“Here, honey.” Auntie June rushes forward to take one of the bags. “Let me help you.”
“I’ll take the other.” Aunt Bea relieves her of the remaining sack and places a loving hand on Vee’s cheek. “June, will you put out the layer cake while I arrange these beautiful flowers in a vase?”
“Right.” Auntie June winks. “Let’s leave these young’uns alone to chew the cud.”
“I’ve always hated that expression.” Aunt Bea turns to leave, but not before leveling Cash with a look.
“Ma’am?” he asks, standing a bit taller.
“I’m glad you’re home,” she tells him, turning to include Luc in her statement. “I’m glad you’rebothhome. But if you run out on my niece again, I’ll have the entire state of Louisiana hunt you down and hang you from the nearest tree by your balls.”
I gape. Never in my life have I heard Aunt Bea talk like that.
Auntie June hoots with laughter and throws an arm around her sister’s waist. “Well said, Bea.”
After the aunts disappear into the back of the house, Vee is the first to regain her composure. She turns to Eva. “I didn’t realize you were coming today.”
“I was a last-minute addition,” Eva explains.
“Mmm. Well surprises are always nice.” Vee turns away from Eva toward Luc and Cash. “As for you two, I didn’t really expect you to show up once Maggie explained what this tea is for.”
“What do you mean?” Cash asks.
Vee turns to me with a frown. “You didn’t warn them?”
No. Because they’ve been avoiding me for five days, and my stupid pride wouldn’t let me call or text them first. “I…uh…kind of forgot to mention it.”
She gapes, then curls in her lips. “Oh, this will be fun.” Her laugh sounds a little witchy as she disappears down the hall.
After she’s gone, Cash turns to me. “What the hell did you sign us up for, Maggie?”
The alarm on his face has me biting the inside of my cheek. “It’s entirely possible you and Luc will be the only ones here sporting a Y chromosome.”
His complexion pales. “And how many guests is your aunt Bea expecting?”
I wrinkle my nose. “Uh…fifty or so?”
“God help me.”
“Oh, please.” I roll my eyes. “Since when have you ever hated being surrounded by beautiful—”
“You can’t take Violet’s chilly reception personally,” Luc says, and I stop midsentence to blink over at him. He’s watching Eva thoughtfully.
When I see her studying her pedicure, my good humor instantly dies. Was Vee’s reception chilly? It was if Eva’s expression is anything to go by, and I feel sick to my stomach because why didn’t I notice? I mean,Lucnoticed. Obviously.
Then again, Luc notices everything.
“She blames me for what happened to Mr. and Mrs. Carter,” Eva says quietly.
“No,” Cash interjects. “She blamesMaggiefor that.”
Eva lifts her chin to stare hard into my eyes. “But you know it wasn’t your fault, right?”
I nod because that’s what everyone expects me to do. But deep down, I’m fully aware of the truth.
Katrina made landfall the week before I started seventh grade. Momma and Daddy took me and Vee inland to Aunt Bea’s cabin by the lake. Hunkered down in that one-bedroom house way out in the woods, we rode out the storm on high ground while the world raged outside.
We tried tuning it out by playing cards, drinking sweat tea, and listening to Auntie June’s blues tapes on an old battery-powered radio/cassette player. But on that second day, when the news started pouring in, there was no more turning a blind eye to the destruction around us.
