Doc’s smile vanished. He’d seen the boat. He could predict Celeste’s reaction as easily as Luc could.
“Manipulated?” Luc objected. “You were the one who wanted to do more to attract the music festival crowd to the B and B.”
“I got caught up in your enthusiasm,” she insisted. “Temporarily.”
“A boat’s a good idea,” Doc interjected. “You wouldn’t believe what people around here charge for a swamp tour. Everyone’s all keen to see a gator, or an ivory-billed woodpecker.”
Celeste stood and smoothed the front of her impeccably pressed beige trousers. “Well, let’s go have a look at this barge, then. Does it run? Can we take it out on the water?”
“Of course it runs,” Luc said. “I wouldn’t buy a boat that doesn’t run. If Doc will watch the B and B for a few minutes-”
“The B and B can take care of itself,” Celeste said. “I want Doc to come with us.”
Good. Celeste was usually on better behavior when non-family members were around.
Luc got the boat keys, then they all went out the kitchen door and around to a wide, red-brick path that meandered across the gently sloping lawn toward the bayou, the same area where he’d found Zara hunting crawfish the previous week. Bricks eventually gave way to a wooden boardwalk over the squishy ground, and then to the dock where the boat was tied.
“Michel, would you give me your arm, please?” Celeste said, her voice almost coquettish. “I’m not wearing proper shoes for boating.”
“Of course, my dear.”
Luc resisted the urge to turn and stare at his grandmother. She was flirting with Doc! And Doc was flirting back. Luc shut his mind to the possibility. He refused to entertain the idea of his grandmother and Doc…what? Dating?
Did octogenarians do more than hold hands?
Luc squeezed his eyes shut and opened them again. “Well, here she is.” He fervently wished he’d parked the boat nose-in the last time he’d taken it out, but he’d backed it up instead. A few leaves had collected on the faded green-and-white canopy, which was folded down for storage, but otherwise the boat didn’t look as bad as he’d thought.
It was the boat’s name, though, that caused him to wince.
Celeste studied the vessel from stem to stern with a keen eye. “Well, now, it doesn’t look so bad. It’s got good lines.”
“I thought so,” Luc said. As a child he’d been interested in boats and had studied pictures and read about them. He’d also worked a huge marine trade show in Las Vegas every year for three years before he’d left home. When he’d lived in Thailand he’d gotten out on the water every chance he had, so he knew a bit about water-craft.
“Let’s see what she can-” Celeste stopped midsentence. “Oh. Mon Dieu, does that say…?” She was staring at the back of the boat. She’d seen it, the name.
“That’s what it says, all right,” Doc said. “Bitchin’ Mama.”
CHAPTER TWELVE
“LUC, TELL ME you didn’t christen this boat the Bitchin’ Mama.”
“No, it came like that,” Luc quickly reassured her. “Don’t worry, I’ll change it.”
“That should have been the first thing you did! Have you actually taken our guests out in this thing?”
Luc kicked a leaf off the dock. “I explained to them the circumstances.”
“Couldn’t you ink out the name with a Magic Marker? Cover it with duct tape? It’s…it’s an abomination.”
“I’ll scrape off the decal as soon as I can.”
“Today.”
“I have other work to do, Grand-mère. The B and B doesn’t run itself. I have cleaning, laundry, grocery shopping-”
“You’ve become quite domestic since you moved to Indigo, haven’t you.”
“That’s what you sent me here for, isn’t it?”
“I wasn’t complaining. Just that I think it’s interesting.”
So now he’d become her lab experiment. “I will try to work on the boat sometime this week, but I can’t today,” he said firmly. Aside from having to clean up after a full house over the weekend, he’d promised Loretta he’d make some phone calls for the VIP dinner.
And then he had a date with Loretta. Or, more accurately, with Loretta and Zara. Tonight was the night they were sitting down with Zara to explain the nature of their relationship. And when they’d done that, he was taking Loretta out to dinner-a fancy, romantic dinner complete with candles and wine and soft music. He’d found a historic hotel in St. Martinville that fit the bill. She’d promised to arrange for a sitter for Zara-probably Adele and Vincent.
This would be Luc’s first official date with Loretta. Maybe they’d gotten things a little backward, making love first, but no law said he couldn’t set things right now.
Celeste looked as if she wanted to argue, but Doc stepped in. “Now, Celeste, let the boy alone. He’s been running La Petite Maison just fine without anyone’s help for several months now, and doing a fine job of it, too. You can’t come roaring in here changing the order of things on a whim.”
“Wanting that name off my boat is not a whim,” she insisted mulishly.
“Why don’t you take a spin in her?” Doc cajoled. “The smell of the bayou, the Spanish moss, trailing your hand in the water…remember how you used to do that?”
“Until an alligator almost took my arm off,” she shot back, then laughed unexpectedly. “Oh, Michel, why don’t you and I go for a ride? We’ll just let Luc get back to his work.”
Doc looked at Luc. “I can take your grandmother for a test drive. And I’ll make her wear a life jacket.”
Luc nodded and handed the keys to Doc, then leaned in and whispered, “Keep her out as long as you like. She doesn’t have a curfew.”
Doc roared with laughter and Celeste glowered. She didn’t like anyone keeping secrets from her. But then she smiled and tilted her head at Doc. “Let’s see what the Bitchin’ Mama can do.”
Luc laughed all the way back to the house.
LUC DIDN’T HAVE a lot of belongings he could call his own. Moving around most of his adult life, he simply hadn’t accumulated much. But he did own a couple of good-quality suits and everything that went with them.
That afternoon, he washed his car, walked down to the barbershop and got his hair cut, then came home, ironed his favorite navy suit, and put it on. He cut some colorful chrysanthemums from the garden and wrapped them in wet paper towels and a plastic bag.
Then he wandered out to the veranda. Doc had spent the entire day hanging out with Celeste. They’d come back from their lengthy boat ride looking windblown, with ruddy cheeks and sparkling eyes. Luc wondered what they’d been doing besides taking in the local flora and fauna, then he’d immediately censored the thought. He did not want to go there.
“I’m leaving for the evening,” he said.
Doc whistled. “Whoever she is, she must be special.”
“You know who she is, and you know she’s special.”
“Why, Luc,” Celeste said, “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you looking so handsome.”
“Thank you, Grand-mère.” He could have said the same for her-that he’d never seen her looking quite so pretty. He gave her a courtly bow, then left for Loretta’s. He hadn’t felt this excited about a date since…maybe never.
As he drove up to the bakery, he realized he didn’t know where the front door to Loretta’s house was. He couldn’t remember seeing one. The sign on the door had been turned to Closed, and it was dark inside.
But then he saw movement through the glass, and Loretta appeared with an apologetic smile as she unlocked the door. “I should have told you to walk around back to the kitchen,” she said. “When I remodeled, I took off the whole front of the house so I don’t have a front door any- Oh, my God, you look fabulous.”