Page 34 of Lulu’s Recipe for Cajun Sass

Oh, this is not good, Louise thought. This is just what she’d always avoided, letting her little girl get attached to some man who would eventually ride off into the sunset. It was one thing for her to settle for a short-term affair, but quite another to involve her daughter. She had obviously not thought this thing through.

But she had no time to ponder the situation now because her first client of the day had just shown up. It was Mrs. Benoit, the retired postmistress from Houma. She pulled her ancient roadster into the driveway beside the DeSoto, walked around to the back porch, and called out, as if his appearance were nothing remarkable, “Hey, Justin! How’s yer mama?”

“Doin’ poorly last night. Her feet get all swelled up when she’s standin’ in the store all day.”

“She should soak ’em in Epsom Salts,” Mrs. Benoit advised.

“That’s just what she was doing.”

“And how are you today, Adèle?”

“Jus’ fine. Me and Justin are gonna hose off St. Jude’s hiney.”

Mrs. Benoit’s jaw dropped but then she seemed to notice the tire tracks in the grass, the crushed flowers, and the tilted statue. “Looks lak someone had a little acci-dent,” she remarked with a laugh.

She took Mrs. Benoit inside where they discussed the ongoing arthritic pain in her shoulder which had been aggravated by a recent bout of labor-intensive gardening. Louise prescribed willow bark tea for her, along with a salve that helped the swelling.

No sooner had Mrs. Benoit left than Clive Delacroix showed up. “Whoa, Justin! What happened to ol’ Jude there?” Clive also didn’t seem surprised at Justin’s presence. “I might have some paint samples back at the store to touch up those flaky spots.”

Clive was the owner of a small hardware store down the bayou. You could find almost everything there for a home, from roofing tiles to turpentine.

“Thanks, Mister Delacroix. I’ll stop by tomorrow and see what you got.”

What? Justin is planning on coming back here tomorrow? To paint my statue?

After giving Clive some witch hazel salve for his hemorrhoids, she had a small break in which she prepared some lemonade for Justin and Adèle which she placed on a low porch table. They’d already set the statue straight on its concrete pedestal and removed all the damaged flowers and greenery. They were planting new ones which they’d transplanted from flower beds on the other side of the yard. It was actually looking better than it had before.

She was in the kitchen trying to decide what to make for lunch when Justin came in and went over to the sink to wash his hands. “I’ve gotta hit the road. I’ll just have time to shower back at the apartment and make my shift at the hospital by two.”

She nodded. “Where’s Adèle?

“Went into her bedroom to get some paper dolls.”

“That’s what she does when she’s overtired. She arranges all her dolls into families all over her floor to play with.”

“Did I overtire her?” he asked with alarm. “I mean, she looked like she having fun, so, I—”

“No, no. She was having a ball.”

He dried his hands on a towel and leaned back against the counter, watching as she put some leftover gumbo and rice into several pots to warm up for lunch.

“Do you have time?” she asked, motioning toward the food.

“It looks good, but nope. No time.” He still watched her, though. “You had a busy morning.”

“I did, and actually it helped to have Adèle out of the way. So, thanks.”

He nodded.

“I had four clients come here, and six phone calls,” she told him. “That is a busy morning.” It was obvious to her, and to him, that she was making conversation to fill the silence. The big elephant in the room was what had happened between them last night.

“Come here, Louise,” he said, motioning with the fingertips of both hands for her to approach. He was still leaning back against the countertop.

“What? No.”

More beckoning with his fingertips. “Are you afraid?”

“Of course not. Why would I be afraid?”