Chapter 8 #2
When he opened his arms, she walked into them. She pressed her cheek to his chest and wrapped her arms around his waist.
Bernie fit against him so perfectly that holding her felt like...home. That thought sucked all the air from his lungs. It took a full minute of holding her before he could find and use his voice again. “That’s good to know. Do we need to stop by the vet’s office and pick him up?”
She shook her head without moving it from his chest. “No. The vet wants to continue monitoring him through the night and ensure whatever was in his system is flushed out before I take him home.” She sighed. “And he’s probably better off at the vet’s office. At least he won’t be poisoned there.”
Gerard’s arms tightened around her. “Ready to go home?”
She nodded but didn’t make a move to leave his embrace. Then she shook her head. “No. I’m not ready.”
“We don’t have to go there. We could stay in town and go to Broussard’s, buy candy bars and sodas, then head down to the marina and sit on the dock with our feet in the water.”
She leaned back and smiled into his eyes. “That sounds good, all the way up to dangling our feet in the water.”
“What? You don’t like getting your feet wet in anything but mud?”
She laughed. “No. I love getting my feet wet. It’s just that there are a couple of alligators that like to hang out by the marina looking for some of the chum the fisherman chunk into the water after cleaning their catches of the day.
I wouldn’t want them to mistake my bare feet for chum and take a bite.
But if you feel the need to dangle your toes in alligator-infested waters, by all means, knock yourself out. ”
“Smart ass,” he grumbled. “Way to shoot down a perfectly good date idea with a little reality.” He pressed a kiss to her forehead. “Since you’re not with me on the dock dangling, can I interest you in heading out to beautiful Bellamy Acres for the joy of picking a thousand watermelons?”
“You really know how to sweep a girl off her feet, don’t you?”
He bent and swung her up into his arms. “I might not know much about animals and farm life, but I can sweep you up in my arms.”
She giggled. “I give you an A for effort and style. Now, you can put me down before you strain something. I’m not a petite little thing like most women.”
“No, you’re not,” he said. “And that’s a good thing. I usually look like a dirty old man with a little girl when I date petite women. You’re the perfect height and weight. I don’t feel like I’ll break you if I bump against you accidentally.”
Her brow twisted. “Thank you, I think.”
“Yes, that was my awkward attempt at a compliment.” He carried her to the truck.
She pulled the handle to open the door, and he deposited her on the passenger seat.
This time, when he leaned in to buckle her belt, she caught his cheeks between her palms and kissed him. “Thank you.”
“For buckling your seatbelt?” He nodded. “You’re welcome.”
“Thank you for being here,” she said. “I know I’m your assignment and all, but it’s nice to have someone to lean on, even if it’s only for a short time.”
“It’s my pleasure.” He kissed her full on the lips, then backed out, closed the door and rounded to the driver’s side. A knot had formed in his gut at her words.
Bernie had been on her own since her husband’s death, managing a farm, animals and bills with no one else to help. He admired her for her strength and determination and realized how hard it must have been to power through while also bearing the burden of grief.
For a brief, foolish moment, he wished he could be there for her always. To help her with the work, share the expenses and come up with solutions when things didn’t go right.
She needed someone by her side.
But that someone wasn’t him.
It couldn’t be. His genes were tainted. Instead of relieving her burden, he could be adding to it. She’d be better off without him and open to falling in love with a better man.
The thought of her with someone else stuck like a knife in his chest. Even though she didn’t belong to him. Couldn’t belong to him.
Silence reigned in the cab of the old truck, the only sound the roar of the wind blowing through the open windows.
When Gerard drove around the side of the house into the barnyard, Bernie gasped.
“What are all of these people doing here?”
The barnyard was full of vehicles and people.
“I asked Remy to send the team out earlier than noon to help clean up and start picking the rest of the melons. That accounts for half of the people. And there’s the sheriff and Deputy Taylor. I don’t know the rest of these folks.”
Bernie frowned. “I do. They’re friends and neighbors. But what are they doing here?” She slipped out of the passenger seat onto the ground.
Gerard climbed down from the truck and joined her as she approached the small crowd.
Tante Mimi and Deputy Taylor approached Bernie with two other women.
Deputy Taylor gave Bernie a lopsided grin. “You know, when word gets around that one of our own is having trouble, you can’t keep good people away.”
Bernie shook her head. “I don’t understand.”
“Gisele, Felina and Mimi asked how they could help.” Deputy Taylor raised her hands. “I said you might need help cleaning up the mess and harvesting the rest of the melons. Mimi reminded me that tomorrow is the weekend Farmer’s Market in town. I bet you haven’t had time to think about that.”
“I haven’t,” Bernie admitted. “I figured I wouldn’t make it with everything going on here.”
“You have to make it,” the woman Gerard recognized as the gift shop owner, Gisele, stepped forward. “The community relies on you to provide first-class produce for their homes.”
“There will be plenty of other farmers there to do the same,” Bernie insisted.
“But none of them will be from Bellamy Acres,” the woman beside Gisele said. She smiled at Gerard and held out her hand. “I’m Felina Faivre. And you’re the yummy bodyguard I’ve heard about.”
