by Liz Talley
“Now, now, Don. Let that kind of thing go. Flora has always liked different things.”
Her father leveled his eyes at her mother and gave her the look. He always gave Phylis the look when they talked about Flora being different. Her father was convinced Flora was a lesbian, which both amused and aggravated Addy. Like choosing not to marry and have kids automatically put you playing for the other team. He’d never understand Flora’s tragic love for Mr. Millard O’Boyle—thought the whole thing was a beard for liking other women.
“Flora’s not gay, Dad. And if she were, what would that matter?”
“Hrumph, I’m Catholic,” Don said, glancing away and refusing to discuss the issue.
“Okay, honey, we need to be off to the doctor’s office.” Phylis knew how to head off an argument. “The parking is horrible at that place, and your father refuses to park the Cadillac in the sun so we go round and round that parking garage.”
“Like I want the sun to fade the paint? I paid over fifty thousand dollars for that thing and it’s gotta last till I’m in the grave.”
Phylis rolled her eyes and gave Addy a quick hug, patting her on the bottom like a four-year-old. “Be good, sweet girl, and don’t mess around with that Texas man too much. You need you a good New Orleans boy. I want some grandchildren from you.”
…and the clock ticked.
Yeah, that was mentioned every time she saw her mother. What was with mothers? They all wanted babies to bounce on their knees. And Phylis already had seven grandchildren. Besides, Phylis should have figured out warning her away from Lucas only made her want to run toward him.
Same ol’ Addy. Rebellious streak a mile wide and doubly deep.
Her dad engulfed her with a hug and kiss on each cheek. “Don’t forget to remind Flora about Monday. East Jefferson Security. Ten o’clock. On second thought maybe I better make it for the afternoon.”
“Whatever you want, Dad.” Addy sighed.
Her parents finally made their way to the door, but only after they had hugged Shelia and her dad had sneaked three pieces of candy from the candy jar that still sat by the register, just the way Millard O’Boyle had left it thirty-six years ago when he’d sold the store to Flora.
“Whew,” Addy said, breathing a deep sigh. “My parents wear me out.”
“They love you.”
“Well, yeah, but they’re always trying to manage me the way they’ve done all my life.”
“So tell the security guy to get lost…though, I do believe your father is right. It would be comforting to press that button every night and know you have one more layer of protection. I know mine gives me comfort.”
“If you say so, but we both know from our experiences a determined man can get around security systems, gated neighborhoods and even safe houses. How many tales have we heard of failed security?”
“Too many to name, but I’ll stick by feeling a little bit easier when I put my head on my pillow.”
Addy didn’t say anything else, just moved to her bench and focused on losing herself in her work for the next few hours. She didn’t want to think about Robbie and the way the thought of him roaming the streets, hers in particular, made her stomach curdle. Fear was a powerful motivator and it was damn near impossible to subdue when allowed to rear its head within her.
“I won’t be a victim,” she said out loud after several minutes of dwelling on alarms and events outside her control.
What had she said to Michael?
Control what you can control.
So what could she control?
Not her feelings for her Texas cowboy.
At that moment, her inner rebel ripped through the barrier she’d erected long ago and capriciously claimed Addy. Lucas wasn’t forever, but he might give her something she needed in her life—an opportunity to feel normal with a man who turned her on and flipped everything sideways.
Addy needed Lucas…if only for a weekend.
Excitement and happiness over the upcoming “date” welled up in the empty places fear wanted to inhabit. This weekend was hers to laugh, smile and feel good about being desirable. Monday would come with alarms, parole hearings and the possibility of Lucas leaving, but tonight, tomorrow and Sunday belonged to her.
She was in control of that at the very least.
So why not go for it with a man she trusted? Time to stop second-guessing every emotion and action and…let go.
“Know what?” she asked, glancing at Shelia who held a roll of floral tape between her lips and glared at an arrangement that obviously wouldn’t behave.
“Huh?” she mumbled.
“I’m going shopping.”
“For what?”
