The Road to Bayou Bridge

by Liz Talley

  Her friend’s gaze found hers and she shot accusation with her brown eyes.

  Darby gave Carrie his toe-curling grin. “She hasn’t? Well, that’s strange. We’ve been married for eleven years.”

  Renny stepped back onto Carrie’s toes.

  “Ouch!” Carrie pushed at her back before squealing, “Married?”

  “He’s joking. I haven’t seen him in eleven years. All that sun in Spain cooked his brain.” Renny smiled through gritted teeth. “And he does have an odd sense of humor.”

  Darby nodded, with a stupid smile. She gave him a daggered glance. “So do you want to die now or later?”

  “Later, please,” he said, holding the picnic basket off. “I want my last meal first.”

  Carrie hopped on one foot, looking back and forth from Darby to her. “You have a date?”

  Darby laughed. “Exactly.”

  “Well, this is interesting.” Carrie looked at Renny and lifted her eyebrows. She might as well have added you dog to her proclamation.

  “Well then, old friend, should we go?” Renny asked.

  Darby frowned. “You don’t know where we’re going. I don’t know where we’re going. I only got as far as asking Lucille to pack a picnic. Caused lots of speculation at Beau Soleil.”

  “Beau Soleil,” Carrie repeated, narrowing her eyes. “Even more interesting.”

  “We should be off,” Renny said, grabbing Darby’s elbow hard and steering him toward the outer door to the facility. “See you in about an hour, Carrie.”

  “Nice to meet you,” Darby called over his shoulder, allowing her to lead him like a lamb to slaughter. Which he was. Of course Darby was nothing similar to a lamb, but the bloodbath was about to go down.

  “What made you think you could come to my office? I agreed to dating, but not to letting everyone know we’re dating,” she muttered as Carrie called back platitudes.

  He tossed a final wave over his shoulder and looked down at her. “What? I thought we were learning about each other. Thought I’d check out the station and bring you some lunch.”

  “You told her we’re married. Are you insane?”

  “I was joking. No one’s going to find out until we tell them...or until they read the filing in the newspaper. So what does it matter? Just trying to flirt and set the mood for a nice little picnic.”

  “You should have called and I could have met you. Now I have to go back and answer all her questions—she’s going to be worse than being stuck in a room full of mosquitoes at sundown.”

  “That bad, eh?” Darby smiled, opening the car door and giving her a questioning look. “Is there a place nearby where we can picnic?”

  “Guess we can drive down by the launch and eat in the car.”

  He nodded and set the basket in the backseat next to a folded quilt. “Fine, but I’m warning you, these seats are small and don’t go back far. Going to be hard to make out in them.”

  Renny shot him an exasperated look. Darby was in an awfully good mood. He grinned at her and something about the sun shining, the promise of Lucille’s cooking and lunch with a good-looking man lifted her spirits—even if she faced an inquisition once she returned to the office. “We can use the hood. No one will be around.”

  “Really?”

  “No.”

  “Damn. I had hope for a minute there.”

  She clicked the belt into the slot, wondering if they might get in a little necking on the car hood. Then it struck her how different she felt from last week. Darby was the used car salesman of her heart. Hell, she’d probably end up with her panties floating in the lake and a stupid lovesick smile on her face before the afternoon was over.

  And for once she didn’t feel so guilty about it.

  After all, they were dating...even if they were married.

  Darby started the engine and she directed him with a finger out the parking lot and toward the boat launch.

  “Are you really that upset I surprised you with a picnic? I thought girls liked romantic overtures?”

  “Well, you make it hard to be mad when you show up and do nice things for me, and you brought Lucille’s cooking. That’s seduction in itself.”

  He gave her a sideways smile. “I know how to choose my weapons.”

  Did he ever.

  They remained silent during the rest of the drive to the launch. When they pulled in, they found only a few trucks with trailers parked in the gravel lot, and no one else in sight.

