His Brown-Eyed Girl (A New Orleans Ladies Novel Book 2)

by Liz Talley

  “Hey, you were supposed to leave that at home.” Lucas stretched an arm back and opened his palm. “Give it.”

  “Come on, Uncle Lucas. It’s boring in the car.”

  “Count license plates,” he said, palm up. Emphatically up.

  “I don’t even know what that is,” Chris complained, laying the device in Lucas’s hand. “And Charlotte is picking her nose again.”

  Addy turned around and tugged Charlotte’s elbow down. The little girl frowned but thankfully stopped picking her nose. Addy turned back to Lucas. “So how did you end up in Texas?”

  “After I got bit by the photography bug, I moved to San Francisco and got into the San Francisco Art Institute. Suddenly this strange world I never imagined opened for me, and for the first time ever I knew I was doing what I was supposed to do—climbing mountains, fording streams, and lying on my stomach in the desert capturing the world in its splendor.”

  “Do you make a lot of money taking pictures?” Michael asked, dubious expression reflecting in her mirror.

  “Enough to live on. Being successful in photography is just like any other career. I work hard and pray for luck. My ship came in when a couple of New York socialites and their decorators found my stuff. Then I sold to several celebrities.”

  “Like who?”

  Lucas laughed. “People you listen to on your iPhone.”

  “We have one of your pictures,” Chris said, interrupting. “But it’s of a waterfall and red dirt. You could have at least stuck a dog in there or something.”

  Addy giggled and decided it felt pretty good. She hadn’t used that particular response in a while. Maybe her giggler was rusty. “Wait a sec, we’re in River Ridge.”

  “You know your geography,” Lucas teased, maneuvering down Jefferson Highway toward Kenner.

  Everyone fell silent for the next several miles. Soon Lucas maneuvered the truck into the quaint Rivertown district, tucked in between the city of Kenner and the Mississippi River.

  “Why are we here?” Michael asked his face squashed into disapproval.

  “This area opened when your dad and I were kids. They had some cool museums, including a train museum, I think.

  Chris and Michael groaned.

  “We’re not four years old, Uncle Lucas,” Chris said, slapping a hand against his forehead.

  “Well, Charlotte nearly is and there is a story time with puppets.” Lucas parked the car near the quaint district and turned to Addy with an alarmed look.

  That’s when she realized he had no clue what kids liked to do, but the fact he tried so hard warmed her heart. She gave him an encouraging smile and looked over her seat at the kids in the back. “My nephew said there’s a cool science museum here… something about the Hubble and a space station? And there’s a planetarium and an IMAX movie theater. Have you been in one of those?”

  “Once,” Michael said, nodding and looking somewhat interested. “It made me a little sick, but it was pretty cool.”

  Lucas grabbed the cowboy hat on the dash, opened his door, and climbed out. “I remember liking this area when I was younger because it was like a small town. I think there’s a park and they had this cool village with a blacksmith shop.”

  “What’s a blacksmith?” Chris asked sliding to the pavement below.

  “We’re going to find out,” Addy said, grabbing her purse and glancing up at the rain cloud that moved steadily toward the small suburb outside New Orleans.

  Thirty minutes later her cowboy and his nephews were off to explore space leaving her and Charlotte to await story time in Heritage Park. She sat on a bench with Charlotte next to her. There weren’t too many other people present, but it was a nice day to be outside. Trees were starting to sprout new sticky growth and the dormant grass clothed itself in green clover. A few daffodils arrived early, huddling at the base of small trees. The rain cloud seemed to have moved on, but other gray flannel clouds dotted the perimeter, and Addy knew a New Orleans shower could come at any moment.

  A couple of little girls eyed Charlotte, and she eyed them back but made no move to slip off the bench.

  “Do you want to play with those little girls?” Addy asked, giving one girl who looked about Charlotte’s age a friendly wave. The adorable pixie ducked her head but didn’t run away. She seemed interested in coaxing Charlotte to come hop about with her.

  “I don’t know that girl,” Charlotte said.

