Cypress Nights by Stella Cameron

Author:Stella Cameron [Cameron, Stella]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: MIRA
Published: 2009-12-12T23:00:00+00:00

Chapter 20

After lunch the same day

Bleu stood on the path beside Bayou Teche, with St. Cecil’s behind her and the thick, chrome-green waters running glossy and slow, in front.

Spikes of pale purple flowers bobbed atop floating blankets of dark, waxy water hyacinth leaves. Beside her, an old willow trailed branches that jiggled with the current.

And the sun had grown as hot as promised. Her damp skin cooled with each tiny current of air.

If she closed her eyes, she saw pieces of her car shooting through flames, and the fireman, Kevin Rains, sprawled on the ground, covered with soot and not moving.

Running away was too easy. She loved life and wanted to love people. Even Michael hadn’t killed the best parts of her. Roche was her passion. He was also her pain, but she would not allow herself to withdraw, so that she would never know what might have been with the two of them. The two of them had already had too much, and she had come too far.

Her cheeks burned. Her body flushed.

Kevin Rains had suffered for trying to do a good deed. He had been about to wash her car. A kindness that sent him to the hospital. Roche had driven there with Bleu, where they’d been able to talk to Kevin almost immediately. Once his broken wrist mended and the burns on his neck healed, he would be fine. Still, guilt tormented Bleu.

“Don’t jump,” a male voice shouted.

Bleu turned to see Sam Bush pushing open the little gate at the bottom of the rectory garden. “Hi.” She shaded her eyes to watch him. He had been kind today, and concerned.

“You’ve been down here a long time,” he said. The white shirt and conservative gray slacks he almost always wore were evidently his nod to his profession.

“It’s calm here,” she said. “And beautiful.”

He grunted.

Alive, that was the first word that came to Bleu about Sam. Intelligent, interested, fit, vibrant and stubborn also came to mind. She smiled at him. “Say you aren’t on duty.”

“On duty?”

“Guarding me.”

He laughed, and she noticed for the first time that laughter didn’t erase the seriousness from his eyes.

“Well?” she pressed him.

“Give us all a break,” he said, pulling his shoulders up. “You can’t expect anyone to relax until this joker’s caught.”

“I guess not.” A twist in her stomach chased away a light moment. Once more she looked across the bayou. “Have you ever been in a pirogue?” The long, narrow wooden boats—their captain and crew, a single man or woman balanced on their feet and plying a long paddle to and fro—plied back and forth from swamp dwellings.

“Sure I have,” Sam said. “Lots of times. They look as if they belong in another century.”

“Mmm-hmm. Another world, really. You don’t need to babysit me.”

He stood beside her, his hands in his pockets. “Maybe it feels good to be needed.”

Bleu looked at him sharply. She didn’t know what to say.

Sam flashed her a smile. “Must be all this quiet, and the company of a lovely lady—I’m turning wistful.

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