Page 40 of The Cajun Doctor

Luckily, Tante Lulu picked up the conversation. “If yer grandma Sophie hadn’t been ill fer so many years before she died, things woulda been different fer you, Samantha. I guarantee it. Yer grandpa Stanley and grandma Sophie were good God-fearin’ people, but they let their chillren run wild and neglected the grandchillren whilst Sophie was ailin’ and then when Stanley was grievin’ after her passin’.”

“I hardly remember her,” Samantha said. “I was away at boarding school, like I said, and when I came home, they didn’t allow her many visitors.” Her grandfather was a good man, and they’d bonded in the last few years, but he hadn’t been there for her when she was young, or even in her Nick/marriage period.

“How’s yer mama, by the way?”

“Just great. Colette is still living in France.” Her mother insisted that her daughter call her by her name, not Mother, or, God forbid, Mama, which would age her, apparently. “Still taking on one gigolo after another. I haven’t seen her in two years, at least.” And then she’d been living with a twenty-year-old artist who fashioned himself the next Salvador Dali. To Samantha, his paintings resembled nothing more than splotches of color thrown on a canvas.

“A cryin’ shame, thass what it is,” Tante Lulu said, patting Samantha on the arm. “Family is the most important thing in the world, honey.”

Tante Lulu stared at Daniel then, as if with some hidden meaning.

“What? I didn’t disagree.”

“Then do somethin’ about it.”

“About what?”

“Makin’ a family.” On those words she stomped away.

He gasped. “Me? Start a family? Are you crazy?”

Samantha burst out laughing, so comical was the expression of horror on his face.

“Go ahead. Laugh. You do realize that she means that I should start a family with you.”

It was Samantha’s turn to be horrified.

Her and Daniel? A family? No way!

But then a blip of a picture flashed into her mind. Her and Daniel. In bed. Doing what usually led to making a family. “I need to get out of here,” she said.

Daniel’s laughter followed after her.

And then the other shoe dropped . . .

Daniel couldn’t keep his eyes off Samantha the rest of the afternoon. He tried. Really hard. To no avail.

Her words about a bleak childhood caught him unawares. It was contrary to the impression he’d had of her before. Stone-cold bitch. Raised in a rich family that spoiled her rotten. Everything handed to her on a silver platter.

And of course there was the dream.

He could guess what would be featured in the next ones. Freckles.

The clothing she wore today wasn’t exactly sexy, but the clingy, off-one-shoulder blouse, leaving all that exposed skin, was more sexy than if she’d been nude. Well, not really. But it was a turn-on. The freckles should have been unattractive . . . there were so many of them, but instead they’d become a turn-on for him. He could picture all kinds of sex games he could play with those freckles. Connect the dots. Where’s Waldo? Hide and seek. Etch-a-Sketch. And she was tall, too. Really tall for a woman. Only a few inches shorter than himself. He usually preferred more petite women. Usually. Somehow, suddenly, the idea of sex with a woman almost his height posed lots of interesting ideas.

He’d stuck it out through the extravagant meal, Tante Lulu style. Can anyone say Peachy Praline Cobbler Cake? Through the show put on by the snake catcher who’d gathered a scary fifty-seven adult reptiles from the property. Through all the landscaping projects that included clearing a garden which, remarkably, still had some viable rosebushes to be brought back to life. The St. Jude birdbath was already in place, a regular tweety-bird spa.

There would be months . . . hell, years of work yet to be done here. Still, everyone expressed satisfaction with jobs well done. Aaron had been working closely at his side all day. They made a good team, always had, no matter what they were doing.

Some of the younger kids were running around . . . the LeDeux kids and grandkids, a veritable tribe. Playing tag, or hide-and-go-seek. Screeching, laughing. They were just being kids. Normal, healthy kids.

That’s when he felt the need to escape. The depression began to weigh him down, the memories overpowering. Would he ever be able to forget those last days on the job in Alaska? The day he’d been forced to surrender one more child to that beast, cancer. Deke.

Doctors were warned not to become attached to their patients. But how could he have resisted Deke?

He headed back to his digs. He figured Aaron could do the honors in saying good-byes and thanks to all their guests.

“I thought I’d find you here,” Aaron said, a short time later, coming up the steps to the second floor living room of the garconniére where he was lying on the sofa, longneck Bud Light in one hand, TV remote in the other. Max cuddled at his feet. He should have known Aaron would follow him, sensing his mood.