Chapter 5
My friend Ally was sitting in a lawn chair in my backyard when Ida Belle roared halfway up the bank in the airboat.
The boat jolted as it came in contact with land, and I clung to the armrests so hard I thought my fingers would break, barely managing to avoid pitching out of the seat.
Ida Belle, as usual, looked as if we’d drifted up following a slow row.
“That does it,” I said. “I’m getting seat belts for this thing.”
“A racing harness might be a better idea,” Ally chimed in.
Ida Belle waved a hand in dismissal. “Bunch of pansies.”
“Call me Violet, then,” Ally said. “You couldn’t pay me to get in that thing.”
I hopped out of the boat and onto the bank, Ida Belle traipsing behind me.
“You heard anything from your aunt?” Ida Belle asked Ally.
Ally had the unfortunate luck of being related to Celia Arceneaux.
They’d had a falling-out recently—several, actually—and Celia had taken to no longer speaking to Ally for a while.
Unfortunately, when Celia had realized Ally preferred the silent treatment, she’d started talking again, and at length.
Ally rolled her eyes and her expression was that of a long-suffering spouse. “I’ve heard everything from Aunt Celia. I keep thinking she’ll die of asphyxiation because she doesn’t stop long enough to take a breath, but so far, no luck.”
“Demons don’t need to breathe,” Ida Belle said. “But let me rephrase the question to something useful. Has she said anything relevant?”
Ally shook her head. “Mostly a lot of ranting about the election audit and why it’s taking so long.
And that if she’s not the clear winner then the audit was rigged.
I asked her how that could be, and you’ll love her answer—she says Fortune is doing ‘favors’ for the auditors to get them on Marie’s side. ”
I threw my hands in the air. “Why am I always the slut? I’m always the slut.”
“Hot women who get the guys are always the slut,” Ally said.
“You’re never the slut,” I argued.
“That’s because Carter is the only decent catch in town and he’s after you,” Ally said. “If he were after me, I’d be the slut.”
“Well, maybe this town needs to import some more eligible men,” I said.
“Preach!” Ally said.
“This whole slut thing is getting old,” I groused.
Ida Belle nodded. “Especially when you’re not even getting any. Doesn’t seem fair, really.”
“That’s beside the point,” I said.
“Not really,” Ally said. “If everyone’s talking anyway, you might as well have some fun. If you don’t get lucky after the dinner I prepared, then there’s no hope for you.”
“What if I don’t want to get lucky?” I asked.
“Everyone wants to get lucky,” Ally said. “They just don’t want to admit it.”
“All this talk of getting lucky reminds me that I need to wax my new love,” Ida Belle said. “Talk to you tomorrow.”
Ally’s eyes widened and she stared after Ida Belle as she walked away. “Ida Belle has a new love? Tell! And elaborate on the wax part.”
“Don’t get excited. It’s an SUV. I’ll admit, it got my heart racing, but that was mostly fear.”
“She’s been shopping with Hot Rod. That’s scary, but it does make me feel better about the waxing part.”
I nodded and we headed for the house. “The town should probably send out a warning, or sound that hurricane siren thingie. Let everyone know to be on guard.”
Ally laughed. “It can’t be that bad.”
“I got halfway through the test ride and walked back. Seriously, that whole Star Wars warp speed stuff is nothing.”
“Well then, we better get inside and go over your dinner preparations,” she said as we headed up the back steps and into the kitchen. “This could be your last night on earth if you plan on riding with Ida Belle again.”
“I know you think you’re joking, but I wouldn’t place a bet on it or anything.” I checked out the two huge pots and covered baking dish on the stove and said a silent prayer that nothing required me to actually know anything besides how to turn on the oven. “So what does my last meal consist of?”
Ally clapped her hands and grinned. “You’re going to love this. Carter was at the café for a late lunch the other day and he was asking when Francine was going to make crawfish étouffée again. She doesn’t do it often because it’s such a process in a small kitchen, but it’s Carter’s favorite.”
“You made étouffée? Seriously, that is above and beyond the friendship requirement.”
“You let me live with you while my kitchen was being rebuilt.”
“And you fed me goodies every single day. It’s not like I was suffering.” I lifted the lid off the pot and the smell of crawfish, spice, onions, and a whole host of other wonderful things wafted up. “I might cry. Oh my God, that smells incredible.”
Ally blushed, as she always did when I complimented her cooking, but I could tell she was pleased.
