Page 71 of Moonshine Lullabies

“I see your point there, Lenny,” Jessie-Lou said with a shrug.

“Anyway, we gotta go,” I said, and she nodded and gave me another quick kiss.

“Y’all be careful out there, now. Y’hear?” she said, and I winked at her.

“As careful as a long-tailed cat in a room full of rockin’ chairs,” I told her and she laughed.

“First time I’ve heard that sayin’ put that way.”

“We’re leavin’ the skiff,” La Croix said, “but if you end up comin’ on shore try to keep it to my daddy’s house.”

“What ‘cha doin’ with it?” Jess asked.

La Croix grunted, “Should burn it and the memory that goes with it, but I don’t know, yet. Haven’t really been inside.”

“Sorry I asked, Len.”

He shook his head.

“It’s fine.”

“One more,” I said leaning down and smacking another kiss on her lips and she smiled, giggling at me, and stepped away, back toward the house.

It was hard getting onto the boat and even harder watching the dim porch light disappear into the swamp the further away we got from the place. The place where my heart and happiness lay, because that was what Jess was becoming for me. Didn’t have no place that felt like home the way she did.

CHAPTERTWENTY-FIVE

Jessie-Lou…

I took a deep breath and let it out in a rush as the small boat the three men left in turned a corner around a copse of cypress. I squared my shoulders and turned to face the door, still feeling hella weird and out of place out here. Like, I know the whole point of this exercise was to make friends with the other women associated with the club, but at the same time – I don’t know, I’d never been one to make friends easy or have a lot of ‘em.

Most women my age were either child free like Alina and Cor seemed to be, or they had babies or infants on their hips and I’d already been through that phase with little to no desire to do it again, really.

I went into the house and found Alina, in the kitchen, and Cor talking with Tate about school at the little four-person table behind the couch.

“What’re y’all up to?” I asked, but I’d caught enough of the conversation to know that Cor was enthusiastically trying to get my kid interested in some of the Greek myths he’d been complaining was comin’ up next in his classes right after the upcoming spring break.

“Oh, just making a pot of tea to wind down with, I think I’m getting too old for these late nights travels,” Alina said yawning.

“I mean, why can’t we study something cool like the local myths and legends ‘round these parts. At least that would beuseful,” Tate was complaining.

“Like what?” Corliss asked grinning enthusiastically.

“Like what about the Roux Garou?” Tate’s voice dropped to a whisper at the creature’s name and I went to the door and locked it.

“Boy you know better ‘n to talk about that kind of thing at night,” I scolded him gently.

“Okay, then, maybe over breakfast we can pick this up,” Cor said, and I nodded my thanks. There were just some things you didn’t fuck with out here in the swamp and the supernatural and my kin folk’s superstitions were definitely at the top of the list.

“Tate, go on an’ brush your teeth and get ready for bed, son. I don’t need you sleepin’ ‘til the afternoon and getting’ all fouled up for the school week. Plenty of time to stay up as late as you want come spring break.”

“Yes, Mamma.” He got up and was wise enough not to say anything else about it and not for the first time I counted my lucky stars.

I told him with pride, “I don’t know how I got so lucky to have such a great kid, but I’m damn sure grateful and proud of you for it.”

He grinned at me and went on back to the spare room we’d been given to get into some sweats and find his toothbrush and some paste.

“I think his mamma raisin’ him right has somethin’ to do with it,” Corliss commented getting up and going into the kitchen to help Alina doctor up some mugs of tea.

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