“Something sexy to wear this weekend.”
The tape dropped to the worktable and rolled off onto the floor. “Sexy, huh? I thought y’all was taking the kids with you.”
“I’m not planning on looking like a hooker…but maybe not so much like a spinster librarian.”
“I know some kinky librarians.”
Addy laughed and it felt so freeing.
“I do love when you get sassy,” Shelia said, with a twinkle in her dark eyes. “I’m about sick to death of looking at a walkin’ funeral.”
“I could wear gladiolas in my hair?”
Shelia snorted.
“I’m taking an early lunch and walking over to that cute boutique a few doors down.”
“Good girl.”
Addy grabbed her purse, double-checking she had her phone and key ring with the pepper spray.
She might feel bold, but she wasn’t stupid.
She might take a chance, but she couldn’t deny her past.
Addy would always be Addy.
That wouldn’t change.
Chapter Fourteen
SATURDAY DAWNED PARTLY CLOUDY and warm. Lucas couldn’t have dialed it up any better.
Finally, something was going right for him. He and the kids had been cooped up in the sick house for so long, he felt like a shaky colt emerging from the barn for his first romp in the yard. The sun felt almost too bright when it peeked out from behind fluffy clouds and the breeze was fresh.
“I’m going to get Addy,” Chris yelled, running toward the camellia bushes and ducking between.
“Sure,” Lucas muttered, tugging the bow he’d tried to attach to Charlotte’s ponytail. It had taken him a good thirty minutes to wash and comb the snarls from the tight curls. He’d done the best he could and once it dried, he’d pulled it up with a weird-looking clear plastic rubber-band thing. Michael had taken the matching bow off a ribbon hanging in the girl’s closet and clipped it in, but it looked crooked to Lucas.
Charlotte was dressed in a bright pink dress and something called tights that had little hearts on them. Little-girl clothing confused the hell out of him.
Grabbing his cameras, he escorted a finally happy Charlotte to the truck. Michael lagged behind, tapping on his phone. The boy had been eerily helpful over the past few days. Maybe Lucas saving him from Joe the Toad and seeing him barf his guts up had a way of mellowing the fury within the boy at the uncle who’d ignored him…or Lucas could hope.
“Hey, sport,” he said over his shoulder as he settled Charlotte in her car seat. “How about we leave the phones at home?”
“Why?” Michael didn’t look up.
“Because we’re going to interact with the world around us…not the world on our phone,” he said.
“What if we get separated? It’s a safety precaution.”
“We won’t get separated.” He looked for the stupid plastic piece that snapped between Charlotte’s legs. Where was the stupid thing? “Tell you what. If you leave the phone, I’ll let you use my Canon.”
“Your what?”
“It’s a camera.”
“I have a camera on my iPhone.”
Lucas found the fastener and clicked Charlotte in, handing her both a sippy cup and a book about that Creampie kitten. “Seriously? I’m talking about a real camera.
The kind I use for my work.”
Michael held up his phone. “How about I turn this off, but keep it in my back pocket, and then you show me this camera of yours.”
Lucas nodded. “Deal.”
“’Morning,” Addy called from the other side of the truck.
Chris hustled by Lucas in order to move the scooter he’d left in the drive from behind the truck. “Wait till you see Addy.”
Lucas walked to the other side to get the door for Addy and nearly tripped when he saw her.
“Wow,” he breathed, stifling a wolf whistle.
“What?” She blushed, giving a somewhat breathless laugh.
She wore a soft-looking peach sweater with a square neckline that showed those delicious collarbones. It fit her like a second skin, covering almost every inch of skin but somehow looking incredibly sexy. Her hair was in a soft braid that reminded him of Meg Ryan in Sleepless in Seattle, one of his favorite movies—not that he’d admit to it. And her jeans were trim all the way down to supple gold ballet flats. Small pearl earrings dangled in her ears and she wore just enough makeup to look ravishing, but not enough to be overt. Shiny peach lips were his lighthouse.
Oh, sweet gravy, guide him home.
