Dana looked over her shoulder. Her forehead crinkled into a frown. “I’m not supposed to stop and talk to people when I walk from Grandma Cecily’s to Grandma Marie’s. I’m supposed to go straight there.” She pointed on down the street to the elderly duplex where Marie Lesatz lived.
“I won’t keep you very long.” Had Dana really run away or did she have Cecily Boudreaux’s permission to go to her mother? Sophie decided she should find out. She patted the seat beside her again. “You can stay just for a minute, can’t you?”
“Okay. But only one minute.” Dana parked her little suitcase by the step and sat down beside Sophie. “My mommy’s waiting for me.”
“Oh, then she knows you’re on your way,” Sophie probed gently.
Dana looked down at the toes of her scuffed runners. “Well, no. Grandma Marie works at night. She’s still asleep so I didn’t want to call and wake her up.”
“What about Grandma Cecily? Does she know where you’re going?”
“She’s at the hospital.” Dana started picking at a worn spot on her jeans. “Guy’s still asleep ’cause there’s no school. And Mamère Yvonne’s taking a nap on the couch. Her medicine makes her sleepy after she takes it in the morning. Everyone’s asleep but me.” She looked up. Her beguiling smile twisted Sophie’s heart. “And my daddy. He’s at work taking care of the whole town.”
“I know.” So she was running away. Sophie wondered if she should make some kind of excuse to go inside and use her cell to call Alain? If she did that, Dana would never trust her again, and she didn’t want that. But if she did nothing and Casey Jo left town with the little girl, Alain would never trust her again, either.
She decided to stall for time. “What’s in your bag?”
The smile faded. Dana scooted away from Sophie. “Just stuff.”
“Okay.” Sophie was running out of small talk. She decided to stop tiptoeing around the issue. “Dana, does your daddy know you’re going to visit your mama?”
Dana fixed her green eyes on the top button of Sophie’s sweater, not on her face. “I’m allowed.” Her little chin jutted out. “I’m allowed to go to Grandma Marie’s.”
“I think we should call your father and make sure,” Sophie said, knowing she had to act.
“No!” Dana jumped off the step and grabbed her suitcase so violently it tipped over sideways.
Sophie stood up and descended the steps to help her right it. “Your grandma Yvonne will be worried when she wakes up from her nap and finds you gone.”
“I can go to Grandma Marie’s by myself. I can.”
From the corner of her eye Sophie saw a bicycle turn onto the street from Lafayette. She recognized Guy and felt relieved that she wouldn’t have to be the one to rat Dana out.
From the opposite direction a ten-year-old Taurus pulled up to the curb and Casey Jo jumped out. She was wearing biker shorts and a faded Saints T-shirt and her hair was pulled up in a knot on top of her head. She wasn’t wearing makeup, and while she was still very pretty, she looked her age. “Dana, what are you doing here?”
“She took off without telling us,” Guy answered for her as he skidded up on his bike. “Mamère Yvonne woke up and found her gone and sent me after her.”
“She called us, too,” Casey Jo said. Her green eyes were fixed on her son’s face, as though she were drinking in his features. “You didn’t stop by to see me last night like you said you would.”
Guy dropped the bike in the grass and went over to pick up his sister’s suitcase and set it back on its wheels on the sidewalk. “I said I might come over. I was busy. Sorry,” he added grudgingly as he straightened to face her.
She reached out a hand to touch his cheek. “You’re so tall,” she said, tilting her head back a little to meet his eyes. “You didn’t look that tall in the pictures Grandma Marie sent me.”
“Yeah, well, if you’d show up here more than every year or so, it wouldn’t be such a shock when you see me up close and personal, would it?”
“Watch your mouth,” Casey Jo snapped, then made as if to pull him into her arms, her eyes filled with easy tears. “I’m sorry, baby. I shouldn’t have said that. I’m really sorry.”
Guy evaded her embrace. “Yeah,” he said, wrapping his hands around Dana’s shoulders. “That’s what you always say.”
“I’m busy, Guy. I have to earn a living. You’d see that if you ever came to visit me.”
