Page 28 of The Cajun Doctor

Good!

“Aaron kin come back ta town with me when Charmaine comes ta pick me up. I gots ta introduce him ta his neighbor first.”

“You do?” Aaron asked.

And wasn’t it odd that she needed to introduce just Aaron, not the two of them? Not that he wanted to be included in any of her plans.

“Yep. Del Dugas. A farmer about a half mile away. Old man Dugas bought the farm back fifty years or so, but he died five years ago leavin’ the place ta Del.” She was grinning at Aaron as she spoke.

Aaron looked as if he was about to puke. “You think I would be interested in a farmer? I’m not gay.”

Tante Lulu chuckled. “Ever’one this side of the Mason-Dixon line knows that. Yer brother, on the other hand . . . Ooooh, I forgot. I brought you boys a house-warmin’ gift.” She pointed to the far end of the ground level verandah where a dismantled St. Jude birdbath sat in the shadows. He knew it was St. Jude because everyone who ever met Tante Lulu found out within minutes that he was her favorite saint. A regular fan club she had going. The statue would probably be six feet tall. “Charmaine helped me unload it. I figger ya kin put it in the rose garden.”

“What rose garden?” he and Aaron both asked.

“The one over there,” she said, pointing to a jungle on the east side of the house, opposite from the garconniére. “Also, before ya start, mebbe ya should hire Jem Hawkins, the snake catcher.”

It would seem Tante Lulu had her finger in a lot of restoration pies. Surprise, surprise. And was it a coincidence that the folks she talked into restoring these old dumps . . . uh, plantations . . . were usually dumb Yankees? No surprise there, either.

“Jem’s nickname is Stinky ’cause he allus smells like swamp water, bless his heart,” Tante Lulu continued. “Stinky sez ya got twelve different species of snake colonies here.”

Oh, that was just what Daniel needed to hear! Aaron wasn’t too thrilled, either. “We have colonies?” he choked out.

Then Tante Lulu, whose brain skittered from one subject to another like popcorn over an open fire, turned to Aaron again. “Mebbe ya oughta go comb yer hair and tuck in yer shirt afore we go over ta the Dugas farm. If ya wanna ask fer a date, ya gotta be spiffied up a bit. But not all freaky neat lak Daniel. Ya gotta be laid-back cool. Lak that Matthew McConaughey fellow in the car ads, or Richard Simmons, of course.”

McConaughey, Daniel could see, but the other? It boggled the mind, but Tante Lulu considered the reclusive exercise guru to be a “real hottie.” She’d told them so on more than one occasion.

“I can get my own dates, thank you very much,” Aaron said.

“Did I fergit ta tell ya . . . Del is short fer Delilah?”

Daniel couldn’t believe how much he was enjoying his brother’s discomfort, even if the old bat had called him “freaky.”

“Delilah?” Aaron frowned. “No, you didn’t mention that the farmer was a lady. But I’m still not—”

“Oh, and it’s not the usual kind of farm.”

He and Aaron exchanged glances, knowing there was bound to be a zinger to come.

“Okay, I’ll bite. What does the sweet Delilah raise on her farm?” Aaron asked with a sigh of resignation.

“Alligators.”

ZING!

“Ya ever seen a lady wrestle an alligator?”

DOUBLE ZING!

Daniel had to see this! No way was he heading back to his bayou fishing camp now. He got his jollies any way he could these days (translated: not very often), and watching Tante Lulu pull off a love connection for his brother promised to be amusing, especially when her Cajun cupid’s dart involved a female alligator wrestler. Oh, boy! This was almost as good as the time Aaron had a blind date with a mortician.

Aaron, who was usually game for anything new, was muttering, “Not a chance!” Daniel wasn’t at all surprised to hear his brother claim a sudden emergency and hightail it off the plantation.

Leaving Daniel with the cagey matchmaker from hell.

Chapter Six

Who says busybody is a bad word? . . .