Page 8 of Home Again

“My granny was basically doing this with her quilting. My great aunt did amazing designs with her loom, and they both crocheted and knitted, then there was my granny’s needle lace design. Both of them had nothing but boys, who had nothing but boys. When I came along, they crammed as much knowledge into me as they could.”

“What’s a loom?” Sebastian asked as Gianna found a washcloth and started cleaning the counter.

“It’s a machine to weave. They were selling items throughout three counties.”

“Were?”

“Aunt Ida is dead, and Granny’s arthritis has forced her to stop. But she works in Tina’s Treasures. It’s one of the best stores that represents a lot of the local artists in Berea. Since Granny knows pretty much everybody in town, she can speak to all of the local artisans’ works.”

Gianna looked over her shoulder at Armand and saw that he wasn’t paying any attention at all, he was thumbing off the label off his third or fourth beer.

“So you just grew up in the industry, no schooling?”

Gianna tipped her head to the side. “How about you answering some questions, Sebastian?”

“Why not?” He smiled as he put away the last dish into the dishwasher and closed it. He leaned back against the sink, crossing his arms and crossing his ankles.

Seeing the way his Henley shirt stretched over his broad chest, it took a moment for Gianna to gather her thoughts.

“What do you do in the Navy?”

“I’m with Navy Special Warfare,” he answered.

“What does that mean?”

Sebastian shrugged. “It’s like anything else in the military. It means I do whatever my lieutenant tells me to do.”

“Okay, since you don’t like that line of questioning, let’s go for something else. What do you say?” Gianna relaxed when she saw his lips tip up.

“So how long are you going to be visiting?”

“Don’t know. I have six weeks’ leave available, but staying here the whole six weeks doesn’t sound like a fun way to spend all of it,” he said as he glanced over at his uncle.

She shifted and leaned her hip against the counter so she could get a better look at him. “Yeah, but it will be better when Lazar gets back from Baton Rouge, won’t it?”

His expression darkened. “Oh, it’ll get more interesting, that’s for sure.”

“Did you come here to see him, or Armand?”

“Oh, I came to see Grandpère. He said he’d be here now. I don’t know why I’m surprised he’s keeping me waiting.”

“Maybe he was just caught at the capitol because of the hurricane,” Gianna suggested.

Sebastian’s mouth twisted. “Armand explained he had planned meetings there. Nope, this is just Lazar showing me that I’m here at his beck and call. I had forgotten how he ran things. Silly me.”

Gianna contemplated his words. She hadn’t seen that side of Lazar; he was always playing the perfect Southern gentleman with her. But she shouldn’t be surprised—that was the reason she was here, wasn’t it? It was to turn over the stones and see the sordid underbelly, and she knew darn good and well that Lazar’s underbelly was sordid.

“How long has it been since you’ve been here for a visit?” she asked with a sweet smile. According to everything Jada had discovered, Sebastian had left home and never come back. In fact, when Gianna had made this trip, she’d never accounted for Sebastian to be any part of the situation.

“I haven’t been home since I left at eighteen,” he answered. She took note of him perusing her intently. “How did you come by renting out the carriage house? I know that occasionally my grandfather would have guests there, but never to my knowledge did he rent it out.”

“It was really embarrassing how it came about,” she said. “He found me trespassing, about six weeks ago. I had no idea that I was on private property,” she lied, hoping he would buy into it.

“Why were you there?”

“I was sketching. It’s kind of what I do.” This time she was able to look him straight in his eye since it was the truth. “I get the ideas for a lot of my patterns from nature. I have spent years sketching the Appalachian mountains, but I saw some pictures of the bayou, and I fell in love.”

“This is kind of out of the way, what made you pick this area?”