Was she making a mistake? She’d left a perfectly good fast-track job in a cosmopolitan city in exchange for a tiny clinic in the sticks.
Of course, she couldn’t actually walk into that gleaming, high-tech hospital without seeing her friend on the ground bleeding out.
“I love my in-laws, but I miss my sister,” Lisa said.
The road went a little watery in front of her and she had to take a deep breath. Ever since that day she’d broken down, it had been a fight to stay in control, to get back the Lila she’d been before.
The Lila who hadn’t been happy? The one who ticked off the days like they were a checklist she needed to get through? The one who’d nearly married a man she didn’t love because he “made sense”?
Her inner voice had also gotten obnoxiously loud since that terrible day.
“I need some space. I’m sorry. I’m here. I want to spend time with you and be close to you, but I need my space, too.” She’d also gotten way more honest. Maybe it had been the seventy-two-hour psych hold they’d put her on or the months and months of therapy.
There was a pause over the line. “Okay. I’m backing off, but you’re coming for Sunday supper. Delphine makes the best gumbo.”
She wasn’t really into spicy foods. She kind of stuck to salads and the occasional steak, but she was new here and that meant giving the place a chance. Even if she got heartburn.
She slammed on the brakes because there was something in her way. Something big and creepy and alive.
“There’s an alligator in the road.” A massive reptile blocked the path. She had to stare at it for a moment because it was completely surreal. Were the doors locked? She looked and made sure and then wondered how she thought the alligator would open the door in the first place.
“Is he missing the tip of his tail?” Lisa asked as though they were talking about something perfectly normal. If baby sis was worried that her precious sibling was about to be mauled, it didn’t sound like it.
Sure enough, the primeval-looking thing in the middle of the road had a tail that ended in a stump. Not that his tail wasn’t still long and terrifying-looking. “Yes.”
“That’s Otis. He’s a sweetheart,” Lisa said breezily. “Don’t worry about him. He’s sunning himself, that’s all. Are you on the highway? Because as long as you haven’t hit the stretch by the water, you should be able to go around him. Now, if you are real close to town, you have to be careful because that ground around the pavement is tricky and you could get stuck. Normally that’s not a problem because it’s not like Herve has anything else to do, but this is his monthly hunting trip and his son is in charge of the shop. I saw him with his girlfriend earlier and he’s useless while he’s under Lorraine’s spell. Unless she says it’s okay, nothing’s getting done in that shop today. It’s fine. Just get out and shoo Otis off.”
Get out of her safe vehicle and shoo off what had to be a five-hundred-pound reptile who probably ate the last person who did that? She glanced around and thanked god there wasn’t a ton of water on either side of the road.
“I can get around him, but I need to concentrate on the road.” She was almost there, and then she would see what her savings had bought her. Lisa had described the small house on the outskirts of town as a fixer-upper, but the price had been right, and it wasn’t like she was afraid of hard work.
“All right. I’m waiting at your new place and I’m super excited you’re here. Love you.”
The line went dead before she could reply.
Okay. She could drive around this Otis thing and then she would move on. Nothing to worry about. She was from Dallas. She’d dealt with many, many way scarier things than an animal with a pea-sized brain.
Still, when she’d managed to maneuver around the gator, she hit the gas hard as though the damn thing was going to follow her. She was doing at least seventy-five by the time she blew past the billboard advertising that a shopper could get both bait and Bibles at Fuzzy’s Faithful Bait Depot.
That was when she heard the sirens, saw the red and blue lights come on behind her. For the briefest of moments, she went cold, her whole soul going back to that night.
But she wasn’t in Texas. She was in Louisiana and it was daytime, and she was safe because she’d gotten away from the alligator. That brief moment of fear was replaced with annoyance because that was a cop behind her and he wasn’t going around her in an attempt to go and save someone who needed saving. Nope. He pulled in right behind her and flashed his lights.