Page 59 of The Cajun Doctor

There are road trips, and then there are ROAD TRIPS! . . .

Samantha was thankful for Daniel’s help. She really was. But her life since his arrival had turned into one madcap debacle after another. Can anyone say mafia? Or the killer kiss? Hard to believe that her seemingly normal life could have become so bizarre.

Who was she kidding? Angus was the one who’d brought on this disaster, but he walked around with such a hangdog expression on his face that it was hard to snark at him. Better she should snipe at Daniel who was doing plenty of complaining of his own, most of it muttered under his breath, as they packed up the vehicles to go to the plantation.

“Does she have to buy pet food in fifty-pound bags?”

“But, man, she does have a nice ass.”

“If that dog pees on my car tires one more time . . . !”

“She’s gonna owe me big-time. BIG-time!”

“How hard can it be to carry a Savannah cat, whatever the hell that is? Ouch, ouch, ouch!”

“I can’t remember when I had my last tetanus shot. That is just great! I’ve probably got rabies.”

“What do you mean, your pig is depressed? I’m the only one allowed to be depressed around here.”

“This is a bad idea, a really bad idea.”

“I think I’ll go back to pediatric oncology. A lot less stress!”

“No, no, no! Not there, Emily.”

“Maybe I’ll wake up, and this is all a nightmare.”

It was after midnight before they got all the animals, their various crates and food and toys, into her car and Daniel’s SUV, which was now parked in the alley behind her garage. Thus far, there had been no further signs of what Daniel had come to call the Mutt and Jeff of the mafia. Thank God. There was no doubt in her mind, though, that they would return, possibly as soon as this morning.

And, hey, the way things were going for her, Nick could show up any minute with his gun collection and extreme athlete cohort. In that case, she wondered idly if Daniel would pull another sex-against-the-wall stunt. Or perhaps not so idly.

Lily Beth was curled up on her side in the cargo area of Daniel’s vehicle, covered with some doggie blankets. Situated between the back of her bent knees and her rump was Clarence in his cage. Needless to say, they were all getting sick of his “Holy shits.” Daniel was threatening masking tape. And Lily Beth came in a close second to Daniel in the complaint department. “If we doan leave soon, I’m gonna hafta pee again.” Or “I’m hungry. Kin we stop at Claudine’s fer some beignets?” Or “I have enough gas ta fire up a barbecue.”

Angus had managed to fit himself in the trunk of Samantha’s BMW. Probably glad to be away from Lily Beth’s constant grumblings. Daniel’s complaints, on the other hand, seemed to amuse Angus. Men!

Axel was lying, half on, half off of the front passenger seat of Samantha’s car, his rump on the floor. Maddie, who was hissing mad, had been forced to sit on half of the backseat. The other side of the seat held a crate with two cats, Felix and Garfield. She and Daniel both had scratch marks up and down their arms from their efforts to carry the reluctant Maddie out of the house. There was no way they could have stuffed the big, angry cat into a crate.

“Are you sure this isn’t an actual cougar?” Daniel kept asking Samantha. “Maybe we could drop it off at the zoo.”

Daniel also carried a crate of puppies on his backseat, and sitting demurely beside him in the front was a pig. He still didn’t think the pig was depressed, as Samantha kept telling him. It was a pig scam, in his opinion. Whatever that was!

“If I get stopped for speeding, how am I going to explain this pig to the cops?” he asked, once Maddie was locked into an animal seat belt.

“I’d be more worried about the pregnant woman in the cargo area if I were you. Or the cursing bird,” she countered. Then she added, because she couldn’t resist, “Don’t speed.”

Daniel was not amused. He’d lost his sense of humor somewhere between stepping in goose poop and her cautions not to hurt Emily’s feelings by calling her fat. “Ditto to you, sweetheart,” he said. “How you going to explain a cougar in your backseat?”

“I keep telling you, Maddie isn’t a cougar. She’s a Savannah cat.”

“Same thing,” Daniel grumbled.

Finally, the cars were loaded, she’d secured the house, and they were off to Bayou Rose Plantation. She followed Daniel’s SUV. There didn’t appear to be anyone following them; so, they were safe. For now.

The trip was mostly uneventful. In her car anyway. She could imagine what was happening in Daniel’s vehicle, though. Between Lily Beth’s moans and Clarence’s “Holy shits!” Daniel would be spitting nails by the time they arrived.

It was after one a.m. when they drove up the alleé to the plantation house. In the misty light cast by a full bayou moon, their headlights, and the exterior lamps on the mansion, the property looked dreamlike. Almost beautiful. All its imperfections muted. The landscaping work that had been done the previous afternoon had paid off. Oh, Lord! Had all this happened in less than one day? The grassy areas were neatly mowed. Massive shrubs and bougainvillea vines had been trimmed. Even the Spanish moss hanging from the live oak trees appeared sparkly with dew, rather than their usual ghostly gray. The mansion itself, in bad need of a paint job, looked shabbily elegant, if that was possible.

She sighed deeply as she came to a stop behind Daniel’s stopped SUV. But when he didn’t immediately emerge, she noticed something else. Aaron LeDeux had just come home and pulled his pickup truck around Samantha’s BMW and then around and in front of Daniel’s vehicle.