  “Well, that’s how we make new friends.” Addy had already checked out the area for any dangers. No skulking old pervs, no red flag warnings popping in her mind… just a nice day at the park.

  “Your little girl’s welcome to play with Sarah,” said a woman who sat crossed legged about ten feet away next to another woman who tapped furiously on her iPad.

  Addy didn’t bother to correct the woman on her role in Charlotte’s life, but she did give Charlotte a little shove. “Sarah wants to play. Go have fun.”

  “No,” Charlotte said shaking her head. A few pieces of her ponytail came down and the bow lurched sideways.

  “You don’t want to play?” Addy gave Sarah’s mom a strained smile. “It’s fun to make new friends.”

  Charlotte shook her head.

  Addy turned to the mother. “Sorry. She’s just getting over the stomach virus and hasn’t-”

  “Nevermind,” the woman interrupted, hopping up with a graceful leap and dragging Sarah back to where she sat. “We don’t need that with our vacation coming up.”

  Addy snapped her mouth closed and looked down at Charlotte. “Well, guess you don’t have to bother making new friends.”

  Charlotte scooted closer to her and rested her head against Addy’s side. Addy curled an arm around the little girl, feeling her heart swell… and maybe something else move inside her.

  She suspected it might be the tick of her biological clock.

  Addy had never really given having children much thought, mainly because she’d not had a successful relationship of late. Sure, she spent time with her nieces and nephews who she adored, but she’d never truly thought about what it would be like to spend her Saturdays in the park with little Addys and little—she refused to imagine a mini-Lucas—frolicking about her.

  Did she even want to procreate?

  Kids were messy. They got things like stomach viruses, they crashed into greenhouses and sulked, fought and made ungodly messes. But they also snuggled up to you and made your heart feel full and your throat a little scratchy with emotion.

  What would her and Lucas’s children look like?

  Oh, dear Lord, Addy, don’t go there. Don’t you dare go there.

  Thankfully, a woman dressed in a black dress carrying a rolling trunk appeared. Behind her came the rest of what should be the puppet show. Addy said a silent thank-you for being saved from her dangerous thoughts. “Look, Charlotte. Here comes the puppet show.”

  The little girl straightened, her eyes growing big.

  An hour later, Addy met Lucas in front of the science center. The boys each had changed into new T-shirt with the space center logo in the center, and Lucas waved a stuffed frog with a pink bow around its neck at Charlotte. “Look what Uncle Lucas found hopping inside.”

  Charlotte held little hands up to him. “Froggie.”

  Lucas gave her the stuffed animal, looking pleased with himself. Just as Charlotte took the frog, a raindrop splashed onto Addy’s cheek.

  “Uh-oh,” Chris said as several bigger droplets landed on her shoulder and head.

  And then the bottom of the cloud fell out. The boys took off running for the overhang of the shopping areas, hooting as they ran. Lucas scooped up Charlotte who screeched and wrapped her chubby arms around his neck. Addy calmly pulled her compact umbrella from her purse and opened it.

  “Prepared, are you?” Lucas asked, his brown eyes happy and his broad shoulder speckled with dark spots of rain. He looked incredibly good in that straw cowboy hat.

  Addy positioned the umbrella over both their heads, uninten
tionally bringing them closer together. She could smell the sultry cologne he wore and the clean smell of baby shampoo. His eyes crinkled as they looked down at her. “I try.”

  The moment crackled… even with Charlotte clinging to his side like a monkey and with a silly green frog crushed between them.

  And there under her green umbrella in front of God and everybody, Lucas kissed her.

  And it was such a tender kiss of possibility that Addy felt it down to her toes… which were sort of getting wet. But who really cared about wet feet when a gorgeous man wrapped you in his arms and took your breath away?

  Not Addy.

  But apparently Charlotte did.

  Addy felt a little hand against her cheek and broke the kiss. Rain created tympani around them as Charlotte’s blue eyes met hers.

  “Uncle Wucas wants to kiss me now,” the little girl said, turning her face to Lucas.

  A small smile tipped the corners of his mouth. “I thought you were afraid I would eat you?”