  “There’s no good place to spread a picnic blanket. Too wet. Guess we’ll have to sit on the hood or trunk of the car or in the car.” She glanced over at him as he parked in an empty slot facing the water. He looked like the young devil-may-care Darby he’d always been. Seeing him this way made it easy to tuck her problems away.

  Darby cleaned his sunglasses on his shirttail then opened the door. “I forgot how wet this area is.”

  “It’s the wetlands,” Renny said, climbing out and surveying the expanse of grassy marsh surrounding the brackish water of the lake. All looked remarkably calm though she could hear the whine of a boat somewhere off to her right.

  Darby had just set the picnic basket on the trunk when she spotted the little pirogue Stevo kept tied to the wooden pier. He’d been testing water pH several times a day and because it was marked with Department of Wildlife and Fisheries and had no trolling motor or outboard attached, no one messed with it. A weathered pair of paddles leaned against the scratched aluminum hull. “What about the boat? We could row out to that little inlet over there and eat on the water.”

  Darby looked up from his rummaging within the basket. “Absolutely. I haven’t had the chance to get on the water.”

  She wore her rugged waterproof Merrells but Darby had on expensive-looking running shoes. She nodded toward his shoes. “You sure?”

  “I couldn’t have dialed up a better day than you, Lucille’s homemade bread and paddling along a Louisiana lake.”

  His words warmed her...or maybe it was the sun overhead. A cool front had slipped through the night before, giving them relief from the incessant Louisiana humidity, and gentle waves lapped at the grasses lining the shore. If Darby wanted romantic, it didn’t get much more perfect for a gal like Renny, unless they’d had bait and fishing poles.

  It only took four grunts, two curse words and nearly losing a paddle before they’d pushed off into the deeper water that would allow them to drift off the main channel. The boat was so small they had to tuck themselves out of the way of the fishermen’s larger boats that kicked up waves big enough to make eating impossible.

  Sweat rolled down Renny’s back as she and Darby each took a paddle and made way toward a small copse of brush and scrubby swamp trees that would provide some shade, but she didn’t mind the perspiration because there was something satisfying in the rhythm needed to propel the old boat forward. Dip, pull and rotate—they moved in natural harmony as they’d done in the past.

  With the wind at her back, the sun warm on her neck and the man she’d always loved rowing in front of her, Renny could almost believe fate had given her a perfectly wrapped gift. What had Darby called it? A mulligan.

  A do-over. Second chance. Whatever she wanted to call it. She had doubts, sure, but today things felt right and good, and she was glad she’d agreed to dating.

  Darby reached out and took a low branch of a small tree and looped the rope of the boat around it in an expert knot. “Okay, let’s see what Lucille packed us, who by the way, was thrilled to know I was having lunch with you. She said she sent you something special. Ah, here it is.” He withdrew a small Baggie of Lucille’s famous lemon cookies.

  Renny took them from him, opened the bag and popped one in her mouth. “Mmm.”

  “Don’t do things like that unless you want to find out what making out in a pirogue is like.”

  “I already know,” she said, wiping the crumbs from her chin.

  His eyes crinkled and she knew he remembered a few choice fishing trips they’d made.
“Touché.”

  Renny took another cookie. “You know how to woo a gal, don’t you?”

  “And they say the way to a man’s heart is with food. Guess they never met you. Who needs a bed and roses when you have lemon cookies and a pirogue?” He pulled huge turkey sandwiches with thick homemade-looking bread from the basket, along with a container of some sort of slaw and a bag of Zapp’s potato chips and set them on the metal bench sitting between them. “Go ahead and get started. Didn’t know how much time you had for lunch.”

  She grabbed a paper plate, set a half sandwich on it and glanced up at him. He watched her with a strange look on his face. “I have an hour if I need it. Usually I don’t need it to slurp down soup or tear through a frozen entrée.”

  “Glad I brought you something more substantial than that crap. You could stand to gain a little weight.”

