Page 86 of The Big Easy & Other Lies
She plucked the cash from my fingers. “You have a gift for playing people at the right position.” She headed back toward the door. “Later, suckers. Have fun moving boxes.”
“How about I’ll take the sitting room and you hit the shed?” Rhett suggested to Bran. “Maybe we can cover more ground.”
“Sounds good.”
Rhett stole a kiss, one eye on the den as if Delphine might catch him, although after the first day they’d come to help, she’d never once left her recliner when they showed up. Bran beckoned Chloe and turned down the hall, but I stopped him.
“If it’s okay with you, I’m going to borrow her,” I said. “Do you mind stepping into my workroom?”
“Of course not,” she said. I’d noticed her eyes darting around, taking in the evidence of Delphine’s hoarding in the stacks of dog food and magazines near the stairs.
“Bran told you, right? About Delphine?” I asked, my voice low.
She nodded.
“You might as well take a peek at the worst of it,” I said. “You got your Vicks, I see.”
She crossed her eyes in the direction of the shiny patch under her nose and I smiled. “It’s for your own good, I swear. Also, don’t breathe when we pass the kitchen.”
I led her to the parlor entrance where Rhett was already shuffling random bags out of the way. He smiled when he saw us.
Chloe’s eyes rounded to half-dollar size. “Whoa.”
“Yeah,” he said. “And this is kind of in better shape than the rest of the house.”
“I...I don’t have words.”
“I don’t think there are any,” I said. I let her take it in for another moment before I felt exposed and twitchy. “We should go upstairs. It’s, um, not like this up there.”
I turned and she followed me, but she called my name softly. “Cam? So you know, I don’t think there’s anything crazy about you.”
I gave her a tight smile and headed up to the sewing machine. On the landing, I faced her again. “Last night you looked like you weren’t sure about helping,” I said. “You don’t have to. I don’t mind. Bran won’t mind. I know it’s a lot to deal with.”
“It’s not that!” she said. “But...”
I waited her out.
“It’s not the hoarding thing. My grandma’s not that bad but she’s a pack rat so I kind of get it.” She shifted nervously. “It’s Livvie. She and Bran...”
“Are not a thing,” I said. “She’s just protective of us.”
“Is thatallit is?”
“Yes.”
Chloe bit her lip. “I really like him.”
“I know. And the feeling is mutual, I think.”
She cleared her throat. “So this is amazing,” she said, fingering the sewing machine in a change of subject.
“Mrs. Broussard asked me to test it out until Design Night is over.”
“What great timing,” she said with a grin. “Mrs. Broussard rocks.”
“I’ll show you what I had.” I pulled the three useless Urban Renewal outfits out of my closet and brought them out to the landing, draping them carefully over a stack of muslin.
“These are fantastic,” she said sadly. “I kind of hate Angelique now.”
