He dialed her number one last time. It immediately went to voice mail. “Hey, Sera. I know you don’t want to talk to me right now, but I need you to know that I’m here. I want to help you in any way I can, and if that means leaving you alone for a while, I’ll do that, too. Just know that I promise to keep my phone charged in case you need me.” He took a long breath because these might be the last words he ever said to her. “I love you, Seraphina.”
He disconnected the call and sat on the bed, utterly at a loss for what to do.
There was a knock on his door and he opened it, praying it was Sera since one of his many messages had left her instructions on where he was in case she wanted to talk to him.
Instead it was Angie. She had been true to her word, going up to her room only to grab the bag she hadn’t unpacked from her girls’ trip. She’d left everything but that one bag and her laptop behind. She was still dressed in the slacks and blouse she’d been wearing earlier, looking very much like the wealthy young lady she was . . . had been. She looked totally out of place with the singular exception of the six-pack of beer dangling from her hand. That beer was cheap, and she’d probably gotten it from the run-down convenience store across the street. “Hey, cos. You want to drown your sorrows with me? I got us a sweet spot right by the pool.”
“Ang, that pool is green,” he pointed out.
She shrugged and turned toward the tiny, filthy pool that sat in the middle of the concrete parking lot. “It’s said that when the fading light of day hits it just right, it’s a little like the aurora borealis of Southern Louisiana. I don’t think many of our citizenry know what that really is.”
He followed her because she was not in a place to make the best decisions. Three beers in and he might have to haul her out of said pool, and that would take a biohazard suit.
This town did need a nice B and B.
Angie lowered herself onto the rickety poolside chair and popped the top off the beer, holding it his way. He took it because he could use one, and no matter how upset he was, he couldn’t leave his cousin alone. She’d lost everything.
He’d lost everything.
“Why didn’t you fight harder?” Angie asked. “You know you didn’t willfully tell my mother a thing. She overheard us and made a calculated guess. You didn’t mean for that to happen.”
He’d gone over and over it in his head and come to one conclusion. “It doesn’t matter if I meant for it to happen. It doesn’t matter that I thought Aunt Celeste wasn’t in the house. I chose to follow you inside and continue the argument. It was my fault. If I’d backed off, she wouldn’t know.”
Angie sighed. “Or if I’d answered you instead of running. I guess it doesn’t matter now.”
“Have you called Austin?” Harry asked after she went silent. “You don’t have to stay here. I could drive you into New Orleans. It would give him something to do.
Angie shook her head. “No, I don’t want to interrupt him. He’s having a boys’ night with some of his friends. I’m not dropping this on his lap when he could be having fun. Let him have one more night before he realizes how screwed up my family is.”
“Are you worried he’ll be upset?” After all, Austin had thought he was marrying a woman with a powerful family and access to the Beaumont money. He seemed like a nice guy, but appearances could deceive.
“About the money? No. We’ll have to adjust some of our plans, but he really does love me. He’ll be angry with my mom. I don’t know how he’ll feel about me keeping that secret, though.”
“You didn’t tell him?”
“Nope. I didn’t tell anyone at all.”
Shep walked up to the water’s edge, sniffing and then running back like something would come up and bite him. The creature from the unchlorinated lagoon. He’d been thinking of talking to Sera about how nice it would be to put a pool in at Guidry Place. If she was going to keep it and run it as a B and B. There was a perfect place to put a pool and outdoor kitchen.
“I’m sorry, you know,” Angie was saying.
“About lying to your mother?” His opinion on the subject had changed quite suddenly. He was incredibly grateful this hadn’t happened when Sera was pregnant. “I’m glad you did now. Sera told me what would happen and I didn’t believe her.”
“No, I’m not sorry about that. I did what was right at the time. I genuinely believe if she’d told them when she was pregnant, it could have been a tragedy. No, I’m sorry for lying to you, and that it ended up the way it did. I was actually surprised Sera was willing to date you. She’s been so careful. She must have really cared about you.”