  “Are you kidding? Have you seen how big my butt has gotten? I need to start biking again if the old leg can stand it. I’ve been doing—” He leaned forward and silenced her with a kiss—a wonderful, sweet kiss that nearly caused her to drop the sandwich half in her hand. After several seconds he lifted his head and tucked a piece of her hair behind her ear. “I like your ass fine.”

  Renny closed her mouth and looked down at her hand. She was hungry, but now she wasn’t sure if it was for the sandwich or the man. Probably both.

  She took a bite and glanced around them, at the way the breeze fluttered the leaves above them, at the way the wetland grasses swayed in a ballet of laziness. All around them, the land breathed. “I’ve come here hundreds of times, but I don’t think I’ve seen the lake like this.”

  “I’ve missed it,” he said, his voice tinged with longing, with pride.

  “You know, I’d thought of staying in Maryland. Good opportunities presented themselves at the research center.”

  “But?”

  “I kept thinking of the way the marsh looked at sundown, the way the herons coast over the basin early in the morning, the way my mama’s jambalaya tastes...and I couldn’t stay there. This is where I belong.”

  Darby took a bite of sandwich and chewed it slowly, his mind seemingly chewing just as intentionally. “Guess you have your own weapons in your arsenal.”

  “What?”

  “Well, I’ve brought food for seduction, but you have the words.”

  “I’m not trying to sway you with words. That’s how I feel, but that doesn’t mean you’re wrong for wanting to move away.” Her stomach rolled a little at that thought because somehow in the course of a few days’ time, she could hardly tolerate the thought she’d not see him again.

  He didn’t say anything further, and for the next few minutes they ate lunch, a peaceful silence between them, interrupted only by the crunch of a chip. The lake lapped at the sides of the boat as the cool breeze, mixed with occasional sun on her skin, created that sort of sleepy deliciousness that usually ended in a nap.

  “Thank you for lunch,” she said, dusting crumbs from her lap.

  “After that greeting I wasn’t sure it was a good idea. You seemed embarrassed I showed up to take you to lunch.”

  “Not embarrassed, just still uncomfortable with everything that’s happened over the past six days. Dear Lord, it’s been less than a week.”

  “Seems like a lifetime, huh?”

  “Yeah, but I don’t want to sit here and talk about feelings. Not when there are more lemon cookies in this bag.” She picked the plastic bag up and wagged the cookies in front of his nose.

  He grabbed it, pulled out a cookie and popped it in his mouth. “A woman who bass fishes, eats multiple cookies and doesn’t want to talk about her feelings? I’d marry you if I hadn’t already married you.”

  “Real funny,” Renny said, lifting a paddle. “We should get back.”

  Darby’s phone rang, but he ignored it and stood, making the boat rock. “Just a bit longer.”

  “Darby, sit down. You’re making the boat rock.”

  He ignored her and pulled her to him, wrapping his arms around her. “I’m not going back until I get a little kiss for all this effort.”

  “Oh, really?” She widened her stance because the boat rocked. “Even if you end up in the water?”

  “Water Schmater.”

  His lips covered hers and she forgot about the boat, the water and the world around them. In his kiss she tasted all she needed—hunger, sweetness, her past and, dare she hope, her future. It was good and didn’t last nearly long enough for her.

  After he broke the kiss, she looked up at him and he smiled, tilting his head down so his forehead rested against hers. The boat still rocked, but who really cared?

  “Ah, Ren, you taste like coming home, girl.” He sighed, and her heart fluttered, then doubled in size.

  It felt so wonderful to stand in the middle of a pirogue, wrapped in Darby’s arms with the hope blooming in her breast.

  His phone sounded again. “Guess we can’t hide from the world forever.”

  Renny sank to the bench, every bone in her body wanting to keep hiding from the world, from reality, from anything that might take him away from her. How had she gone from hating him to toes over the line in such a short amount of time? Because that’s what it felt like—her toes were hanging over the line of love and now she wasn’t even trying to stop herself from making that hop to the other side.

  Exciting—and dangerous.

