time when they found themselves together at the kitchen sink.
“Anyone who misses the meal will catch coffee and dessert.” She grinned, clearly in her element in a noisy house filled with people. “It’s an open house. People come and go. That way I get to see everyone because everyone usually has more than one place to visit on holidays. Anyone who knows me knows if they want food, they’d better arrive at the front end of the festivities.”
Megan thought that was a humble way of acknowledging her cooking skills were legendary. Violet certainly seemed to think so because Megan spent much of her time in the kitchen, the self-appointed keeper of the table, so there was no missing how often her daughter appeared there, helping herself.
Violet was the star of today’s celebration, and like her Grandmama, reveled in the attention. She seemed to have put aside her mood to allow Nic to introduce her to everyone who walked through the door. People Megan had met or heard about. Even guests she would have never expected to run into here.
“Mom, look who it is.” Violet appeared in the kitchen again, only this time she’d abandoned her plate and brought along two guests.
“Dad? Mom?” Megan blinked stupidly. It took her a moment before she greeted her parents. “Happy Easter. I’m so happy to see you.”
She sounded as shell-shocked as her parents looked, both dressed as if they’d come from mass at their church on the university campus where Father Lafevre was pastor.
Mama was right behind them, carrying a gorgeous bouquet of flowers. “Your parents brought it. Won’t it decorate the table perfectly?” she asked Megan, who nodded perfunctorily. “I wanted e
veryone to have something special today. I didn’t think you’d appreciate a basket.”
Violet gave a snort of laughter. “I don’t know about that. I have to hide the chocolate so she doesn’t eat it all.”
Mama winked. “Then share some of yours with her, gorgeous. I thought it would be nice for you and Violet to have all your family together since you’re in town.”
“We appreciate the invitation,” her father said. Then he looked at Megan and spread his arms wide in greeting.
She crossed the distance with a welcoming smile, and his arms came around her, arms that had once been the safest place in her world. “I’m glad you’re here.”
She wasn’t surprised Mama had invited her parents, but she was very surprised her parents had accepted the invitation. Glancing between her parents, she willed them to know how much she appreciated the gesture, how much making this choice meant.
“Go on, dear,” Mama said. “Get out of this kitchen and enjoy the day. Get your parents something to eat and eat with them. Don’t think I haven’t noticed you haven’t had a bite.”
“Mom and I made some Chilean dishes,” Violet said. “You’ve got to try the humitas—they’re my favorite.”
Megan shook off her shock with effort, recognizing that her parents had taken an enormous step by coming here. She could only assume they wanted to put the past behind them and move their relationship in a new direction. Take a chance that they could do things differently.
Now the responsibility was Megan’s to accept the gesture and help them feel welcome in an unfamiliar place among people they once hadn’t been interested in knowing. To bridge the gap between the two halves of Violet’s family and prepare for the inevitable meeting with Nic.
She followed Mama’s advice, leading her parents to the buffet table. Mama set the bouquet in a place of honor where it would be admired, while Megan and Violet told them all about the Chilean dishes they’d prepared.
Megan got the sense they weren’t sure how to respond, not because they didn’t want to bridge the distance that had grown between them, but because they might not know how.
Then There Were Three Page 19
