Page 37 of The Lady on Esplanade
He looked so hopeful that I stood on my toes and gave him a soft kiss on his mouth, making him smile.“What was that for?”
“For understanding.And just…” I shrugged.“Just being you.”I stepped away and held my hand up to my ear with thumb and pinkie extended, like an old-fashioned phone.Call me,I mouthed, then headed outside to the sidewalk.
Beau was just stepping out of his Uber as the restaurant door closed behind me.“Perfect timing,” I said.“Everything okay with Sam?”I didn’t say I was sorry for causing her quick exit because I hadn’t done anything wrong.This time.
He avoided my eyes.“Yeah.All good.”He pointed to his jacket, draped over my arm.“Can I have that?Sam’s waiting and I need to get to my truck.”He reached for the jacket, but I held it back.
“Hang on—I need to say something first.”
“Okay,” he said, dropping his hand.
“Since you bailed on me, I took the opportunity to speak with Camille.She has nothing to add to what we already know.I asked her if either of your parents spoke with a fortune teller, and she said she didn’t think so.She also mentioned that when Mimi touched some of your dad’s belongings all she got was garbled words.She also believes that your mom is still alive, despite what I told her about the wet footprints.Camille didn’t seem to be aware of your psychic abilities, so I didn’t say anything.”
“Thank you.I don’t mind Camille knowing—after all, she knows about Mimi—but I don’t want Henry to know.He’d probably houndme so that I’d help him find some source of money.Christopher told me that he’s that kind of guy.”
I nodded.“Yeah.I agree.Although I like Camille.”
Beau inclined his head toward the restaurant.“What does Jolene think?I trust her intuition when it comes to people.”
I thought for a moment.“Let me try this word for word: ‘That man’s as useless as a milk bucket under a bull.’ ”
Beau gave a soft laugh.“Good to know I wasn’t off base with my initial reaction.”He glanced at his watch.“I need to go.Sam’s waiting.”
“Of course.Here.”I lifted the jacket from my arm, fumbling it as it got stuck in the straps of my purse before slipping to the sidewalk.Beau grabbed it quickly, but something fell from a pocket and clattered to the ground.I picked it up, examining it closely before handing it to Beau.It was a ring box from the famed Adler’s Jewelry.
He took it from my outstretched hand.Unable to restrain my curiosity, I said, “Is that—?”
Beau cut me off with a curt nod, then tucked the box back into the inner breast pocket of his jacket.“I wish I had my mom’s ring, because it was a family heirloom.But…” He shrugged.
“It’s none of my business,” I said, already walking away.“I’ll see you tomorrow morning.Nine on the dot.I’ll be waiting for you in my driveway.”
I turned and ran back into the restaurant before I said anything else.
CHAPTER 12
Despite my wish for rain to delay our visit to Madame Zoe, the vivid autumn sun glared brightly from a cerulean sky.I held the travel coffee mug that had been a gift from Jolene and readCalifornian by Birth, Southern by Choice; I was desperately hoping to absorb caffeine after a sleepless night.
I’d tried to slip out the door without Jolene noticing, but she apparently had eyes in the back of her head.She’d pointed to the French door and given the command “Stop.”I’d stopped at her authoritarian tone, and so had Mardi, sprawling on the floor between me and the door.
I’d been impressed despite my annoyance.“Did you teach him that?”
“No.Whoever his previous owner was must have.I was trying to get a roach to stay still while I went for the bug spray, and let’s just say that Mardi did a much better job than the roach.”She bent down to give Mardi a scratch behind one floppy ear.“Makes me wonder what else he knows and who he belonged to.”
“Their loss, our gain,” I said, remembering all the posters we’dspread around town after we’d found him and how we’d hoped that despite our best efforts an owner wouldn’t be located.I reached for the doorknob and pulled on it, but instead of moving out of the way, Mardi looked up at me and did a half growl, half bark.I turned to Jolene.“Could you call off your dog, please?I have to meet Beau in exactly five minutes.”
“Not looking like that.”She reached down again and patted Mardi’s head.“Good boy.Ain’t nobody looking like they just rolled out of bed is leaving this apartment.It reflects poorly on me.”Mardi seemed to smile as he looked up at my roommate, then rose to his feet and moved to his monogrammed doggie bed.
I sent a surreptitious look at the unguarded door.“Don’t even think about it,” Jolene said.“I don’t know what else Mardi knows, but I don’t want to give him any of the attack commands my uncle Boo uses as a prison guard down at Angola.”She shuddered.“That could get ugly.So why don’t you just come with me and I’ll fix you right up and you’ll only be a few minutes late?”She glanced at her watch.“Maybe a few more, since you’re lollygagging.”
I knew it would waste more time if I argued, so I went with her to the makeup table in her room, where she did something called “color correcting” on the bruise-colored skin under my eyes.“I wish you’d tell me what’s wrong,” she said as she selected a small makeup brush from her stockpile.“Even if there’s nothing I can do, it sometimes helps just to tell someone.”
She dipped the brush in some yellow goop in a compact, then gently dabbed it under my eyes.
“I think Beau proposed to Sam last night.And it’s not like I have feelings for him—I mean, besides finding him annoying and authoritative and bossy.But not, like, anything that would make me not sleep if he and Sam were engaged, you know?”
I caught the look of concern in Jolene’s green eyes before she turned away to dab more goop on the brush.I waited for her to share one of her usual pearls of wisdom that made me feel better.Instead, she said,“I guess it’s a good thing you’re coming to Mississippi with me for Thanksgiving, then.Time away will give you a new perspective.”
“I don’t need a new perspective.I see twenty-twenty.Beau and I…” I paused, trying not to remember how warm and safe I’d felt in his embrace at the Saenger the night before.“We have a shared history of parental abandonment, so of course we feel a bond.But anything else…” I made a gagging noise, something I’d learned from Sarah and I knew was immature for a woman my age.Anything to distract Jolene from her line of thought.
