A Second Chance

seemed to like Luc.

Still, it was unnerving. They’d been so disapproving of Jim, and so hurt when she’d run off and married him without their blessing. So dating was kind of a sore subject, for her, at least. Anyway, she’d wanted to be the one to tell them she was seeing Luc-and to do it without Zara around.

She would tell Zara tomorrow, when Luc came to their house to pick Loretta up for their first official date.

When her parents returned from tending the bees, she watched them closely to see if they knew anything, but they seemed perfectly normal.

She waited until after dessert, when she sent Zara to watch TV. “Don’t I have to help clean the kitchen?” she asked, puzzled.

“Not tonight. You can have the night off.”

Zara didn’t question her good fortune and dashed into the den. Vincent tried to wander off himself, but Loretta called him back.

“I have something to tell you all,” she announced.

Her mother put a hand to her mouth. “Oh, my God, you’re pregnant.”

“Mama! No.” At least that little matter had been laid to rest. As of a couple of days ago, she was sure she wasn’t pregnant. “But Luc and I are seeing each other.”

“Oh.”

“Is that your big news?” Vincent asked. “We knew that was coming. Saw it a mile off. “

“You could have clued me in.”

“Everyone in town knew.”

“What? Since when?”

“I dunno,” Vincent said, glancing at the newspaper.

“Any fool could see you two are besotted with one another,” Adele said. “Even before we talked about Luc the other day, I knew. About a month ago, we ran into him at the grocery store, remember? And your face got all pink, and you two talked about which fruits were in season. I knew then.”

Loretta remembered the incident well. She’d been tongue-tied, which was unusual, and later she realized it was because her mother was right there, and she was embarrassed by the surge of inappropriate sexual longing that had descended on her in front of the blueberries.

“I wish you’d told me,” Loretta said.

“Well, I’m glad it’s official. Zara told me a couple of weeks ago she thought Luc was going to be her new daddy.”

“Ah, Zara. I had to straighten things out with her. Luc and I aren’t that serious. I mean, we’re taking things one day at a time. Luc’s a bit commitment-shy and, frankly, I’m not sure I ever want to get married again.”

“Oh, Loretta.” Adele said it the way she might if Loretta had just announced she had a fatal disease.

“Seriously. Zara had Luc and I married off when we’d never even held hands. I had to disabuse her of those notions. So don’t go putting any ideas in her head, okay?”

“Who, us?” Vincent said as he put away the dishes Loretta was drying by hand. Her mother had a perfectly good dishwasher but for some unknown reason didn’t like to use it.

Adele turned off the water and dried her hands. “But why wouldn’t you want to marry someone as nice as Luc?”

“For one thing, he has no plans to stay in Indigo. Once the B and B renovation is complete, he’s leaving. And I’m not.”

“Oh. I see. Well, I’d rather you didn’t move away. But sometimes a woman has to follow her man.”

Loretta was shocked. “That’s not what you said about Jim.”

“Jim was an itinerant sharecropper without a dime to his name and he had shifty eyes,” Adele explained. “I didn’t want you going anywhere with him-or staying here with him, for that matter. Luc is an entirely different matter. Besides, you’re grown up now. Yes, I want you and Zara close by. But I also want to see you happy.”

“I am happy, Mama. I have wonderful parents, a wonderful daughter, a business I love. If I could have a man, too, that’d be great, but it’s not a necessity.”

“Hmm,” her father said.

“What?”

“Nothing.”

“I’D LIKE TO SEE my new boat, please.”

Luc had been dreading this moment since Celeste’s arrival two days earlier. She’d initially loved the idea of offering cruises to the B and B guests, but she’d become downright balky when it came to forking over the dough to buy a boat.

But Luc had talked her into it, confident he had plenty of time to refurbish the grimy pontoon boat he’d found before she saw it.

All he’d done so far was hose off several years of accumulated swamp scum. He still needed to replace the cushions and canopy. It was, however, seaworthy, and the engine was in perfect running order.

But Celeste wouldn’t focus on that.

“Good morning, Grand-mere,” Luc said with faux cheerfulness, as he continued to beat the eggs for the omelets he had planned. With only two guests in residence, plus Celeste, he could afford to get fancy. He was going to customize each omelet, cooking it to order. “I can show you the boat right after breakfast.” He saw no other choice; it was her boat.

“Very good,” she said. “Now then, for breakfast, I’d like one plain croissant with butter and strawberry jam and two slices of lean, crisp bacon. Also some hot, decaffeinated tea with honey.”

A plain croissant. It figured Celeste would ask for the one thing Loretta hadn’t delivered earlier that morning. “How about a chocolate croissant? Or an almond one?”

She looked scandalized. “Why would anyone want to ruin a perfectly good, traditional French pastry with a lot of sugar and other nonsense?”

He took it that meant no. “I’m sorry, Grand-mere, I don’t have any plain croissants. I have white, wheat, rye and pumpernickel bread, cranberry orange muffins, low-fat blueberry muffins, coffee cake-”

“What is the point of sleeping with a baker if she doesn’t provide you with the correct breads?”

Luc gritted his teeth. His grandmother had made a career of provoking people. Sometimes he thought she was testing him to see how far she could push him before he blew-before he proved he was his father’s son, lost his temper and walked out on her and her bed-and-breakfast. At which point she could have him arrested and force him to serve the remainder of his sentence behind bars.

He wouldn’t play her game; he wouldn’t give her the satisfaction.

“I’m not merely sleeping with Loretta,” he said, keeping his voice even. “She’s a very special person to me. I have a great deal of admiration and respect for her. But since I am not psychic, I didn’t know that you would require a plain croissant this morning. So would you like one of the other choices? I can manage the bacon and the tea and all the rest.”

He could have sworn the right corner of Celeste’s mouth turned up, just slightly. So she was playing him for her own amusement.

“I’ll just have what everyone else is having,” she said. “And coffee is fine, never mind the tea. I’m used to having whatever I want at the Hotel Marchand when I visit, and I forget that a bed-and-breakfast is set up differently. Is there a newspaper I might read while I’m waiting?”

He softened slightly. Maybe he was judging her too harshly. “In the dining room. There are three different ones.” He was almost afraid to offer her the omelet choices. Although he had nine different fillings on hand, she was sure to want something unavailable-anchovies or truffles.

A few minutes later, however, he was pleasantly surprised. His guests raved about the omelets, and Celeste ate a cinnamon roll and a chocolate croissant, obviously enjoying them. The couple from Mobile lured Celeste into conversation about some mutual acquaintances.

When the table was cleared and the dishwasher loaded, Doc tapped on the kitchen door and leaned his head in. “Anyone home?”

“Hey, Doc,” Luc greeted him, “come on in. What brings you around so early?” Doc usually saw patients in the morning on Mondays and Wednesdays-it was as close to retired as he’d been able to get.