Maybe the ghost sees the color and thinks that’s the way to heaven. You know sometimes the sky isn’t as pretty as that color. It’s nice to have something beautiful to look at. Maybe it helps the ghosts find their way home.
Harry’s words floated through her brain. Was she still carrying Wes around? Was he still here with her? Would she leave him behind if she finally left Papillon? Or would she simply relocate them all and be stuck with the same problems as before?
She wanted to spend time with Harry like she hadn’t with anyone in years. But Wes was still here, still between her and happiness. Or something like it. “Tell your mom I’ll be gone in a year if she can leave me be. I know I can’t stay here. Luc already has Wes’s eyes.”
Angie gasped. “I hadn’t noticed.”
“He’s got Remy and Zep’s coloring, but if you look close, those are Wes’s eyes staring back,” she admitted. Sometimes, when she wasn’t angry with Wes, she missed him. He’d been a good friend for years. Had he only been that way because he’d wanted her? Did it matter why he’d been there for her?
If he’d lived, would they still be friends? Or would he have taken Luc from her if she hadn’t fallen in line?
It didn’t matter. The past was the past and she needed to focus on the future.
“I’ll make her understand,” Angie promised and looked down at her glass. “Now, this is delicious. Tell me Remy’s going to stock it. I have to go to Guidry’s to get any kind of decent wine that doesn’t come from my mother’s cellar. She dispenses that wine with the same graciousness as she gives out compliments.”
Sera chuckled and forced herself to talk about anything but the sorrow that had opened up inside her heart.* * ****
The Back Porch was a ridiculously tacky bar in a prefab building right outside the parish line. It was full on a Sunday night, and it was obvious these were not churchgoing people. He’d already seen the bouncers stop two fights, and he was fairly certain whatever was going on in that bathroom might end in an STI.
“You want a beer, soldier?” There was a big guy behind the bar. He had to be at least six-seven, with dark hair that brushed his shoulders.
“Ex-soldier, and how can you tell? And three of whatever’s on tap.”
“I’m excellent at profiling customers,” the bartender replied. “Mostly because I need to know who’s going to give me trouble and who won’t. We’re on our own out here. It’s precisely why my boss opened this bar. He didn’t want to have to deal with Sheriff LaVigne. Of course, the owner is a lazy bastard and doesn’t deal with much of anything, so I’m on my own.”
“And what kind of trouble will I give you?” Harry held out his hand. “Harry Jefferys, by the way. I suspect you’re ex-military, too. I think that’s a Navy tat I see on your arm.”
The big guy shook his hand. “The name’s Cain. Cain Cunningham, and I did my time. Now, you’re not going to give me trouble unless someone offends you, and it might take a lot to do that. You’re not the type who cares what other people think. You’re confident. If someone hurt a person in your circle, you could set a man on his ass. The problem is you’re with Cal Beaumont and he’s always looking for trouble. Zep Guidry doesn’t have to look for trouble. It finds him. Is there a reason he’s not at his brother’s bar instead of mine?”
Zep Guidry had explained that beer tasted better when his brother wasn’t keeping track of how much he drank. “I think he wanted a change of pace. And my cousin wanted out of the house. He wouldn’t care where we are as long as he’s not at home listening to his mother remind him he’s got to go to work in the morning.”
Cain looked a bit skeptical. “Does he actually work or is this one of those things where he’s got a title and an office and no real power?”
“He’s learning the business.” Slowly, from what Harry could tell. Cal didn’t talk much about work, and in the time he’d been here, Cal seemed to take Fridays off. “No one expected his father to pass as early as he did. Cal was barely out of college.”
And from what he could tell, Cal wasn’t handling the stress of suddenly inheriting a company well.
“Yeah, and I remember when he lost his brother. That couldn’t have been easy. I grew up in these parts. I left for a couple of years, went into the military, and when I came out, I worked in Atlanta,” Cain explained as he poured the three beers Harry had ordered.