“You’re trying to have your cake and eat it too!” he cuts me off.
I sputter, so offended I can’t form words.
“Call me when you know your own mind.” He pushes away from the table.
Before he can stand, I find my tongue. “So that’s it, then? No more Sunday brunches? No more excursions until I choose?”
“’Course there’ll be excursions and Sunday brunches.” He shakes his head at me likeI’mthe one being unreasonable. “You think I’d take those things away from Cash when they seem to be the only things he cares about anymore? What kinda man d’ya think I am?” Before I can tell him I’m starting to wonder, he goes on. “I’m saying no more holding hands. No more tugging on my ear. No more stolen kisses. If you want me, you gotta come out and tell me. Until then, I’d appreciate you not doing me the way you did Cash.”
My mouth falls open. I don’t have words. And if I do, they’re lodged in my throat like irate porcupines.
Pulling some bills from his wallet, he tosses them on the table before standing and shrugging into his jacket. His parting shot before heading for the door, with every woman in the place watching him go is, “You go on and give that a good think.”
Chapter Seventy-eight
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Luc
No one was put on this earth to go it alone. As the Blues Brothers say,Everybody needs somebody to love.
I love Magnolia May Carter.
Body and brain, heart and soul, every part of me belongs to her. So it’s about killed me deader than a road-running possum not to see her or talk to her in the week since I gave her… I reckon you’d have to call it anultimatum.
I’ve missed her like crazy. I hardly sleep. I have trouble thinking about anything that isn’t her. I’d say I barely eat, but nothing puts me off my food.
I’ve gone back and forth a million times on whether I was too hard on her. On whether she has a point about keeping things on the DL for Cash’s sake.
I’ve composed two dozen text messages, only to stare at them for ten minutes before deleting them. I’ve driven by Bon Temps Rouler every evening after leaving Cash’s, even though it’s not on my way home. But I haven’t stopped.
I set this thing into motion, and now I have to see where it goes. Besides, this way, if and when she chooses me, I’ll know it’s not for lack of a better option, or because sexual tension has started swirling around us like cheap body spray. I’ll know it’s because she wantsme,Lucien Dubois. No one else.Me.
Truth to tell, I’d hoped tonight’s dinner might offer me a clue which way she’s leaning. But we’ve managed to sit through an entire meal at Muriel’s Jackson Square without saying one word to each other. It’s been Cash who’s kept the dialogue going. And given he’s not much of the conversationalist nowadays, there’ve been more than a few awkward silences.
Now that our plates have been cleared, the check signed, and our after-dinner drinks delivered, he sits back and glances from me to her and back again. “So I take it you two still haven’t worked out your shit.”
Maggie sheepishly glances around the swanky dining room with its aged-brick walls and tables covered with fine china and fancy silverware. Folks are dressed up, enjoying expensive wine and the sounds of the three-piece band playing soft jazz in the corner.
“Language,” she scolds him, then blithely disregards his statement by asking, “Have you heard anything more from Broussard? Does Rick have a start date for his trial?”
Cash narrows his eyes. He’s no dummy. He knows a conversational sleight of hand when he hears one.
For a second, I think he’ll press her. Then he shrugs. “The trial starts at the end of the month.”
“Soon,” I say, surprised at how quickly the DA has put together his case. Then again, Broussard said Rick wasn’t exactly Machiavellian in his bookkeeping, so…yeah.
“The sooner the better,” Cash declares with feeling.
Spinning her glass of Sazerac atop the table, Maggie cocks her head. “What’s going to happen to all his businesses when he’s in prison? Tell me they’ll be sold off and the profits used to pay back his victims. I’m just now beginning to believe there’s justice in the world, what with the charges against Luc getting dropped and everything. Please don’t ruin that for me.”
“If he’s convicted—” Cash starts to say, but she interrupts and stresses, “Whenhe’s convicted.”
“Right.” Cash nods, and I hope beyond hope her optimism is justified. “Then the city will confiscate his assets and do its best to make whole those he swindled.”
“Excellent.” She claps her hands together and then smoothes back the swoop of hair she’s arranged over her brow when it slides down to cover one eye.
Tonight she’s wearing a forest-green dress with a patent leather belt and black, stacked heels. She went a bit heavy-handed with the eyeliner, which makes her eyes look even bluer than they already are.
