The Road to Bayou Bridge. Liz Talley

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СКАЧАТЬ who’d ridden away and not looked back. She didn’t need him—then or now.

      What did he have to say that was so important? It was too late for an apology, but maybe he’d truly grown up and wanted some sort of closure crap like ex-lovers demanded in all the movies.

      Fine. She’d give it to him.

      But she’d make sure she wore some lipstick and washed her hair first. No sense in looking like a backwoods coonass.

      Her cell phone vibrated in her pocket and she pulled it out and looked down. Her mother. So not the person she wanted to talk to at the moment, but if she didn’t answer, Bev would call over and over again until she did. Her mother was nothing if not persistent.

      She moved away from the crane moving through the trees skirting the bayou and answered it on round two.

      “Hey, Mom.”

      “Darby Dufrene’s in town. Just heard it from my hairdresser, and I wanted you to know.”

      “Well, I’ll try not to tear his clothes off and impregnate myself when I see him.”

      Bev huffed. “Don’t get smart with me.”

      “I’ve already seen him, and my clothes are buttoned up tight. You can stop panicking.”

      “Where did you see him? Aren’t you still at work?”

      Renny walked to a viable spot, bent down and filled a vial with water from the flooded field. “Technically, yes. But one of our cranes got blown north and has found a home at Beau Soleil.”

      Silence sat for a moment. “Beau Soleil? You’re joking, right?”

      “I wish I were.”

      “I worry about you, you know,” her mother said, her voice slightly softer than normal. Bev Latioles made no bones about loving her daughter, even if at times that love felt like a blanket thrown over her head. Renny was always covered. In fact, Bev had even had a friend run a background check on a guy she’d dated a few years back.

      “I know, but I’m a big girl and don’t need you worrying about me. Especially about an old high school boyfriend. We were kids, Mom. He doesn’t have the same effect on me that he once did.” Renny took one last look at the bird and started making her way back the way she came, hoping that the words she’d uttered were indeed true.

      “Good because that boy was nothing but trouble, and I happen to know leopards don’t change their spots. Your father taught me that hard lesson.”

      “So you’ve said time and again, Mom.” Renny didn’t want to talk about her father. Or Darby Dufrene. Or any man for that matter.

      Not that she’d completely given up hope on finding a special someone, but her social life lay gasping for air on the side of the road. She’d been cursed in the guy department lately and had become a bit too settled in her own protective bubble of work and renovating her house.

      “You know I’m not trying to stop you from finding a good man, honey, but I don’t want you to go off track again because I know how charming Darby can be.”

      “You don’t have to worry about that, okay? Darby and I are ancient history. Besides, he’s in town visiting his family.”

      “But I heard he’s out of the service and looking to join a law firm. Jackie said Helen Hammond told her that Picou said she was trying to get him to stay around here and practice. So this might not be only a visit. Just be careful around that boy. He’s hurt you enough, sweetheart.”

      Renny shook her head and tried to tamp down the aggravation welling inside her. Bev meant well—she always meant well—but Renny was too old to have to explain herself to her mother. “I appreciate your caring enough to call me and warn me, but the last thing I want is anything to do with Darby Dufrene. There’s nothing between us but some faded memories.”

      Renny heard her mother blow out a breath as she wove in between the trees, heading back toward the utility thruway where she’d parked her car. “Good, honey. Well, I suppose I’ll see you Sunday for my birthday? Aaron is taking us to lunch.”

      “I’ll be there.” Renny clicked off the phone and tried not to growl at the blank screen.

      Mothers.

      Did they ever let go or was hers just abnormally leechy?

      Probably just hers.

      The hum of the ATV broke her from thoughts of being smothered to thoughts of the very man her mother had warned her about moments ago. The man her mother loved to hate almost as much as Renny’s own father. She’d never understood why her mother had hung on so long to her anger at both, especially since Bev seemed relatively happy with her boyfriend, Aaron, a passive, bald chiropractor she’d met a few years ago.

      But Bev didn’t have to worry about Renny.

      She wanted nothing to do with Darby.

      No ties bound them.

      CHAPTER THREE

      “YOU DIDN’T BOTHER TO mention Renny Latioles was out on the land today,” Darby said as he poured a glass of ice-cold milk into one of the tall tumblers that had occupied the kitchen for as long as he could remember.

      “No, I didn’t,” Picou said, stirring something on the huge Viking stove. It smelled like feet, but Darby wasn’t going to say as much. Maybe he’d head over to the house Nate and Annie had built a mere mile away and check out Annie’s Crock-Pot dinner.

      He took a sip. “Why?”

      His mother shrugged. “No real reason. Figured it wouldn’t really make a difference, though I suppose I should have told her you and your brother were out toting guns. Oversight on my part.”

      Darby narrowed his eyes at her erect form, covered from head to toe in black spandex. A long silver braid parted her shoulder blades, the only color on a palette of black. Odd choice in outfit even for his kooky mother, but her clothes didn’t matter. Only the fact she’d already started manipulating situations for her own reasons. What they were, he couldn’t guess.

      “Yeah. So, I’ve been meaning to talk to you.”

      “Yeah?”

      “About Seattle.”

      “I don’t want to hear about it, Darby.”

      “I know you don’t, but it’s where I’ll be calling home for the near future.”

      The spoon clinked against the pot. She turned and met his gaze with eyes the same color as his own. “Why would you want to live there? It rains all the time. How is that interesting?”

      “I’m not concerned with interesting. I’m ready to start a new chapter in my life and that city fits the bill, and besides, I told you I met somebody. Right now it’s not serious, but if things go as planned, I’m thinking she’s the one.”

      Picou snorted. “The one? How long have you known her? Two months? That’s not СКАЧАТЬ