“Trying out for American Idol isn’t making a living. C’mon, Dana, we’re going home.”
“No,” Dana whimpered. “I miss Mommy. I want to go with her to Disney World.”
“Come to Mama, darlin’.”
“Stay here.” Guy tightened his hands on Dana’s shoulders to hold her still and she started to cry.
“Ouch, you’re hurting me,” she sniffled, squirming to be set loose.
Casey Jo wiggled her fingers. “Baby, come here.”
“You’re not taking her anywhere,” Guy said, but he let Dana go. “I called Dad. He’s on his way.”
Sophie didn’t know what to say or do next. She felt like an interloper, a bystander caught in the eye of an emotional hurricane. Uncomfortable as she was, she stood her ground. Her heart ached for Guy and Dana and she didn’t intend to walk away and leave them alone with Casey Jo until Alain arrived.
“Why’d you do that, Guy?” Casey Jo said as she knelt and gathered Dana into her arms. “We could have sorted this all out at Grandma’s. Now we’ll have to air our dirty linen in front of her.” She flicked a damning glance at Sophie.
“Considering you’re standing on my property, I should be the one asking you to leave,” Sophie replied. Casey Jo Lesatz had caused her to cut and run once. It wasn’t going to happen again.
“My mama said old Maude Picard dropped over dead and left you everything.” She gave the little house a dismissive once-over before turning her gaze back to Sophie. “Some people just naturally fall into the honey-pot, don’t they?”
Sophie remained silent, determined not to be goaded.
Alain’s SUV pulled up behind Casey Jo’s run-down compact and he ate up the distance from the curb to the porch in half a dozen strides. “What’s going on?” he asked, taking in the four of them with a single sweep of his eyes.
“Dana snuck out of the house,” Guy said before anyone else could speak. “Mamère Yvonne dozed off, and when she woke up, Dana was gone. We figured she was walking to Grandma Marie’s and we were right. Here she is.”
“Mama figured the same thing and I came lookin’ for her the minute your grandmama called,” Casey Jo inserted. She stood up, holding Dana tight against her. “She wants to go to Florida with me and I’m taking her.”
“I thought we thrashed this all out last night,” Alain said, his tone patient but hard-edged. “It’s seven hundred miles to Orlando. That’s too long a trip to make in three days.”
“We’ll have four days if you stop jawing at me and let us get on the road,” Casey Jo shot back.
“How do we know you’re even planning on coming back?” Guy interrupted. “For all we know, you’ll just keep Dana with you.”
“Why, I’d never do that,” she said bitterly. “Your father would probably have me hauled off to jail if I did.”
“Daddy wouldn’t do that,” Dana whimpered, throwing her arms around her mother’s waist. “Would you, Daddy?” She’d grown very quiet after Alain arrived, the excitement in her animated little face replaced with anxiety. “We’ll come back, won’t we? I get to clean the blackboards next week. And it’s my turn to take our class hamster home for the weekend.”
“Sure, sweet baby. Mama will bring you back here on Sunday. I promise.” For the first time Sophie felt sorry for Casey Jo as she saw the other woman absorb the sting of Dana’s words. She might be far from the best mother in the world, but no woman should have to hear her children tell her they didn’t want to stay with her.
Alain must have seen the hurt the innocent statement inflicted because his voice
softened when he spoke again. He hunkered down in front of the little girl. “Dana, you won’t get to stay at Disney World very long. Florida is very far away. You know you get carsick when you have to ride a long time. It’s not too late to tell Mama you would rather go some other time.”
Dana shook her head, her eyes filling with disappointed tears. “I won’t get carsick. I want to go with Mama. Please. We’re going to have so much fun. She promised.” All the pent-up anticipation of a seven-year-old poured into her words and her voice.
“She always promises,” Guy said, shoving his hands into the pockets of his jeans. “You know that.”
“We’ll have fun,” Dana insisted. “Daddy, please.”
Alain remained balanced on the balls of his feet, his arms wrapped around his daughter. Sophie ached for him. For the decision he faced. Around them she heard the neighborhood come to life. Dogs barked, doors slammed and car engines rumbled as people went off to work and morning errands, but Alain remained silent.
