Page 17 of The Cajun Doctor

Daniel would have bolted if he could have.

Actually, she smelled good. Like vanilla and peaches. And he found himself returning the hug.

“Welcome, welcome,” she said.

She did the same to Aaron, who exchanged a puzzled look with him over her shoulders. Who does she think we are?

“Doan even try ta deny yer more of that Valcour’s chillen. And twins! Oh, Lordy, what am I thinkin’? Ya mus’ be the boys from up Alaska way? I’m so sorry ’bout yer mother.” She hugged them again.

Daniel was feeling really uncomfortable, especially since people around them were starting to stare with curiosity. ‘Uh, I know this isn’t really the right time, but I understand you have something for us. Maybe you could just tell us where it is, and we’ll be on our way.”

“We kin take care of that later.”

Daniel narrowed his eyes at her. “I thought it was something important.”

“It is important. Doan rush me.”

Taking each of them in hand, she began to lead them through the crowd. “Come, come,” she said, “we will go talk, private like, in the sittin’ room.”

“Is our father here?” Daniel asked right off.

“Pfff! That Valcour, he’s off on a cruise with his wife Jolie. Prob’ly afeared he’d be asked ta pay fer the weddin’. Not that the ol’ buzzard don’t have more money than he deserves. I gotta warn ya right now, yer papa is so crooked he could swallow nails and spit out corkscrews. The man’s been down in the sewers so long he knows the rats by name. But he ain’t nothin’ but a fart in a windstorm when ya get right down to it.”

Enough with the metaphors. We get the picture.

“Doan ya be worryin’ none ’bout that.”

I wasn’t. To tell the truth, Daniel was having trouble following her train of thought. And talk about TMI.

“You got other fam’ly here, boys.” She squeezed their hands, as if they’d been worried about lack of family. He had no time to correct that impression, though, because she was motioning for them to sit on one of the couches in the small room, and she sat on the other couch.

“You mus’ be Daniel, the doctor,” she said to him, “and you mus’ be Aaron, the pilot. Yer Aunt Mel tol’ me ’bout you boys. Ya kin call me Tante Lulu, like everyone does.”

He wondered idly what Aunt Mel had said that would allow Tante Lulu to identify them so easily.

“I kin tell by yer sad eyes the troubles ya seen lately,” she told Daniel. “Yer aunt sez ya been depressed and are gonna quit medicine.”

It appeared Aunt Mel had a bigger mouth than he’d realized.

“Ya do know that depression is a no-confidence vote in God, dontcha?” She gave him a stern look, then reached forward and patted his knee. “I prayed ta St. Jude fer ya, and here ya are. Hallelujah! You jist watch now. Happiness has a way of sneakin’ in through a door ya dint know ya left open.”

She smiled then.

Daniel had no idea what he was supposed to say to that. And Aaron wasn’t helping at all by commenting to the old lady, “Amen!”

Just then, the door opened and a woman peeked in. “Sorry to interrupt, Tante Lulu, but the caterer has a question about the crawfish.” The woman was stunning. Tall, even taller with strappy black high heels, a long mane of auburn hair, and a killer body in a form-fitting green halter dress, that ended just above the knees. She must be at least five-ten in her bare feet, judging by his own six-foot-two. The freckles that covered much of her body only seemed to add to her allure.

Tante Lulu stood and said, “Boys, this is Samantha Starr, a friend of the fam’ly. Samantha, this is Aaron LeDeux. He’s an airplane pilot. And this is Daniel LeDeux. He’s a doctor, retired at the moment.”

Samantha nodded at Aaron, but she frowned at Daniel. Because he was a doctor, or because he was retired, he wasn’t sure. In any case, she’d already turned, giving Daniel a full-blown view of her backside, which was amazing. A slim waist and wider hips, giving her buttocks sort of a heart shape. And it moved when she walked away. Up, down, up, down.

Tante Lulu stood, about to follow, but the old bird noticed the direction of his stare, and remarked, “Thass what I call a hot cha-cha hiney.”

Aaron burst out laughing, and Daniel found himself blushing.

Tante Lulu asked the oddest thing then. “Ya got a hope chest yet, Daniel?”

And thus began their new life in the South.