He couldn’t help himself. He lowered his head and gave her a soft, quick kiss.
“Ooooh,” Chris said, rubbing his fingers together in that ancient naughty-naughty signal. “Shame, shame.”
“Oh, hush. You’d kiss her too if you were tall enough,” Lucas said.
Chris waggled his eyebrows. “You know it, brother.”
Addy laughed, ducking down toward Chris making kissing sounds. “Come on then, Chris.”
Chris ran.
Both he and Addy laughed until Michael stepped around holding Lucas’s camera bag on his shoulder. “Are y’all gonna stand around all day?”
Lucas stared into Addy’s eyes. “If I could stare at her, I would.”
Her smile was the invitation he’d been waiting for. This was an Addy determined to live…and perhaps love…if only for the weekend.
“I’d let you, but I’m pretty sure the kids would get bored. And you know what happens when kids get bored,” she said.
He gave an exaggerated sigh, but started back around the front of the truck.
“Saddle up,” Lucas yelled, loving Addy’s giggle at his response.
He sent a glance heavenward and whispered. “Thank you.”
*
ADDY HAD NO CLUE where Lucas was taking them, but it was definitely away from the heart of the city. She’d expected to go to the French Quarter or maybe City Park. “Where the devil are you taking us?”
His look was a little too lustful for a man with a truck full of kids. “You’ll see.”
“You said we were visiting your favorite places as a kid in New Orleans. This is Metairie,” Michael said.
“Well, not every favorite place is in the Quarter, though I do love the history there. I wanted to take you to some of the favorite spots your dad and I enjoyed when we were your age. I hope some of them are still around.”
“Oh,” the boy said.
She caught sight of Michael in the mirror on the visor. He studied the camera. “Do you like to take pictures, too?”
The boy looked up, lowering the camera. “I’ve never used a camera like this. My iPhone works pretty good.”
Lucas nodded. “It’s crazy how good some of those phones can be, but it’s not the sort you build a career with. The one you’re holding is the first good camera I ever bought. A Canon EOS 1V, loaded with Fuji Velvia film that will still take damn good pictures. I still use it sometimes because I like the feel of the click, the sound of the camera rewinding and waiting on the images in the darkroom. Nothing wrong with a little old-school photography.”
“How did you learn?” Addy asked.
“By doing. I dropped out of law school when, well, I decided it wasn’t something I wanted to do—it was more like an expectation. Suddenly my world shifted and I didn’t know what I wanted. I packed up my Chevy Blazer and headed west where I figured adventure lay. As I drove through countryside so different from what surrounds New Orleans, I felt a tug. I’d always loved drawing as a kid, and I used my grandmother’s Polaroid one summer when we rented a house on the lake. But it wasn’t some divine revelation out of the blue.”
“So you just decided to become a photographer?”
“No, I became a waiter. In Phoenix.”
Addy smiled. “That’s a way different career choice from being an attorney.”
“Wasn’t a waiter for long. I saved up and took a photography class at a local community college because someone told me I could get a gig taking school photos for some company.”
“We just had some weird guy take our spring pictures last week. I forgot to tell you and I wore my Saints T-shirt with the hole on the sleeve. Mrs. Creech made a face when she saw me,” Chris said, lowering his iPod touch.
“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. Addy turned back to Lucas. “So how did you end up in Texas?”
“After I got sucked into photography, I got into the San Francisco Art Institute. Suddenly this strange world I’d never imagined opened for me, and for the first time maybe 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 Addy’s 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 iPod.”
“We have one of your pictures,” Chris said, interrupting. “But it’s of a waterfall and red dirt. You could of 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 was 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 wh
en 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 them.
Thirty minutes later her cowboy and his nephews were off to explore space, leaving her and Charlotte to wait for story time in Heritage Park. She sat on a bench, pulling Charlotte up 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 had 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 cross-legged about ten feet away next to another woman who tapped furiously on her iPad.
Addy didn’t bother to correct the woman about 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—”