Finally he lifted his head and set Dana away from him. He rose to his feet and turned his full attention to his ex-wife. “Have her back here by 7:00 p.m. Sunday or I’ll come after you myself. And yes, I will have you arrested. I’ll do it in the blink of an eye. Do you understand?”
Casey Jo’s eyes glittered like green glass but she didn’t contradict him. “I’ll have her back on time.” She turned to Guy, the angry line of her mouth transforming into a dazzling smile as she held out her hand. “Come with us, Guy. Give us a chance to get to know one another again.”
Guy threw up his hands in disgust. “No! I’m not going with you. And I can’t believe Dad’s letting Dana go, either. You’ll just mess it up like you always do and she’ll come home crying. I hate you both.” He turned on his heel and jumped on his bike.
“Well, thanks for that, Alain,” Casey Jo said bitterly, as she watched Guy ride away. “I could have talked him around if you hadn’t put up such a damned fuss over this whole thing.”
Alain picked up Dana’s little pink suitcase and walked toward the car. “No, you couldn’t, Casey Jo. He’s not seven. He’s fifteen and you can’t talk your way around him anymore. And if you screw up this visit with Dana, you won’t be able to paper over the cracks with her as easily as in the past, either. Remember that.” He tossed the suitcase into the backseat, leaned down and buckled Dana into her seatbelt. He gave her a kiss and shut the door. Resting both hands on the top of the car, he stared at Casey Jo over the roof of the vehicle and the steel in his voice sent shivers up and down Sophie’s spine. “Don’t blow it, Casey Jo, or you’ll never be alone with her again.”
WATCHING Casey Jo drive away with Dana was the hardest thing Alain had ever done. God, what if she didn’t come back on Sunday? He’d talked a big game but he got Amber Alerts at the station every day for children who were abducted by family members, and some of them were never seen again. Guy would never forgive him if that happened to Dana. And he would never forgive himself.
“Come on inside. I’ll make you a cup of coffee.”
He spun on his heel. Sophie was still standing at the foot of the porch steps. He wouldn’t have blamed her if she’d gone inside, slammed the door in his face and locked it after the scene she’d just witnessed. But she didn’t turn her back on him. She smiled and waited for him to respond. She looked like a breath of springtime in a yellow flowered skirt and white blouse. Her hair was a halo of golden curls that framed her face and caressed the rose petals in her cheeks.
“I could use something stronger than coffee.” He didn’t know what to do next. Go after Guy. Go after Casey Jo and tell her he’d changed his mind about letting her take Dana to Disney World. Or follow Sophie into Maude’s little house. His feet started moving toward her before his conscious mind gave them the command.
“I thought cops weren’t allowed to drink on duty.”
“We aren’t.” He hesitated, wondering if he should take off after Guy instead.
“Come on in, Alain. Guy needs some time to settle down, and Casey Jo won’t be leaving town for at least an hour. I imagine it takes her that long to put on her makeup. You’ve still got time to stop her if you feel that’s what you have to do.”
She’d read his mind. Alain felt a smile tug at the corners of his mouth despite the heaviness in his heart. Sophie was right about Casey Jo’s face. It always took his ex-wife at least an hour of primping in front of a mirror to satisfy herself that she was ready to face the world each morning.
“How did you know that’s what I was thinking?” he asked, mounting the steps.
Sophie looked at him over her shoulder as she preceded him down the hall to the kitchen. His footsteps rang hollowly on the hardwood floor. The house had taken on the empty feeling houses always got when there was no one living in them.
“Because that’s exactly what I’d be asking myself if I was in your shoes.”
“You believe I shouldn’t have let Dana go with her mother, don’t you?”
She didn’t answer him right away. She pulled a small can of coffee out of the cupboard, opened it and sniffed the contents. “Still good.” She ran water into the coffeemaker and spooned coffee into the basket. When the dark liquid began to run into the carafe, she turned and faced him, her hands braced on the counter on either side of her. “Do you believe Dana’s at risk of being harmed in some way when she’s with Casey Jo?”
