“Oh, he does, does he?”
“He swears he’ll be a gentleman,” Brooke said.
“They always do,” Marie said primly. “Are you on any kind of birth control?”
“That’s none of your business,” Brooke said. But she wasn’t. There hadn’t been any need in a long time. As far as she was concerned, the combination of a rambunctious three-year-old and an exhausted single mother was the most effective birth control on the market.
Marie cocked her head and studied her daughter.
“What? What’s that look?” Brooke demanded.
“Nothing. Just thinking.”
“I hate it when you do that. It’s like you’re psychoanalyzing me.”
“Has it occurred to you that you’re at a fork in the road? The father of your child apparently wants to be in your life again. And in the meanwhile, Gabe Wynant has come a-courting. I know I encouraged you to see Gabe, but that was before all this business with Pete.”
“Yes, Mom, it has occurred to me. Trust me, I know what I’m doing.”
“I certainly hope so. Anyway, you never told me what you and the girls found out on your fact-finding mission yesterday. Do you really think there’s a chance C. D. is Josephine’s son?” Marie asked.
Brooke shared the results of the previous day’s investigation, and Marie listened carefully. “Have you spoken to C. D. yet? If it’s true that his father might have been black, that’s going to come as a huge shock to someone of his generation.”
“I’ve left him messages, but nobody’s seen or talked to him. I’m starting to get a little worried about him, to tell you the truth,” Brooke said. “Lizzie was going to try to track him down today. I’ll call her on my way home to see what she knows.”
“Keep me posted,” Marie said. “And be careful driving home. Call me Sunday and fill me in on all the gory details of your night with Gabe.”
“A lady never kisses and tells,” Brooke said, grinning impishly.
“Except to her mother,” Marie said.
55
When Shug dropped her off at the dock at Talisa, Felicia and Lizzie were waiting, with Lizzie behind the wheel of the pickup truck. Shug waved goodbye as he backed the boat away from the dock, headed back to the mainland to run errands for Louette.
“I was kind of surprised to hear from you this morning,” Lizzie said as the two other women scooted in close to her in the front seat of the truck.
“After you told me yesterday that C. D. seems to be missing in action, it made me a little nervous. I mean, right now, he’s Josephine’s heir apparent,” Brooke said.
“Or at least, he’sourpreferred heir apparent,” Felicia said. “Not that we have any say in the matter.”
“Did you talk to Varina? Ask her about the possibility that a black man could have fathered Josephine’s child?”
Felicia shook her head. “I can’t. She’s still pretty frail. And she’s so protective of Josephine’s reputation. Her main concern right now is when Josephine will be buried. She hates the idea of her body locked up in a freezer drawer at the morgue. Have you heard anything?”
“We’re waiting on the sheriff to release the body,” Brooke said. “I’ll ask Gabewhen I see him tonight. Maybe, now that he’s been named administrator, he can speed things up.”
“You’re seeing Gabe tonight?” Lizzie asked, nudging Felicia.
“You two are so juvenile,” Brooke said.
“I told you so,” Felicia said, addressing Lizzie. “I definitely sensed some kind of a spark between those two.”
Lizzie wrinkled her nose. “It’s none of my business, but…”
“It really isn’t, so let’s change the subject,” Brooke said good-naturedly. “Talk to me about C. D. When was the last time anybody actually saw him?”
“Shug rode him over to the mainland last Monday,” Felicia said.
