Page 89 of The Big Easy & Other Lies
“I keep imagining the look on Angelique’s face when she sees the new designs. Not only does it ruin her plan to embarrass me, but she’ll know Mrs. Broussard is going to bust her, and she won’t have gotten a thing out of it. All she can do is hope that Mrs. Broussard needs Heart of LaSalle’s program support badly enough to keep her mouth shut. And I’m not sure she does.”
“Devious,” Livvie said. “I’m so proud of you.”
Chloe grinned. “I feel like I should stand up and slow clap for you. That’s beautiful.”
Bran and Rhett immediately climbed to their feet and followed her suggestion. Livvie and Chloe followed their lead.
“Sit down, nerds,” I said, hot-faced and pleased. “Eat your sandwiches and get back to work.”
But I took a mental snapshot of them all standing there grinning down at me and filed it under “Moments to Never Forget.”
* * *
By dinner time, the momentum had faded. It was nearly dark outside and only Bran and Chloe were still with me. Rhett’s aunt had called him home an hour before, and Livvie had left to help her mom with supper. The creaking of the front door sounded from below, and Chloe looked up from the seam she was ripping out like she had every time we heard it open. It meant Bran was back from the shed with a new find. Usually he poked his head up to hand us something before disappearing again: a box of tassels, another jar of buttons, a few more bolts of deliciously vintage cotton prints.
This time, he climbed all the way to the top of the stairs and stood there with his hands behind his back and a strange half-smile on his face, as if he were working hard to keep a full grin from breaking out.
“What are you hiding?” I asked. “More goodies?”
The grin appeared. “I have the goody to end all goodies.” He produced his prize, a cardboard tube about eighteen inches long.
“Is it crammed with satin?” I asked. “Because I could use a few yards.”
In answer, he reached in and pulled out a yellowed paper, then slowly unfurled it like a scroll that faced outward. Talons gripping a tree branch emerged, and by the time he had it all the way open, an owl stared back at me, its wide eyes looking as startled to see me as I was to see it.
“Is this it?” he asked.
I climbed to my feet and edged closer to it, stunned. The muted colors in the owl’s brown feathers showed the patina of age, but up close, I could see that for something so old, the print was in amazing shape. I reached out to touch the incredible detail of the owl’s speckled feathers but stopped and drew my hand back, afraid to touch something so delicate and valuable.
“She was right. Delphine was right. She had it all along. It was in the shed?”
He nodded. “I found it in an old trunk with a bunch of other small paintings. Those are signed I. Landry. Maybe they’re your mom’s?”
Goosebumps popped out on my arms. “Probably. I have to see them. Let me go give this to Delphine, and then I want to go look.”
His grin faded. “Give it to Delphine? Look, I know she’s been less evil than usual lately, but Cam...” He held the Audubon out to me. “This is your ticket to school. You don’t have to give it to her. We’ll find other stuff to sell for her meds. If you give her this, she’s going to take the money and blow it on more crazy stuff to squeeze inside the house.”
I wavered, and shame tightened my throat. A huge difference separated sneaking fabric from her over the years and this. She would never use the fabric. But this owl meant the difference between anxiety about her medical bills and peace of mind. How could I even consider withholding it from her?
I lifted it from his hands as if it could break with a touch, and let it curl back in on itself bit by tiny bit before returning it to the tube. “Thank you,” I said. “So much. But I need to take this down to her. Y’all have put in a super long day. Why don’t you go on home while I talk to Delphine about this?”
He looked like he wanted to argue, but I shook my head. Chloe scooped up her purse and gave me a hug before slipping her hand into his. I walked them out. Bran stuck his head out of his truck window before backing up. “You should keep it,” he said again. “Lord knows after ten years with her, you’ve earned it.”
I turned to face the house and looked down at the tube in my hands. What a textbook case of so close and yet so far. While selling it would cover a full year of tuition at SoHo, it wasn’t mine to take. I climbed the steps and headed for the den.
Delphine looked up as I walked in.
“I found something,” I said.
“So? You’re always finding things.” She turned up the volume on the TV.
“Aunt Delphine? You’re really going to want to see this.” I picked the remote up from the chair arm and paused the Home Shopping Network blowout sale on stadium seat warmers.
She glared up at me. “Hurry up. They only have five hundred units left.”
This made no sense to me. She’d never been to a stadium since I’d lived with her. Did she just want to watch the countdown of the sales? I handed her the cardboard tube.
“What’s—”