  She’d sworn she could handle being with Darby and not make that leap, but had she really done a bang-up job at keeping boundaries? His lips moved as he read the text on his phone and she knew she’d not done the job at all. The lines were blurred and the waters even murkier.

  Because she was falling in love with him.

  “Mom says I have a visitor at the house.”

  She snapped out of her dangerous thoughts. “Definitely time to get back.”

  He gathered up the remnants of their lunch and shoved the napkins, empty bottles and bags into the basket. “It’s probably just Sid. He said he’d bring the waiver today. Of course, he’s being discreet, telling Mom he’s stopping in to see me on his way to Baton Rouge. Have you read through the petition?”

  “Yeah, it’s a pretty standard-looking divorce.” She lied. She hadn’t read it. Something kept her from wanting to end the sham of a marriage even though there was nothing legitimate about it except the paper it was written on.

  She glanced at Darby and he looked like he wanted to say more. Maybe he felt the same way—knowing that divorce was probably the best idea but still not able to put his signature on the line. Because...

  What if?

  That question had floated between them ever since they’d made love.

  Darby untied the boat, sat down and grabbed a paddle. They simultaneously began paddling back toward the launch. After several minutes, Darby said, “Why don’t you come with me? It will give you a chance to talk to Sid and you can sign the waiver.”

  Something masquerading as a lead ball sank into her stomach. Of course, this marriage had to end. The past was the past, and if there was a future, it needed to be played on an even and clear field. “I hadn’t planned on it, but I need to photograph L9-10. Didn’t have my camera Sunday morning and we need visuals for our records.”

  He smiled. “Perfect. Both Mom and Lucille will love having you for coffee.”

  “It’s not a social visit, Darby.”

  They reached the launch, and Darby leaped out with the rope and turned to give her his best toe-curling smile. The same one he’d used on Carrie. The same one that usually got him what he wanted. “Lucille finally made me one of her famous bourbon pecan pies.”

  Damn. Those were really, really good. Almost as good as his smile. “Well, maybe just one little slice.”

  “That’s my girl. I know I can always seduce you with sweets.”

  Or with your body, smile and honeyed words.

  Damn, her mama had been right.

  She couldn’t keep her panties on when Darby
Dufrene was around. Well, she could. But sometimes she just didn’t want to.

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  DARBY FELT PRETTY PLEASED with himself. Renny had followed him back to Beau Soleil and he hadn’t had to use anything other than his “please” smile.

  Dating Renny had been the best idea he’d had in a while.

  Oh, he wanted her beneath him again. He’d thought of nothing else but her cute belly button and the curve of her breast. The smooth, soft skin of her inner elbow, the way her hair smelled of some flower and her sweet lips driving him crazy.

  He shifted in his seat as he pulled into the gates of Beau Soleil. Renny had always had that effect on him, ever since he’d first seen her in those cutoffs and bikini top on the side of a backcountry road. The triangles covering her breasts had been bright pink and he’d been able to see the outline of her nipples through the fabric. Sweat had sheened her chest and her brown hair had fallen out of her ponytail. He’d stared at those lips stained deep red with blackberry juice and had been sucked into desire so intense he couldn’t breathe. All he could do for a good two minutes was stare at her.

  So, yeah, wanting Renny had never been in question.

  But getting to know her, laugh with her, admire her dedication to her work, seeing her as a grown woman had moved him in a distinct direction. Because it wasn’t just about Renny, it was about being here in this place that was a part of him.

  If someone would have told him a month ago that he’d be entertaining the thought of staying in Louisiana and making a new start with an old flame, he would have dragged that person to a mental hospital for automatic committal. He’d spent weeks agonizing over moving to Seattle, taking a chance on Shelby and working for a man he didn’t know. He thought he’d made the best choice—until he’d come home.

  The roller coaster of life had hairpinned and dropped him for a loop, but he was hanging on and going with it. There was nothing else left to do. If he’d learned anything over the past few days, he’d learned he couldn’t control his heart, no matter how much reason wanted to trump.