“I brought a cell phone for you, Luc,” Remy was telling his brother. “Don’t use it unless there’s an emergency. My phone will probably be tapped, as well as those of everyone else you know. But I’ll call you from a safe phone as soon as I get news.”
Luc nodded.
“What’s with all this stuff?” Sylvie asked then. There were about a dozen bags of various sizes around the room.
“Tante Lulu wanted to make sure you two were comfortable here,” Remy explained ruefully. “I think she may have overdone it a bit.”
Luc made a snorting sound of disgust, especially when he untied one of the bags and pulled out an exquisite comforter made of soft quilted patches of colorful cloth, immediately followed by embroidered sheets and a homespun tablecloth. “Hell! What does she think we’re doing here, setting up housekeeping?” He immediately realized the truth of his statement, glanced sheepishly at Remy and Sylvie, and then blushed.
Sylvie loved him for that blush.
No, no, no she didn’t really love him. She just loved the fact that the rogue could blush. It wasn’t love-love.
Oh, God! I am falling apart here. She put a hand to her forehead and moaned.
“Sylv, you’re dead on your feet,” Luc observed. “Help me make up the bed with those fresh linens and you can lie down. I’ll put the supplies away.”
She would have liked to argue, but it was the truth. She was suddenly so exhausted she could barely stand on her feet. The events of the past several days were catching up with her finally, and she feared she might not even be able to make it as far as the alcove.
Thunder ripped through the sky, followed almost immediately by a wild torrent of rain. It would undoubtedly be one of those quick summer storms well known in Southern Louisiana, come and gone in the blink of an eye. If Sylvie wasn’t tired before, she was now, with the sound of rain pounding on the rooftop in a metronome rhythm conducive to sleep.
Luc showed her to a small bathroom, where she washed her face and hands and arms, brushed her teeth, and donned an old T-shirt and jogging shorts of his. A short time later, she was tucked in between crisp sheets and was drifting off to sleep.
Before she fell asleep, though, she heard Remy advise Luc, “You’re in over your head, brother.”
“With Dad and his oil cohorts?”
“No, with Sylvie. This one could break your heart, Luc.”
There was a long silence.
Finally, Luc said in a low voice she could hardly hear, “Yeah.”
What Sylvie would have liked to say, if she weren’t so sleepy, was that maybe hers was going to be the heart broken. Or worse yet, maybe they would break each other’s hearts.
Love potions weren’t all they were cracked up to be.
Chapter Eleven
Five hours had passed, and Sylvie was still fast asleep.
The rain had stopped hours ago, and steam escaped from the ground in moist billows under the sun’s unrelenting rays. The scent of the roses that climbed over the outside of the house was almost overpowering since their recent dousing.
Luc had put all the supplies away, including a pigload of stuff Tante Lulu had sent along from his hope chest. Not just the bed linens, comforter, and tablecloth, but monogrammed towels, a sofa throw rug, pot holders, a macrame toaster cover, and a St. Jude toilet-paper dispenser.
To his surprise—he never would have thought of it himself—Tante Lulu had bought a small critter carrier made of clear plastic with a spinning treadmill, sawdust, and mice food for Samson and Delilah. They were humping away right now in their new home in a dark corner by the fireplace.
Even worse, Tante Lulu had enclosed a brand-new package of boxer shorts—white with red hearts, for God’s sake. Talk about obvious! And a flame-red Frederick’s-of-Hollywood-style nightie, which she had probably purchased in Wal-Mart. It was called “The Naughty Nightie.” Gawd!
What could his aunt possibly be thinking?
He was afraid he knew.
Remy had seen those items before he’d left, and had had to practically drag his open jaw off the floor. Luc had heard him laughing all the way outside to his plane, and then until take off. He was probably still laughing when he landed on the ranch near Natchitoches.