Her third husband, Lester, hadn’t been a Cajun, but he’d left, too. Thank goodness! He’d been boring as bayou mud.
Her fourth husband, Antoine, had been a Cajun… a Cajun nerd. She must have thought she’d be safe with a more serious fellow. Hah! Antoine had some kind of sexual addiction because he’d wanted to make love morning, noon, and night. And he wasn’t very good at it, either. Unfortunately, he hadn’t been working while he’d been chasing her around the house, except for diddling with his computers, of which he’d had five. When she’d laid down the law, refusing to support him anymore, he’d gone off with some other Sugar Mommy.
And all of them had wanted her to strip for them, like her mother. In fact, Antoine had urged her to strip to support them in a grander lifestyle, as if being a beautician and then shop owner hadn’t been enough for him. No wonder she had relationship problems. But that was all in the past. She was smarter now.
She listened appreciatively as various Cajun musicians played old favorites like “Ode to Big Mamou,” “Devil’s Dream,” “Ways of a Cajun,” and “Girls Like Cowboys.”
She hadn’t needed to hear that last song to know just how much girls liked cowboys. She was the worst of the lot. Show her a pair of spurs and a cowboy hat, and she swooned, especially if they were tacked onto a sexy-as-sin cowboy. Like Rusty.
No, no, no, I’ve had enough of that bum. Giving me orders like I’m one of his cows. As if! Another couple of weeks and I’m out of here. I promised myself some new beginnings, and that’s just what’s going to happen. A whole clean slate. Minus cowboys. Or minus one cowboy in particular.
Maybe she should become a lesbian. Hmmm. Could a woman decide to become a lesbian? She laughed softly as she took another drink from her cold bottle of beer. Hell, if I can decide to become a born-again virgin, why not a new sexual preference?
Stop swearing, she thought she heard a voice say. Probably that plaguey St. Jude. She glanced over. He said nothing, just rocked with the breeze, but he talked plenty in her head. You would not be speaking so lightly of hell if you knew just how bad it is. Whew! Talk about heat. Southern Louisiana in midsummer has nothing on hell. And forget the lesbian nonsense. I have other plans for you.
Chapter 7
Horny as a bull…
“You don’t seem to be having a good time.”
Raoul was sitting on a picnic bench, leaning his back and elbows on the table with his legs extended and crossed at the ankles. Amelie’s comment had jarred him from the reverie that had plagued him all evening.
“I’m having a great time, Amelie. It’s just a little disorienting for me. You know, mixing socially with so many people. I’m out of practice.” I didn’t get much chance to exchange chitchat in prison. That’s for sure. Plus, the people I got to mix with were all men and they weren’t your normal barbecue crowd. Murderers, sex offenders, drug dealers.
“No one made you feel bad, did they?”
Well, there was the time I rejected George the Hammer. And the time my cellmate said I was suffering from delusions about my innocence.
“Here at the party, I mean.”
Oh. Here at the party. She looked genuinely offended on his behalf as she sat down and put a hand on his thigh in comfort.
“No, everyone’s been really nice.” They whisper behind my back, but that’s to be expected, I suppose. He glanced once again at Amelie’s hand on his thigh. Odd thing about that. From Amelie, it was just a friendly gesture. If Charmaine had done the same thing, he would have taken it as an invitation to sex. Sparks would have been shooting up to his groin by now. His cock would have been singing cock-a-doodle-doos and doing the chicken dance.
“Why are you smiling?”
Uh-oh! “I didn’t realize I was.”
“Are you thinking about my offer?”
Hardly. Amelie had made him a surprising, generous offer to join her veterinary practice here in Lake Charles, now that her father had retired. He would have to be just an assistant till he got his medical license back, but when he did—and it was heart-lifting to know that Amelie had that kind of confidence in him—he would be a full partner.