been able to tell he’d been sick at all. He was healthy. Wes recovered from his cancer. Mom never did.”
Cal sighed. “Wes was her perfect child, her miracle baby. Well, with the singular exception of his choice in friends. If you want to know why Mom wants you to stay away from Sera, it’s because Wes was crazy in love with her.”
Angie shook her head. “They were friends. That’s all they ever were.”
“Yeah, well, Wes wanted more.” Cal looked tired as he sipped his coffee. “My younger brother was a good guy, but he was used to getting what he wanted. He chased after Sera for years. My parents sent us to public school at first. Some of the older kids at the school used to bully Wes. Sera stood up for him. She was his only friend in the beginning. I often think he imprinted on her, but she never liked him that way.”
“Like I said, they were friends,” Angie agreed. “She’s not bad. Sera’s actually pretty nice. She’s a little on the unlucky side. She does have a kid.”
“Lots of people her age have kids. It’s not like she’s a teen mom.” He was confused about a lot of things. “Why does everyone treat it like she did something scandalous? We’re not back in the 1800s. Women have kids without getting married.”
“Not in polite society in a small town.” Cal picked up his fork. “Don’t get me wrong. There are parts of this town where no one cares, but the Guidrys are odd. They’re not poor and they’re not rich. They’re mainstays of the town, but you won’t see them at Mother’s parties. She considers them beneath her.”
“Do you?” He wanted to know if the snobbery went all the way through this family he found himself in.
“I hang out with Zep all the time because he’s a good guy and he’s fun as hell. You’ll find that walking on that side of town is way more amusing than this one,” Cal admitted. “Sera’s problem is she wouldn’t tell anyone who the father of the kid was, and that means one thing. He’s married. Every married woman in town is watching that kid to see if it was her husband who cheated. So far he looks more like his uncle than anyone else. If Sera’s serious about taking that secret to her grave, it’ll be best for everyone if Luc continues to look like a Guidry.”
“How old is he?” So that was what she’d meant by baggage.
“I don’t know,” Cal replied with a shrug. “Two or three. I only know that I don’t play around with single moms, so she’s off the table and that’s a shame because she’s fine. Even after she gained that baby weight. I’m pretty sure it went to all the right places, if you know what I mean.”
Something about the words made him sit up taller. “I do not. She seemed like a nice young lady, and honestly, even if she hadn’t been, you shouldn’t say things like that.”
Cal rolled his eyes. “Yep, Captain America is in the house. You’re going to be fun to hang out with, cos. We’ll get some beer in you and see if we can get that stick out of your ass.”
If being polite meant he had a stick up his butt, he was all right with that.
“I don’t know. I like how Harry acts,” Angie said with a smile. “I actually think he and Sera would get along. She needs someone nice in her life. She was dating that Jackson fellow from two towns over. I heard he dumped her when she wanted to introduce him to Luc. Said he was only having fun and didn’t want to raise some other man’s kid.”
Jackson sounded like a moron. Not that he was interested in anything serious. But Seraphina Guidry was intriguing. If there was a spark, he wouldn’t mind seeing if it grew into something that could be good for both of them. He certainly wouldn’t rule out a relationship because she came with a kid. “Well, she made it clear she wasn’t interested in me.”
Except there had been a definite chemistry between them. He’d been around long enough to know there was attraction and then there was heat. He and Sera had heat. Whether or not that was enough to build a fire, he couldn’t know if he didn’t spend more time with her.
It would be a mistake because he wasn’t staying here in Papillon. He only had