“I’m glad you’re happy with the choice. I started not to…
I know you said you guys’ breakup was mutual and all, and I’m not asking you to go into details, but I still say Carter was a fool to let you get away, even if it wasn’t for long.
And well, I wasn’t completely convinced he deserved étouffée. ”
“I’m not the easiest person to get along with.”
“Please. I lived with you and trust me, you’re very low-maintenance and completely laid-back, unless you’re sleeping. If you and Carter ever progress to spending the night together, you probably want to warn him not to startle you out of sleep.”
On a couple of occasions while she was staying with me, Ally had found out just how quickly I could vault from the bed and level a gun. Fortunately for me, she’d taken my “single woman living alone in the big city” explanation and laughed it off.
“I’m sure Carter could disarm me, if it came down to that,” I said.
I wasn’t the least bit sure of that at all, but it sounded like the sort of thing a librarian would say, and as far as Ally knew, that’s exactly what I was.
“You’re also forgetting all the grief I’ve caused him by getting in the middle of his investigations along with the meddling twosome,” I said.
“And ended up catching murderers. He ought to be thanking you. Besides, Ida Belle and Gertie have been nosing into everything in this town since they could walk, and Carter knows good and well that won’t change until they both pass.
Heck, even then, I wouldn’t put it past them to come back and haunt us all. ”
“I could see that.”
Ally checked her watch and sighed. “I have to run. I agreed to bake a hundred cookies for Aunt Celia and one of her church things.”
“Why on earth would you agree to do something for Celia?”
“Because it was the easiest way to get her to shut up and go away.”
I nodded. “So what are my instructions?”
Ally pulled a folded paper from her pocket. “I wrote it all down, just to make sure. I mean, I’m not saying you wouldn’t remember, but…”
I took the paper and scanned the notes. “Written is definitely better. And this looks simple enough. Turn a knob, set a timer. What can go wrong?”
“I’d really rather you didn’t put questions like that out in the universe, especially the universe surrounding Sinful.”
“Good point. I’ll amend to ‘I think I can handle this.’ If I get confused, I’ll call. If it’s too late to call, I have a fire extinguisher in the pantry.”
“That’s all a girl can ask.” She gave me a quick hug. “Good luck. I’ll give you a call tomorrow to see how it went. And please, I’m begging you—”
“Don’t do anything you wouldn’t do?”
“No. Please do everything I don’t have the opportunity to do.”
The bread had just gotten to that perfect crusty point when I heard my front door open and close. Seconds later, Carter walked into the kitchen, sniffing the air.
“When I said you were responsible for dinner,” Carter said as he stepped up to the stove, “I thought it was a gamble and I might get one of those awful frozen things, but it smells like you called in reinforcements.”
I lifted the lid on the pot of étouffée and allowed him to take a whiff. “How do you know I didn’t make this myself?”
He raised one eyebrow.
“Never mind.”
“Ally, I presume?”
I nodded. “No use doing things halfway.”
“I agree,” Carter said, and produced a bottle of wine. “I brought this.”
He leaned in. “And this,” he said as he lowered his lips to mine.
I relaxed into his kiss and moved closer as he wrapped one arm around my waist. I slipped my arms around him, and he deepened the kiss. I couldn’t believe how much I’d missed him while we were separated, and I still marveled at the way my body responded every time he touched me.
On a completely other level, it scared the crap out of me.
I was finally getting used to having real friends, but just the thought of a romantic relationship that had the potential of a future was enough to send me into panic.
I’d overthrown entire governments without my blood pressure going up even a tick, but having this man want me was more than my inexperienced mind could process.
My heart handled it by pumping harder and making me slightly dizzy.
We needed to chat, me and my heart, but I had a feeling my mind was going to lose any argument it put forward.
He broke off the kiss and smiled. “We better have dinner before it gets cold, and where this is headed would guarantee a cold meal.”
I smiled and grabbed some bowls from the cabinet next to the sink.
I knew he was lying…in a way. Carter would have been happy to continue on the path he’d started and microwave the dinner afterward, but he must have sensed my hesitation.
His backing off made me even more attracted to him.
Was there anything wrong with the man? I mean, besides his somewhat short temper and his apparent poor judgment when it came to women?
“Ida Belle and I took the airboat out for a spin today,” I said as we took our bowls of food to the kitchen table and sat down.
“Any particular reason why?”
I shook my head. “Just wanted to get some sunshine without sweating to death. I get stir-crazy sitting in the house all day.”