“Boy, you’re in a happy mood. I never saw anyone get so excited about hospital corners before.”
“I like my work,” Luc said. But that was only part of what contributed to his good mood. He and Loretta were heading to New Orleans as soon as she finished her deliveries. He would have her all to himself for several hours.
Doc was going to watch the B and B while Luc was gone. No guests were scheduled to check in today, but Luc did occasionally get walk-in business. Besides, Doc seemed to like hanging out here. He often came for neighborly visits with the guests, sitting on one of the porches with them if the weather was nice, telling them what the town was like when he was a boy.
Apparently the Landrys had been close to the Blanchards, his grandmother’s family, and Doc had spent lots of time in this very house during his youth. He remembered Luc’s grandmother as a young girl, and the stories he told of a laughing, headstrong teenager were a stark contrast to the stern, rigid woman Luc knew as Grand-mère.
Doc pitched in to help, putting pillowcases on the pillows. “Your good mood wouldn’t have anything to do with the fact you’re driving a certain pretty young redhead to New Orleans, would it?” he asked shrewdly.
“That doesn’t hurt.”
Doc’s expression turned serious. “Listen, I think you should know something about Loretta.”
“There are a lot of things I’d like to know about Loretta. She’s a hard one to figure.”
“You know she’s a widow, right?”
“Yeah, I’d heard.”
“Well, her husband was a piece of work. He was an itinerant farmer who turned her head when she was barely eighteen, and she married him against her parents’ wishes. They traveled, lived out of their car, had a grand old time.”
“Loretta? Lived out of her car?” Luc could hardly picture that. She was such a homey person. She had her bakery, her little girl. She was a sexy earth mother.
“Until she had Zara,” Doc continued. “Then she wanted to settle down and become responsible. But Jim didn’t.”
“What happened?”
“He took off. Then he hooked up with some bad characters and got involved in a holdup. Shot someone. Got caught, went to prison.”
Luc sank onto the bed, the pillowcases forgotten. “That’s awful.” He’d already known some of this, but the details made Loretta’s situation even more disturbing. He hated to think of her as a new mother, lonely, abandoned, husband locked away. “Then what happened?”
“Her husband was murdered in prison.”
The stark horror of that reality hung in the air for a few moments. “They were still married?” Luc finally asked.
“Almost divorced when it happened. It was a terrible thing. I truly believe Loretta still loved him, though she despised what he’d done, what he’d become. She grieved something awful.”
“But she’s over it now, right?” Luc asked hopefully. “That was several years ago.” He didn’t want to think of spunky Loretta as damaged. It was too sad.
“She’s bounced back. Poured herself into taking care of little Zara and starting her bakery. I’m not telling you this because I like to spread idle gossip.”
“Then why…” Luc got a sinking feeling in his stomach. “She would freak out if she knew the real reason I came to Indigo.”
“To put it mildly. She’s extremely sensitive about exposing Zara to anyone with any sort of…well, let’s just say she didn’t want to hire Samuel Kane to repair the roof on her house because he’s had a couple of speeding tickets.”
“Oh, boy.”
Doc was the only person in town who knew the story of Luc’s arrest and conviction, other than the chief of police, Alain Boudreaux. It was conceivable Loretta would never learn of Luc’s dirty little secret. Doc wouldn’t blab. But what if she did find out?
“You got a little thing for her,” Doc concluded.
“A huge thing.”
“She doesn’t date, you know. She hasn’t so much as gone out for ice cream with any man since Jim’s death. She feels she’s better off alone and she makes no secret of it.”
“So my sordid past isn’t really an issue,” Luc said. “She wouldn’t go out with me if I was on the Pope’s top-ten list of most saintly people.”
“No. Not unless you change her mind about men.”
Which was exactly what Luc had intended to do. “If it becomes an issue, I’ll deal with it then.”
“Keeping secrets in a small town is nearly impossible, you know,” Doc cautioned. “Already more than one person has speculated on where you drive off to every other Tuesday.”
“You mean there are actually people in this town who have nothing better to do than keep track of their neighbors’ comings and goings?”
“Absolutely. Luc, I would never tell your business to anyone else, believe me. And I happen to think maybe you’d be good for Loretta. Pretty young girl like that shouldn’t be alone, and Zara needs a daddy. She’s a handful, that one.”
“Whoa, whoa-wait a minute. I never said anything about being a daddy. I like Zara and all, but I haven’t even asked Loretta out on a date.”
“Just promise me you’ll be careful with Loretta’s heart. I delivered her, you know. I treated her cuts and scrapes and tonsillitis and ear infections. But a broken heart I can’t do anything about, and I don’t think I can bear to see her in pain again. So just be careful. Be honest.”
“Yes, sir. I will.”
They lapsed into silence as they finished the bed linens. Luc wasn’t used to anybody caring about where he’d been or what he’d done, except in the most casual way. And he’d never paid much attention to what people thought of him. If he couldn’t charm his way out of a sticky situation, he would simply move on.
That sort of thinking no longer applied.
Until he’d gone to work as a concierge for the Hotel Marchand two years ago, he’d had no close personal ties. He’d called his mother every once in a while so she wouldn’t worry too much about him, but that was it.
He felt different now. He didn’t want to just walk away if things got uncomfortable for him. He wanted Loretta to like him and be relaxed about letting him hang out with her and Zara. He wanted to prove to his family that they hadn’t wasted their compassion on him, that he was worth a second chance.
If he messed up by hurting Loretta, all the goodwill he’d been building would go right out the window.
LORETTA WASN’T a big-city person-she’d discovered that during her wanderings with Jim. She didn’t like crowds, noise or smog. And on those few occasions she had to travel into New Orleans, she dreaded it.
Today had been different. For one thing, Luc was driving, so she didn’t have to worry about freeway traffic or parking. He handled his SUV with skill, smoothly shifting from lane to lane. She found herself looking out the window at the city, marveling at the signs of rebuilding that were everywhere. The city was coming back after Hurricane Katrina’s devastation, despite what the naysayers had predicted, proving once again how resilient the people of Louisiana were.
The meeting with Melanie Marchand and her husband, Robert, went amazingly well. Melanie wasn’t anything like the snooty chef Loretta had imagined. She was friendly and funny and accessible, and she treated Loretta as if she were a new best friend. Though Loretta was just a small-town baker who worked out of her home, Melanie and Robert acted as though she were on a par with them.
Loretta had brought them some samples of her bread, and the couple had oohed and ahhed over them, swearing they were as good as anything available in the French Quarter. Melanie was brimming with ideas on how to do the dinner, and in a very short time they had a menu worked out. Melanie promised to e-mail Loretta with a list of the ingredients, utensils and volunteers she would need for the dishes that would be prepared on site. She made everything sound so easy that Loretta found herself relaxing for the first time in two weeks.