“Gerard Guidry.” He shook her hand, his brow furrowing. “I don’t know about yummy, but it’s nice to meet you.”
“Believe me,” Felina said. “The pleasure’s mine.”
“I appreciate the sentiment,” Bernie said, “but I can’t ask all of you to sacrifice your business hours to bail me out. I mean, geez, Gisele, who’s minding the gift shop while you’re out here?”
“I hung the Out-to-Lunch sign on my door.” Gisele lifted her face to the sun. “It’s too nice a day to be stuck inside.”
Bernie turned to Felina. “What about your flower shop? Tell me you didn’t close it on my account?”
Felina shrugged. “It was a slow day. I’m not missing anything. People can leave orders on my voice mail or go online.”
“The point is, we came to help,” Mimi said. “Shut up and let us do that. We even brought more people to get it done quickly.”
Gerard’s chest swelled at the community's outpouring of support for Bernie and Bellamy Acres.
Deputy Taylor nodded toward the trailer with the boxes of destroyed melons.
“We made a thorough check around the barnyard, in the barn where you found Howey and out near the pigpen and didn’t find anything that would point to who did this.
We dusted the door handle on the barn and will take the prints back to the station and hope to find a match.
Other than that, there’s not much else we can do. ”
Remy appeared. “Are we clear to start the cleanup?”
Deputy Taylor cocked an eyebrow. “It’s up to Bernie.”
Bernie's lips twisted. “Might as well.” She dug in her purse for the keys to the truck and handed them to Remy. “Take the trailer out to the pigpen and shovel as much as you can of what’s in the boxes over the fence. Penelope and the gang will finally get what they’ve been trying to get to these past two nights. ”
Remy nodded. “Got it.” He tipped his head toward Gerard. “I couldn’t get anyone to install the surveillance system today, but I’ve got someone coming out first thing in the morning.”
Gerard nodded. “Bernie and I will be at the farmer’s market in the morning and unable to meet with the guy. I believe the market closes around two.”
“I’ll see if he can adjust his schedule so you and Bernie will be there. In the meantime, we have work to do here.” Remy returned to the trailer of ruined watermelons.
He sent a couple of guys into the barn. They returned with shovels and pitchforks and loaded them onto the trailer. While most of Gerard’s team climbed onto the back of the trailer, Lucas slipped into the passenger seat. Remy slid behind the wheel and drove the truck across the field to the pigpen.
“You didn’t want to go with them?” Bernie asked.
Gerard shook his head. “Sweetheart, I’m your shadow. Where you go, I go.”
“Tell us what you need done, and we’ll get to work on it,” Mimi said.
Bernie split the volunteers into two groups, sending half out to the watermelon patch to start picking and lining up the melons for when Gerard’s team had the trailer cleared of the smashed fruit and loaded with clean, dry boxes.
The other half of the volunteers were given bushel baskets and directed into a separate garden where Bernie had grown a wide variety of produce. She parked the modified produce truck close to the garden and instructed the volunteers to fill the labeled bins with the appropriate vegetables.
She pointed Gerard in the direction of several long rows of cornstalks and showed him how to tell what was ripe and how to strip the ears of corn off the stalk.
Bernie worked another row parallel to his.
Before long, they’d picked all the ripe corn and loaded it into the bin labeled CORN.
When the bin was completely full, they loaded the remaining bushels into the back of the truck, sliding them beneath the bins on the side.
While they were picking corn, Remy and his guys finished dumping the broken melons and rinds into the pigpen, stacked the ruined boxes on the edge of the field to be burned later and returned to the barn to load fresh, empty boxes onto the trailer.
With more hands helping, they finished harvesting the ripe watermelons in record time, completing the task just after noon.
Once the produce truck was full, Bernie parked it in the barn, where it would stay cooler than in the sun until the morning when she would take it to the farmer’s market.
Gerard marveled at how willing the people of Bayou Mambaloa were to contribute their time and effort to help a friend and neighbor.
Bernie hugged each volunteer and thanked them. When she tried to send them home with vegetables, they declined. “Save them for the market tomorrow,” they said.
Gerard stood back while Bernie made her rounds, keeping a close eye on her. Not that he thought any of these people were the ones causing trouble. But he couldn’t be too careful.
“She’s special,” a voice said beside him.
He turned to find the dark-haired, dark-skinned Gisele beside him.
“Yes, she is,” he agreed.
“All her life, she’s given so much of herself, caring for others, it’s about time someone took care of her.” Gisele looked up at him with her strangely golden eyes. “You’ll be good for her and give her the babies she always wanted.”
Gerard frowned. When he opened his mouth to disavow her of her prediction, she raised a finger, cutting him off before he could start.
“She has seen enough grief for one lifetime.” Gisele’s eyes narrowed into slits.
“If you break her heart, I will put a spell on you that will make your balls shrivel and your dick shrink to the size of a worm.” She held his gaze with hers a moment longer.
Then her eyes widened, and a sweet smile transformed her face. “I’m glad we had this conversation.”
Bernie approached, glancing from Gisele to Gerard and back. “Everything all right?”
Gisele patted Gerard’s cheek. “Perfectly. We were just getting to know each other.”