His shoulders relaxed a bit. “I thought, since you wanted a connection to your grandparents, to the memories of your summers here, I’d fix this up for you.”
She stepped back, taking in the new tires, the polished rims. Everything in her was ringing with joy. “You did this for me?”
“Well, and for me, too. My dad and I started the project. I finished when I came back from Baton Rouge.”
She pivoted to look at him. She didn’t know what to do with her hands that wanted to take him into her arms, not until she could be sure of why he was here, so she folded them across her. “How’s your mom?”
“Okay for now. Susan’s there with them, for a few days, anyway. I think Mom will be all right.”
“Will you?”
He humphed, his gaze drifting back to the moving van. “Heading out?”
She didn’t answer, instead grabbed his hand. “Come see, then we’ll go for a drive.”
She had to practically tug him up the sidewalk, up the steps, but this time she didn’t think it was fear of Millicent holding him back. No, he was afraid of something else. Of her?
Once inside, she released his hand and trusted him to follow her. He did, but slower than she would have liked. When she looked back, he was gazing toward the empty living room, the foyer no longer stacked with boxes of books.
“Dumpster’s gone,” he realized.
“Yes, they cleared out the last of the books yesterday,” she said brightly, and turned to the kitchen with a flourish worthy of Vanna White.
He stepped inside to see the shiny new appliances, not exactly state-of-the-art, because she hadn’t wanted to be reckless with the money now that she knew how hard it was to come by, but definitely an improvement on what had been there.
“You’re selling,” he said dully.
“No!” She turned to him. “No, I’m staying.”
“What?” The word came out on a breath, and he turned to look at her for the first time since he arrived. “You’re staying?”
She smiled and linked her fingers through his. “I’m staying. I went to New York because you’re right, I am not good at asking for help, but we need help, right, the town does, so I went to ask for help and I found out I have some money set aside, invested, and so I hired someone to help me with the house. The attic is empty. I saved a few pieces of furniture, but I’m going to replace it as I can. Can we go for a ride?”
She drove the big car the short distance down the road. She smoothed her hand on the hard steering wheel, the dashboard with its split but clean plastic. A little sizzle heated her finger, and one of the splits healed when she ran her touch over it. She grinned to herself and glanced over to see if Sam had noticed. Apparently he had not.
She couldn’t remember the last time she’d driven a car with a column shift—probably this one, when her grandfather, patient man that he was, taught her to drive. “My friend, Rhys, offered to invest in another restaurant for me.”
“You’re opening a restaurant here?”
“Lord, no, Hattie would put a hex on me. The next project is cleaning all these store fronts up. I’ve talked to Duval, and he’s willing to move to a bigger space but expand his products so he’s more of a grocery store. Marie will help him, and of course, we’ll have professionals come in and set it all up. We’re looking at getting a bakery. We’ll close down the diner for a few days and give it a good polish and upgrade. Teresa, who has her salon in her house, she didn’t want to move to Main Street, so she’s going to stay where she’s at. And Louis didn’t want any money to fix up Rumrunners, but since I worked there, I can understand that. We’re looking at getting a few more businesses in, I’m not sure what. I want actual shops that people can visit, you know, not like offices or whatever.” The words poured out of her. She’d been waiting to share this with him. She hadn’t realized how much she’d been waiting.
“And everyone’s okay with this?” Sam asked.
She slid him a look. “Well, you know how people in Phantom Bayou are. They’re reluctantly optimistic.”
“I didn’t know you were back. Pirate told me just a couple of hours ago.”
She nodded. “How long have you been back?”
“Four days. You’ve gotten a lot done in a short time.”
“The town deserves it.”
Sam got out of the car in a flurry of motion. Confused, she pushed open her door with more effort than she expected. She’d forgotten how heavy this car was. But once out, she joined Sam on the sidewalk.
“What’s going on, Sam?”
“I thought you were gone.”