  Charlotte shook her head and the hair bow nearly fell to the ground. “You won’t.”

  Lucas unwound his arm from Addy, cupped the child’s head, and dropped a quick kiss upon Charlotte’s cheek before dropping another one on Addy’s. “Come on, girls. We better go find the boys.”

  The boys waited by the theater, clamoring to see the movie that was starting in ten minutes. Well, Chris clamored. Michael just nodded his head in begrudging agreement, but Addy could tell the teen was having a decent time.

  “I want popcorn,” Chris demanded as Lucas purchased the tickets.

  “They don’t serve popcorn,” Michael said, pointing to the no food or drink allowed sign.

  “Man, I’m starving,” Chris groaned.

  Lucas dug a granola bar out of his back pocket, tearing it open and handing Chris half and holding out the other. “Who wants the other half?”

  Both Charlotte and Michael grabbed at it, but Michael pulled back and allowed his little sister to have it.

  “We’ll eat after the movie, okay?”

  All kids agreed and then sped off to look at the various machines offering to stamp their pennies into souvenirs.

  Lucas turned to her. “Chris is always starving so I, too, came prepared… just didn’t think about an umbrella. Am I doing okay so far?”

  “On being a good uncle? Or being a good date?”

  “Both?” he asked, tucking his hands into the front pockets of his Wranglers, looking atypical. This was a man who was rarely uncertain. A man who likely never worried about a performance report. That he cared so much made her like him all the more.

  He wasn’t merely some cowboy in a dark blue shirt offsetting his tanned skin, a hunk of manhood in a pair of tight jeans and boots. She flicked her gaze over him and was struck again at his sheer masculinity. Warmth bloomed inside her, a feeling that had a little something to do with cute kids and his success at being an uncle, and a lot to do with wrapping her legs around him.

  Damn biological clock.

  Nope, more like damn libido.

  “I’d say you’re shooting a thousand.”

  “You mean batting, right?” He stepped closer, his voice low, intimate with just the right amount of sexiness.

  “Whatever,” she whispered, studying his mouth. He had such nice lips. They probably needed to be kissed.

  “Uncle Lucas!” Chris shouted.

  “You know how in movies where parents can never get it on because the kids are always knocking on the door or yelling about spiders in the kitchen?”

  “What movies do you watch?” she joked.

  “I know how they feel. And the really crappy part is neither one of us have kids. We should be pulling the covers over our heads right now and pretending the world away.”

  The image popping into her head made her body hum. Oh, to be under a set of soft sheets with him.

  Whoa.

  Addy fanned herself and demanded her body take a chill pill. Pointing to where Chris and Michael stood, looking as if they might trade blows, she murmured, “One day. Maybe.”

  “Oh, you can bank on my getting you alone, Addy girl. We got unfinished business. A little tea sipping to do.” And then he turned and strode toward his brother’s children who had emoted into a couple of wild dogs snarling next to an oblivious hopping bunny whose bow had finally fallen out.

  Addy scooped up the bow and glanced over at Lucas. “Fine. I’m in the mood for a hot cup of tea.”

  Lucas’s smile could have melted the ice caps. “I could drink a gallon.”

  Lucas carried a sleeping Charlotte out of the theater and watched as his nephews excitedly discussed the movie with Addy. None of them had been here during Hurricane Katrina, but they’d heard tales to accompany the educational movie which depicted life on the bayou and the catastrophic results of the storm on the coastline and wetlands. But to Addy, the effects were much more personal.

  Before the movie, he’d spent quality time with Michael and Chris, talking to them about their father’s once upon a time dream of being an astronaut and sharing funny stories about their days of growing up in New Orleans.

  Funny how being home made the relationship with his estranged brother seem less tenuous. When he remembered the boys they’d been, nearly the same age difference between them as Chris and Michael, he didn’t remember the squabbling and resentment between them, he remembered dressing up as their favorite WWF wrestlers and reenacting matches on the trampoline or sun-streaked days of baseball in the empty lot across the street from their parents’ house. He remembered gelatos at Angelo Broccatos and eating Tastee Donuts at the Mardi Gras parades. Plum Street Sno balls and swimming at the Metairie Country Club. Late nights playing Tetris and Christmas mornings eating their mom’s special cinnamon rolls and playing football in the yard in their jammies.