“At risk of having her little heart broken, maybe,” he said, searching inwardly for telltale signs of doubt. He met Sophie’s questioning gaze head-on. “But she’s not in any physical danger. Casey Jo’s selfish and immature, but she’s not a fool. She’ll take care of Dana. I wouldn’t have let her go otherwise.”
Sophie took a mug from the cupboard, rinsed it in the sink and waited until enough coffee had filled the carafe. She poured a cup for Alain and handed it to him. “But you do have fears she might not bring her back. Am I mistaken there?”
“I think about that happening every time the woman comes to town. I think most single parents do from time to time.”
“Why did you let her go with her mother, then?”
He wrapped his hand around the thick mug, and took a sip of strong, hot coffee before he replied. He was too restless to sit. So was Sophie, evidently. She remained standing, her back to the counter while he considered his answer. “I guess I let her go because I’m tired of always being the bad guy. And Casey Jo isn’t some kind of monster. She’s just thoughtless and immature. And maybe, deep down, I hoped she would give Dana the time of her life so she’d have some good memories to fall back on when the next disappointment comes. Because there will be more disappointments. Casey Jo’s not ever going to grow up.”
“You really believe that?”
He studied the coffee that remained in his mug. “I haven’t seen much improvement in the five years we’ve been apart. So, no, I’m not too hopeful.”
“Now you’ve got to convince Guy you made the right decision.”
He set the half-empty mug on the table. “That’s not going to be easy. He doesn’t have any of those happy memories to fall back on himself.”
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
SOPHIE LOOKED OUT the window of Past Perfect at the pouring rain. The clouds had rolled in on Thursday afternoon and by midnight she had heard the drumbeat of raindrops on the roof of La Petite Maison. Now it was Friday afternoon and it was still raining. And not just in Indigo. The low-pressure system extended all across the Gulf States and into Florida. It was beginning to look like this would be the wettest winter in southwest Louisiana in almost a century.
Dana would need her bright red Winnie the Pooh raincoat at Disney World because it was going to rain in Orlando, too. Sophie had checked the weather maps on her laptop when she got up that morning.
“Anything else you want me to do before I leave, Miss Sophie?” Guy asked. She hadn’t met a male yet, old or young, in Indigo who didn’t address her in that charmingly old-fashioned manner. She was beginning to not only
get used to it, but enjoy it.
“I think that’s all for today, Guy. Thanks for the help.” He was wearing a shiny black windbreaker over an Indigo High sweatshirt and would probably be soaked by the time he got home. She wondered if she should offer him a ride but decided against it. He played football in the rain; he could walk the four blocks to his grandmother’s house in the same conditions.
Sophie tucked the lopsided frog into a corner of the armoire shelf where she’d arranged the other stuffed animals and stepped back to admire her handiwork. “What do you think, Guy?” she asked, spreading her hands. “I gather there’s a group of people who collect them. But I haven’t been able to find any documentation of who these were ordered for so I’m putting them out here. Dana told me my godmother sometimes displayed them here. Maybe I can find their intended owners this way.”
“Looks good,” he said. “Sorry I couldn’t find the bear.”
“That’s okay. It will turn up.” But she was beginning to wonder. They’d swept out all the dust bunnies from under the seats in the auditorium, upended drawers and shone flashlights in all the dark corners, but the bear hadn’t turned up. Was it possible someone had stolen the toy? She thought that unlikely; there had been no signs of a breakin, and no customers since her godmother died, so shoplifting seemed unlikely. But still, the price had been so ridiculously high.
She really ought to call Alain’s mother and inform her of the loss. She was Sophie’s only real contact with the woman who had made the animals.
“If that’s all, I’ll be taking off,” Guy said.
“Have you heard from Dana?” she asked. She had resisted the temptation to quiz him so far, but now her resolve failed. She hadn’t yet seen Alain that day and she was anxious for news of Dana. Alain had told her yesterday, when they crossed paths in the General Store, that Casey Jo and Dana had spent the night before near Tallahassee. He figured they would be in Orlando by early afternoon. It was now a little after four.
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