Bayou Baby - Lexi Blake Page 0,102

about Luc.

Or he had to take the chance that she would never want to tell and live with it.

One way or another, he couldn’t let her go. Not without a fight. He was in love with her.

Angie started to turn but faced him again. “I know that you think you want Sera, but I hope you’ve given some consideration to what we talked about the other day.”

When she’d tried to warn him off. “I assure you, I’ve thought about very little except Sera. I was up most of the night thinking about whether or not we can work it out. We had an argument. You might get your wish.”

“It wasn’t my wish.” Angie’s shoe tapped on the concrete drive. “What did you fight about?”

He couldn’t tell her. He’d promised Sera and he meant to keep that promise. This wasn’t his secret to tell. “It doesn’t matter. I’ve got to find a way to make it up to her.”

He didn’t even really understand what he was making up, and that was the problem. He hadn’t listened enough the night before. He should have been patient and listened to her.

“Or you can understand that there are some things that aren’t meant to be. I know it seems like Mom is coming around on Sera, but at some point we’ll all find out this has been a major manipulation,” Angie said with a sigh. “I love her, but she’s never going to accept someone like Sera in our family. She would have done anything for Wes. Anything but accept Sera. He tried to date her for years.”

“She wasn’t interested in him that way.” Now that he was thinking about it from her perspective, of course she’d been scared. He still wasn’t sure it was right never to let Luc know a part of his family, but he could see how she’d been in a corner and hadn’t known how to get out.

“She had to have been at least once,” Angie said under her breath.

He stopped because that had been said with a fine edge of distaste. “What did you say?”

She shook her head. “Nothing. I’m sad you got hurt. It’s exactly what I was trying to avoid. It’s why I talked to you about it when I realized you were getting serious.”

But that wasn’t what she’d said. Her arguments against his relationship with Sera hadn’t been about him getting his heart broken. No. They’d been about Luc. And that vaguely disgusted comment about Sera and Wes had been about Luc, too. He felt his eyes narrow. “You know.”

“Know? Know what? I’m afraid I didn’t know you’d broken up. It hasn’t made the rounds yet, but it will. Everything does around here.”

“No. Not everything. Some of you are good at keeping secrets.” He should have known there was something more behind Angie’s reaction.

Angie’s face flushed and she turned, moving toward the house. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

He dropped his tool kit and followed her. “I think you know exactly what I’m talking about.”

She moved into the house, opening the kitchen door. “Let it go, Harry.”

He couldn’t. This secret was costing him the best relationship he’d ever had, and he wanted to know why it wasn’t as secret as Sera seemed to think it was. If Angela knew, perhaps his aunt knew as well and didn’t care. Sera had told him Celeste looked down on her. What if they all knew and he’d blown up his relationship for no reason? What if Sera had been scared for nothing?

“I’m not going to let it go,” he said, pushing through the door despite the fact that Angie had let it close. “You know about Luc. It’s the only reason you would have spent all that time trying to convince me to stay away from the kid. Why else would you care? You know who Luc’s father is.”

Angie gasped and her whole body went stiff as Celeste walked in from the dining room.

“Why would Angie know about Seraphina’s child’s father?” Aunt Celeste set her purse on the kitchen table and took them both in. “They’re not close. And I assure you if my daughter knew some gossip, she would tell. Despite the angelic looks, she’s not perfect.”

“I thought you were going into the office,” Angie said, a flush staining her cheeks.

He saw the moment Celeste decided something serious was going on. Her gaze sharpened and he knew it was all about to go wrong.

“I was joking with Angie,” he said, forcing the lie from his mouth.

Unfortunately,