  All those memories soaked in bitterness for years… but yet the good ones still came to him with a golden haze, sweetened like sugary jam.

  He and Ben had loved one another, faced off against neighborhood bullies together, and grown up with love bestowed by a mother and father who both adored their boys.

  How had it come to the present state?

  Why had that betrayal seeped so deep inside him, especially when he could see fate had given them both what they needed in the long run? It was as if a boulder sat between them, and he had no clue how to move it.

  Maybe he couldn’t move it… maybe he needed to climb over it.

  “I’m starving,” Chris said for the umpteenth time.

  “Okay, let’s load up and head for lunch,” Lucas said, balancing Charlotte on his shoulder so he could fetch Addy’s green umbrella and hand it to Michael. The skies had cleared and the sun made an appearance as they walked back to the truck. Lucas wound his free arm around Addy’s shoulders.

  “Are y’all like going out now?” Michael asked shaking the umbrella and casting a glance at them.

  “Maybe,” Lucas responded, sliding his eyes to her. She could see he had no better explanation. Neither did she. She didn’t really know what they were, but that was okay.

  “Oh. That’s cool,” Michael said, taking longer steps so he could catch up with his brother. He wrapped a congenial arm around Chris’ shoulders. Chris looked up and said something to Michael with a grin.

  “Aww, look,” Addy said, pointing at the boys. “They’re actually being-”

  But then Chris pulled out from under his brother’s arm as Michael threw a right jab at him. Chris immediately jumped on Michael’s back and tried put him in a head lock.

  Lucas snorted before jogging up to catch the back of Michael’s shirt and pulling him off. “Enough.”

  “He said I liked Addy, and you was snakin’ me. He’s the one who likes Addy,” Chris said.

  “I don’t like Addy. I have a girlfriend,” Michael said.

  “Hey, you two.” Lucas released Michael. “Wait, you have a girlfriend?”

  His oldest nephew actually blushed. “Hannah Leachman.
”

  Chris made a face. “Ooh, Michael and Hannah sitting in a tree-”

  Lucas snapped his fingers in front of Chris’s face. “Do you want lunch?”

  Chris turned stricken eyes on Lucas. “I’m starving to death.”

  “Then declare a truce and don’t touch each other for the rest of the day. Good behavior means you get fed.”

  Both boys muttered, “Fine.”

  “Bet they never used starvation as a method in any of those parenting magazines,” Addy said with a laugh.

  “Hey, whatever it takes.”

  After a day of remembering the past, Lucas felt like looking toward his future.

  His future of a few more days… or a week… or maybe longer. Didn’t matter as long as it had Addy in it.

  When had he started to crave her with a hunger like no other?

  When she told him about that dirtbag who’d tried to hurt her? When she’d first kissed him? When she’d brought chilled ginger ale for his sick nephews? Or maybe it was her face framed in against that green umbrella?

  He wasn’t sure. All he knew was life would seem far emptier without her in it. He had to make the days he had with her count.

  But would that be enough?

  The sun sank over the thick oaks spreading their branches over Carrolton as they polished off their gelatos and spumoni at Angelo Broccato’s Italian Ice Cream Parlor. Lazy fans whirled overhead and Charlotte’s head drooped like a wilted daisy very near her cup of frozen custard.

  “Today was fun, Uncle Lucas,” Chris said, still working on the huge cone he’d demanded. “I like knowing stuff about my dad when he was little.”

  “He was a lot like you,” Lucas commented, shoving the last bite of spumoni into his mouth. He’d waited too long to come home. Too long for some sugary piece of yesterday.

  “Who am I like?” Michael asked, not bothering to look up. He’d long ago finished his cookie and cocoa.

  “A little like me, and a little like your mother.”

  “You and my mom were boyfriend and girlfriend for a long time,” Michael said lifting dark eyes up to gaze at him. It was a question, not a statement.