LeAnn blew out her cheeks. “It would be too crowded. I love my sister to death, but we’re like the odd couple. I’m a neat freak and Paige, let’s just say, is less than tidy.”
Tonya was intrigued by this disclosure. “What happens when you travel together? Do you share a room or cabin?”
“Yes,” Paige said quickly, “because there’s always room service. And St. John has someone come in to clean his house.”
Tonya wanted to tell the DuPonts that she hadn’t grown up with someone picking and cleaning up after her and didn’t mind doing housework. When Hannah had told her she had a cleaning service ready the guesthouse for her, she declined her offer to have them come in either weekly or biweekly to clean the guesthouse. Although her present residence was larger than her two-bedroom East Harlem apartment, cleaning it wasn’t what she would consider overwhelming.
LeAnn shot her sister an angry stare. “Mama used to have a hissy fit whenever she walked into Paige’s room, but after a while she gave up.”
Paige waved a hand. “Enough talk about me. Do you miss New York?” she asked Tonya.
“Not yet. I spoke to a friend the other day, and she was complaining about the snow, and that’s one thing I know I’ll never miss. I’m okay with cold weather if I’m dressed for it.”
“I love going to New York,” LeAnn admitted. “Whenever I’m there I find myself hanging out at Times Square until all hours of the morning. I think it’s the lights I find so addictive. It’s as if they’re calling me.”
Tonya nodded. “That’s why it’s known as the city that never sleeps.”
“Hannah told me you’re working at Chez Toussaints,” LeAnn said.
“I am. Right now I’m trying to learn everything I can about the local cuisine.”
“I know Eustace probably wouldn’t want to hear this, but he definitely should have a Zagat rating, because his dishes surpass some of the ones served in some of the so-called best restaurants in this city,” Paige said passionately. “But a Zagat rating would probably make it hard for the locals, because tourists would crowd them out.”
“You’re right about that,” Tonya said in agreement. “He’s only open from eleven to two, and there’s no way he’ll be able to seat more than thirty at any given time inside the restaurant, and that means the lines will be out the door and down the block. Even if Eustace hired another chef, it would be impossible to keep up with the demand.”
“And now that Gage is acting head of Lafitte High’s music department, he definitely won’t have time to help out his brother,” LeAnn added.
Tonya looked at her in surprise. She wondered if Gage had told St. John about his new responsibilities at the school, and he in turn told Hannah, who’d passed the news on to her cousins. “You know about that?”
LeAnn smiled. “Honey, please. Everyone knew about that the day it was announced. I still keep in touch with a few teachers at the high school, and they couldn’t wait to tell me that a few shameless hussies were practically throwing their panties at him. And knowing what I know about Gage, there’s no way he’s going to mess with any of them. He hasn’t changed a whit since I had him in my twelfth-grade English class. He was always good-looking and I’d always shake my head whenever some fast-ass young girl wearing a skirt that barely covered the cheeks of her behind would bend over in front of him.”
Suddenly intrigued, Tonya leaned forward. “How did he react?”
“He didn’t,” LeAnn said, “but that didn’t stop them from trying. I had a parent-teacher conference with his mama and she told me he’d decided he wanted to go to New York for college. She was worried because he was only sixteen, but then I reassured her that I’d taught students who were eighteen and some nineteen who were not as mature as Gage. He was very intelligent, talented, and competitive because he took extra classes to accelerate and graduate a year ahead of his peers.”
Paige crossed her arms under her breasts. “What had me shaking my head was why he married Winnie Fouche when everyone knew she couldn’t keep her skirt down or her knees together.”
“Maybe she was offering something he wasn’t able to refuse,” LeAnn countered, as a frown creased her forehead. “At least he came to his senses and divorced her before she saddled him with another baby. She probably thought giving him a son would make him stay, but I heard he had given up soon after the boy was born.”
Tonya was barely able to control her gasp of astonishment. When she’d told Gage about Samara, he never mentioned that he had fathered a child. “Where is his son?” The question was out before she could censor herself.
Paige met Tonya’s eyes. “The last I heard he was living in Baton Rouge with his mama. When they were living down here, the boy was bad as hell,” she spat out. “He must have taken after his mama, because I’ve had many a Toussaint in my classroom over the past forty years, and I never had a problem with any of them.”
“Did you also teach high school?” Tonya asked Paige.
“No. I taught elementary. I’ve watched a lot of kids grow up, and thankfully those that stayed made something of themselves.”
Tonya wasn’t usually prone to gossip, because she had witnessed firsthand the fallout from“you said, I said”scenarios that escalated into verbal and occasionally physical confrontations, and she chided herself for asking Paige about Gage’s son. If he had wanted her to know that he was a father, then he would’ve revealed it. The one thing she’d learned as she matured was to choose one’s friends carefully and respect their privacy—something she preached to her daughter once Samara entered adolescence.
“When do you project opening your restaurant?” LeAnn asked Tonya, breaking into her musings.
“If all goes well, then it should be sometime in October.”
“Are you excited?” Paige asked.
Tonya shook her head. “Not yet. Once I’m told to move out of here and back to the main house, then I’ll know it’s about to happen.”
LeAnn tightened the elastic band on her short ponytail. “Are they going to work on the café for the inn’s guests and the supper club at the same time?”
