“But almost from the beginning, I had a problem. I liked the Marchands. They treated me like family, even though they had no idea who I was. So I tried to back out of my agreement with the Corbin brothers. But it wasn’t that easy. By then they were involved with some mobster types who didn’t care who got hurt-or killed-so long as they got their hotel.”
“And you didn’t go to the police?”
“I finally did. Unfortunately, I went to the wrong cop. He was on the crime boss’s payroll. I was shot by one of the Corbin brothers and left for dead.”
Loretta gasped. This was far more sordid and complex than she’d imagined. No wonder Charlotte and Melanie Marchand had been so guarded around Luc when he’d gone to the hotel to talk about the Cajun dinner. “Oh, Luc. Is that how you got the scar on your back?”
He nodded. “I’m tough, though. The bullet nicked my liver and I lost a lot of blood, but I recovered. The important thing was that I was able to tell the police everything. By that time Charlotte and Jackson, who’s now her husband, had been kidnapped. But the police were able to rescue them and arrests were made.”
“Including you.”
“Including me. But I turned state’s evidence, and the Marchands actually came out in favor of leniency. I was charged with everything from fraud to conspiracy to theft to malicious mischief, but only the theft charge stuck. I got a two-year probated sentence, and if I stay out of trouble for five years, I can have my record expunged.”
“Oh, Luc,” she said again, sighing. “Is that everything?”
“That’s everything. Except that it was Celeste’s brilliant idea to send me here to make restitution to the family. She thought she was being pretty clever, condemning me to some backwater town. At first, I think she was hoping I wouldn’t be able to hack it, and I’d mess up my probation and end up in jail, proving her theory that I was a bad seed, just like my father. Neither of us had any idea how much I would love it here.”
Loretta was silent for a while, taking it all in. Luc was right, he’d done some pretty bad things. But she could feel his regret. And she could hear the fondness in his voice for his cousins, his aunt-even his grandmother.
“So,” Luke said briskly. “You can run screaming into the night, now, if you want. I won’t hold it against you.”
She studied his face and saw the vulnerability there. Her heart squeezed painfully. “I have no intention of running. I feel exactly the same about you as I did before you told me. I don’t care what you did. I can see with my own eyes that you’re kind and generous and hardworking.”
“Maybe you’re seeing what you want to see,” he said cautiously.
“No. You’ve made mistakes, but who hasn’t? It doesn’t mean I can’t love you. Everyone deserves a second chance, a fresh start.” She looked down at her empty cup. “Celeste was right about this stuff.”
When she looked up, she felt dizzy from the intensity of Luc’s gaze.
“Somewhere in all that,” he said, “did you just say you loved me?”
“I did.”
“You know I love you too, don’t you?”
“N-not until right this moment.” Love. But what did that word mean to Luc?
“I think I was in love with you months ago,” he said, “but since I’ve never been in love before, I didn’t recognize it.”
“Love can be very sneaky.” She reached her hand toward him, only to find he’d done the same to her. They clasped hands, and then somehow they were in each other’s arms, lying in the middle of the bed, kissing as if they’d been lovers separated for years instead of a couple of days.
Pausing for breath, Luc pulled back and looked deeply into Loretta’s eyes, stroking her hair. “I love you,” he said again. “And I love Zara, too.”
“I want you to spend as much time with Zara as you please. I know you’ll be a good influence on her-for however long you choose to stay in Indigo.” She forced herself to say that last part. But she knew she had to accept Luc exactly as he was, not the ideal she wanted him to be.
“However long? How about the next hundred years or so?”
“Luc, don’t tease.”
“I’m dead serious. I’ve never stayed in one place long because I’ve never had a reason to before. But I love this town. I love the people, the way they care so much about each other. I probably won’t be in this house. I think
Loretta could hardly believe what she was hearing. Luc here in Indigo, forever? She couldn’t bear to think of La Petite Maison without Luc, but Celeste was the owner, and Loretta could understand the other woman’s desire to run it. And whatever business Luc decided to get into, he would make it something wonderful.
Luc jostled her. “You still with me?”
She realized she’d been staring off into space. “No. I’m just speechless.” She sat up and pulled away slightly, trying to gauge his sincerity. “You’ll really stay here?”
He nodded. “And something else. I want to marry you. Now, you don’t have to answer right away-”
“Yes.”
“-because I’ll keep asking. Maybe once a month or so.”
“I said yes.”
“You did?”
She leaned in and kissed him again. “Yes.”
EPILOGUE
LUC HAD NEVER FELT so nervous in his life. Confessing his past sins to Loretta had been easy-like taking off a heavy jacket. But asking Zara how she felt about having a new dad, that was scary.
Loretta had assured him Zara would be wild about the idea. After all, that had been her master plan: to prove to her mother that she needed a father, Luc in particular, to divert her from a life of crime. But when faced with the reality of having a new authority figure, she might balk.
He dressed with care in his best blue chambray shirt and dress slacks. He was going to Loretta’s to have his talk with Zara, then they were all coming back to the B and B for dinner. Vincent and Adele were invited, and of course Celeste and Doc would be there. Luc was going to announce his and Loretta’s engagement.
If everything went according to plan.
He arrived at Loretta’s at six-thirty. She let him in, looking sexier than ever in slinky black pants and a sheer, ruffled blouse with an enticingly low-cut neckline.
She greeted him with a warm kiss. “I have to warn you-” But that was all she got to say. Zara came running full tilt into the bakery, screaming “Luc! Luc, Luc, Luc, you’re here!” And she barreled into him, throwing her arms around his waist and squeezing so tight he worried she might never let go. “Luc, is it true, are you really going to be my daddy?”
Loretta shrugged. “I’m sorry, but she guessed right away and I’m not good at keeping secrets.”
“I can keep secrets, I’m real good at it,” Zara said. “Mama says I can’t tell anyone till you make the ’noucement at dinner tonight.” Finally she released Luc and beamed up at him with the sweetest smile.
“So you’re okay with your mom and me getting married?”
“I can’t wait! Can you do it tomorrow?”
“Not tomorrow, but soon,” Luc promised. “Now, then, I still have something to say to you, young lady.”
“Uh-oh.”
“Yeah, uh-oh. What you did by running away and painting the wall of the opera house was a really bad thing to do. No matter how much you want things to go your way, you can’t be thoughtless and hurtful to people you love. Do you know what I mean when I say the ends don’t justify the means?”
“It means that even though my plan worked, it was still a bad plan and I shouldn’t have done it.”
“Exactly.”
Zara chewed on a thumbnail. “I didn’t know everyone would be so worried. I thought they would just be mad at
