girl.”
“Do you mean me or Daisy?”
He winked her way. “Daisy’s the girl. You’re obviously a woman, baby.”
She groaned but followed anyway. “Ah, there’s the Zep I know. For a minute I thought you were going to get serious with me.”
“You should know I’m not serious about much.” He started to lead her out into the dining room, but that wasn’t his destination.
She stopped and he heard her gasp. “Oh, that’s amazing.”
Guidry’s back wall was all heavy hurricane glass that gave a spectacular view of the bay. She was likely used to how pretty the water was and being able to watch the boats go by, but she’d never been here after hours to see it like this. The moon was full and hung over the bay, casting a soft glow to the ocean.
“Remy, Sera, and I would help out during the summers, and after hours we would turn off all the lights and sit out here and watch the moon and the water. I love this place. I know it’s my brother’s and it’s his passion, but I do love it, too.”
“Is that why you want to take over the shop?” She walked through the door, followed by Daisy, who seemed perfectly content to simply follow her new mom.
“I don’t want to take it over at all. It sounds awful.” He walked to the bench at the far end of the patio. There were tons of tables, but he wanted to sit on that bench with her, wanted their legs to brush against each other, and he wanted to be able to ease his arm around her shoulders when they were finished.
He sank down on the bench and she found a place beside him.
“Then why would you take it?”
He sighed. He shouldn’t have gotten into this. “I figure I don’t have anything better to do. You know me. I kind of go with the flow. But don’t worry. I told your dad it was a way better job than it is. I made myself sound pretty important.”
He was good at deflecting. It was a skill he’d developed over many years.
“It won’t work with my dad,” she said between spoonfuls. “You’re not important unless you’re some kind of law enforcement, and he won’t think the fact that you’re a wildlife expert who works for the parish is impressive, either.”
Well, he never said she sugarcoated things. “I suppose that’s why you initially told him you were seeing Armie.”
“Armie has credentials in my dad’s world, and if my father approves, then my mother doesn’t give me holy hell for still being single at thirty. I know it sounds dumb, but I really was trying to keep the peace. I worry at some point I won’t even be able to talk to her anymore.”
She went quiet again, simply sitting and eating her gumbo, her eyes on the bay.
“I didn’t talk to my brother for a couple of years. When he went into the Navy, he would write us all letters, but I tossed them out. After a few, he just wrote Mom and Sera.”
“Why didn’t you write to your brother? You two seem close.”
“We’re closer now, though I wouldn’t say we’re super tight,” he admitted. “He’s seven years older than me. We didn’t hang out much as kids. I was closer to Sera.”
“That’s like Brian and me. There’s six years between us. He was in school by the time I was born. He had friends and this whole life. He didn’t need a toddler hanging around. I was surprised he came down with my mom and dad.”
“I noticed you two disappeared for a little while.”
She nodded. She’d polished off her bowl and set it on the table next to the bench, picking up the longneck he’d brought for her. “Yeah, he was trying to play peacekeeper between me and my mom. Sometimes I wonder why she tries, you know. If I’m such a damn disappointment, why even keep trying to fix me.”
“Because you’re her daughter. Not that I agree with the idea that you need to be fixed, but it’s my experience that mommas always need to be needed. When was the last time you asked her advice about something?”
Her nose wrinkled. “Never. At least not since I was a kid.”
“There you go. See, I ask my mom for advice on everything and she doesn’t bug me about getting married and having kids. She’s constantly planting hints to Remy and Sera that she needs more little ones running around. Me? She leaves condoms in