Fine. Of course Celeste’s loyalties would lie with her grandson. But did she have to be so unpleasant about it? Who was the wronged party here? Who’d been deceived?
Or…the thought occurred to her as she moved through the familiar motions of brewing a pot of tea for Melanie, perhaps Celeste didn’t know of Luc’s…escapades. Maybe he had lied to his grandmother about his criminal past, and about their breakup. He could have told her anything.
Loretta tried to give the woman the benefit of the doubt. She set the teapot on the table, along with two mugs, sugar, lemon and cream. “There’s a second mug there, Celeste, if you change your mind.
“Thank you, but no.”
Loretta decided tiptoeing around the subject was too difficult. “Celeste, just because Luc and I are no longer together doesn’t mean you and I can’t be friends.”
Celeste looked startled by Loretta’s direct words, and for a moment she didn’t know what to say.
Melanie just looked uncomfortable.
“Sorry, Melanie,” Loretta said. “You shouldn’t get stuck in the middle of this. Your cousin and I were briefly…an item. But that’s no longer the case.”
“Someone probably should have warned you,” Melanie said. “Luc is a charmer. Women always fall all over him. It must be hard for a guy like that to be, you know, steady.”
“Luc’s steadiness is not the issue,” Celeste said. “There are no other women, and there haven’t been any other women. Not since he moved to Indigo.”
“Then what’s the problem?” Melanie asked.
Now Loretta desperately wished she hadn’t brought up the subject of Luc. “I’d rather not get into it,” she said, but her objection had no effect.
“The problem,” Celeste declared, “is Luc’s criminal record. I advised Luc to be honest with her. He was going to tell her after the music festival, but unfortunately, she found out by other means.”
“Oh.” Melanie busied herself pouring tea.
Just then the front door burst open, and Zara whirled in like a dust devil, head down. “Hi, Mama. Bye, Mama.” She tried to make her escape, not even acknowledging her new friend, “Tante Celeste.”
“Zara, hold on.”
Zara didn’t stop. “I have to go to the bathroom.”
Sensing something was up, Loretta practically chased her daughter down, catching her just before she reached the door leading out of the bakery and into the house. She caught her by the straps of her backpack and swiveled her around.
Zara had a black eye.
“Zara, what happened?”
“I’m not telling.”
“You better tell me.”
“It’s your fault!” Zara cried. “You told me I could go fishing with Luc and I told everybody at school and then you changed your mind and I told Kiki and then she told everybody and Thomas said I was a big fat liar and I kicked him and he punched me in the face.”
A host of emotions bombarded Loretta-anger that her daughter was still fighting, fury that a little boy would punch her baby in the face, guilt for being the root cause of the conflict.
Mother’s guilt won out. “Oh, Zara.”
Loretta tried to hug her daughter, but Zara would have none of it. “I don’t want to be hugged right now. I’m mad and I want to be mad for a while.”
This was new. “O-okay, honey.”
Zara stalked out of the bakery, and Loretta let her go.
Celeste and Melanie were pretending not to listen, but there was no way they could have missed any detail of the argument. She returned to them.
“You see what I’m dealing with?”
Celeste stood up decisively. “Loretta, I’m sure you think you’re being a good mother. But the least you could do is make a small effort to find out what happened with Luc.”
“It doesn’t matter. Unless he was falsely convicted. He wasn’t, was he?”
Celeste wouldn’t meet her gaze. “No. He committed a crime. But there were extenuating circumstances.”
“I know all about extenuating circumstances. Jim, my husband, had a basket full of them. He was always blaming someone else for his bad behavior. But excuses didn’t save him from going to prison, and they didn’t save him from being murdered himself.”
“Oh, jeez,” Melanie murmured.
“I’m sorry,” Loretta said. “This conversation has gotten completely out of hand. Can we forget about it and move on, please?” she pleaded.
“Of course,” Celeste replied, ever polite. “But let me pass along a bit of wisdom-and at eighty-five years old, I’m allowed my wisdom. Forgiveness is a powerfully healing emotion. Just think about that for a few days. Melanie, come.” She got up from the table and regally sailed out of the bakery.
Melanie gave a parting shrug and an apologetic smile as she followed her grandmother into the crisp autumn afternoon.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
MELANIE STAYED long enough to have an early dinner before heading back to New Orleans, and Celeste and Doc joined them. Everyone tried to make it a festive occasion-for Luc’s sake, he guessed, because by now they all knew Loretta had dumped him. He wasn’t sure how Melanie had found out, but he could see that she had in every look she gave him.
Luc tried to get into the spirit of things as Doc made them up a batch of his famous mint juleps. He and Melanie put together a killer gumbo and some dirty rice. But he couldn’t help thinking how much more fun it would have been if Loretta and Zara had joined them. Maybe Vincent and Adele, too.
A family get-together, the kind he’d never had in his life.
He tried to console himself with the knowledge that he did have a family. Celeste and Melanie had warmed up to him, and Doc might as well be a relative, as much as he hung around. And his mother would love him no matter what he did. All in all he was luckier than a lot of people.
He managed to keep up his end of the conversation, talking about his future renovation plans for the second outbuilding. He’d been thinking about turning it into a workshop, where guests could try their hand at candle-and soap-making or canning-some type of participatory museum to reflect what times were like when the Creole cabin had been built.
“So do you think you’ll keep working here?” Melanie asked innocently. “After the probation’s up, I mean.”
Luc shrugged. “I’ll work here as long as
Celeste nearly choked on her coffee. “What makes you say that?”
He gave her a knowing look. “Just a feeling.”
LATER, WHEN MELANIE had gone home and the guests were all in their rooms, Luc couldn’t help but ponder his future. Celeste had neither confirmed nor denied any plans for herself or the B and B, but Luc could see the writing on the wall. Celeste had been building her nest ever since she arrived.
Luc would only be in the way here.
But he would stay in Indigo. He felt at home here. If Loretta disapproved-if the whole town found out about his past and wanted to tar and feather him and ride him out of town-he would simply have to prove to them that he was a changed man.
LORETTA WAS AT her wit’s end with her daughter. She’d tried love and tenderness and coddling, to no avail. She’d tried tough love. She’d tried a sensible, talking-things-out approach. Zara was like a stone wall.
Zara’s teacher had called. Apparently there were numerous witnesses to the fight at the school, and the consensus was that Thomas had deliberately provoked Zara, getting right in her face and taunting her until she’d
