Loretta was silent for a while, taking it all in. Luc was right, he’d done some pretty bad things. But she could feel his regret. And she could hear the fondness in his voice for his cousins, his aunt-even his grandmother.
“So,” Luke said briskly. “You can run screaming into the night, now, if you want. I won’t hold it against you.”
She studied his face and saw the vulnerability there. Her heart squeezed painfully. “I have no intention of running. I feel exactly the same about you as I did before you told me. I don’t care what you did. I can see with my own eyes that you’re kind and generous and hardworking.”
“Maybe you’re seeing what you want to see,” he said cautiously.
“No. You’ve made mistakes, but who hasn’t? It doesn’t mean I can’t love you. Everyone deserves a second chance, a fresh start.” She looked down at her empty cup. “Celeste was right about this stuff.”
When she looked up, she felt dizzy from the intensity of Luc’s gaze.
“Somewhere in all that,” he said, “did you just say you loved me?”
“I did.”
“You know I love you too, don’t you?”
“N-not until right this moment.” Love. But what did that word mean to Luc?
“I think I was in love with you months ago,” he said, “but since I’ve never been in love before, I didn’t recognize it.”
“Love can be very sneaky.” She reached her hand toward him, only to find he’d done the same to her. They clasped hands, and then somehow they were in each other’s arms, lying in the middle of the bed, kissing as if they’d been lovers separated for years instead of a couple of days.
Pausing for breath, Luc pulled back and looked deeply into Loretta’s eyes, stroking her hair. “I love you,” he said again. “And I love Zara, too.”
“I want you to spend as much time with Zara as you please. I know you’ll be a good influence on her-for however long you choose to stay in Indigo.” She forced herself to say that last part. But she knew she had to accept Luc exactly as he was, not the ideal she wanted him to be.
“However long? How about the next hundred years or so?”
“Luc, don’t tease.”
“I’m dead serious. I’ve never stayed in one place long because I’ve never had a reason to before. But I love this town. I love the people, the way they care so much about each other. I probably won’t be in this house. I think Grand-mère intends to live here and run the place herself. But I’ll find something to do. Maybe I’ll run a swamp tour business.”
Loretta could hardly believe what she was hearing. Luc here in Indigo, forever? She couldn’t bear to think of La Petite Maison without Luc, but Celeste was the owner, and Loretta could understand the other woman’s desire to run it. And whatever business Luc decided to get into, he would make it something wonderful.
Luc jostled her. “You still with me?”
She realized she’d been staring off into space. “No. I’m just speechless.” She sat up and pulled away slightly, trying to gauge his sincerity. “You’ll really stay here?”
He nodded. “And something else. I want to marry you. Now, you don’t have to answer right away-”
“Yes.”
“-because I’ll keep asking. Maybe once a month or so.”
“I said yes.”
“You did?”
She leaned in and kissed him again. “Yes.”
EPILOGUE
LUC HAD NEVER FELT so nervous in his life. Confessing his past sins to Loretta had been easy-like taking off a heavy jacket. But asking Zara how she felt about having a new dad, that was scary.
Loretta had assured him Zara would be wild about the idea. After all, that had been her master plan: to prove to her mother that she needed a father, Luc in particular, to divert her from a life of crime. But when faced with the reality of having a new authority figure, she might balk.
He dressed with care in his best blue chambray shirt and dress slacks. He was going to Loretta’s to have his talk with Zara, then they were all coming back to the B and B for dinner. Vincent and Adele were invited, and of course Celeste and Doc would be there. Luc was going to announce his and Loretta’s engagement.
If everything went according to plan.
He arrived at Loretta’s at six-thirty. She let him in, looking sexier than ever in slinky black pants and a sheer, ruffled blouse with an enticingly low-cut neckline.
She greeted him with a warm kiss. “I have to warn you-” But that was all she got to say. Zara came running full tilt into the bakery, screaming “Luc! Luc, Luc, Luc, you’re here!” And she barreled into him, throwing her arms around his waist and squeezing so tight he worried she might never let go. “Luc, is it true, are you really going to be my daddy?”
Loretta shrugged. “I’m sorry, but she guessed right away and I’m not good at keeping secrets.”
“I can keep secrets, I’m real good at it,” Zara said. “Mama says I can’t tell anyone till you make the ’noucement at dinner tonight.” Finally she released Luc and beamed up at him with the sweetest smile.
“So you’re okay with your mom and me getting married?”
“I can’t wait! Can you do it tomorrow?”
“Not tomorrow, but soon,” Luc promised. “Now, then, I still have something to say to you, young lady.”
“Uh-oh.”
“Yeah, uh-oh. What you did by running away and painting the wall of the opera house was a really bad thing to do. No matter how much you want things to go your way, you can’t be thoughtless and hurtful to people you love. Do you know what I mean when I say the ends don’t justify the means?”
“It means that even though my plan worked, it was still a bad plan and I shouldn’t have done it.”
“Exactly.”
Zara chewed on a thumbnail. “I didn’t know everyone would be so worried. I thought they would just be mad at me.”
“Well, you need to think these things through.”
“I have, and I’m really, really sorry. I cleaned up the paint, and I wrote a letter to Alain and every person who looked for me to say I was sorry. But Mama said that wasn’t enough. She said I can’t play my fiddle at the music festival.”
“Your mama’s a tough cookie. Believe me, I know.”
“Don’t you think it’s unfair?” She blinked her big hazel eyes at Luc, and he had to force himself to firm his resolve.
“I think maybe next time you hatch a plan like the last one, you’ll remember the consequences and think twice.”
Zara’s eyes shone with tears, but if she was hoping to play Luc against Loretta, it wasn’t going to work. She sighed. “Okay.”
“Zara,” Loretta said, “run and put your good black shoes on. We have to leave in a few minutes.”
Zara stamped out dejectedly.
“Did I do okay?” Luc asked.
Loretta smiled. “You did fine. But do you think I’m being too harsh, grounding her from the music festival? She’s been rehearsing for weeks, and she’s so good.”
“Like I said, you’re one tough cookie.”
“Maybe I should think of another punishment.”
They turned as one when they heard a noise coming from the house-soft, at first, then louder. It was Zara’s fiddle, and she was playing the most melancholy song Luc had ever heard.
“Oh, now that’s enough to break my heart,” he said.
“Zara Castille, were you eavesdropping?” Loretta demanded.
The music stopped and Zara peeked around the corner. “Just a little bit, by accident.” She ran back into the bakery, still barefoot, clutching her fiddle. “Oh, Mama, when you told me about Luc, you said everyone deserves a second chance. Don’t you think I do, too? I’ll do anything. I’ll scrub the bakery floor every day, you can cut off my allowance for a year, burn all my Harry Potter cards, but please let me play my song in the festival.”