Page 57 of Lulu’s Recipe for Cajun Sass

When they got to the pasture, which wasn’t very far away, Louise finally saw where Lillian had been parked. Not hard to locate since it was the only lavender convertible in a sea of Ess-You-Vees and pick-up trucks.

Mary Lou frowned at her. “What’s up? Do you want to go home? Oh, my God! Are you sick?”

“No, no. I’m okay.” She put her purse on the back trunk area of the car and searched for the car keys, which, like always happened, were at the bottom. But first, she took out a cosmetic bag, a brush, a mirror, a canister of bug spray, a jar of her gator aloe salve, a pistol, a grocery list, her St. Jude fan, a handkerchief, a nail file, a rosary, and sunglasses. “Here,” she said, handing the keys to Mary Lou. “This should be the final touch to yer Cajun Sass, honey.”

Mary Lou frowned. “I don’t understand.”

“It’s yours.”

“What’s mine?”

“The car. Lillian.”

“What? For real?”

“Unless you doan want it.”

“Oh, my God! Mine? Oh, my God!” she squealed. “I love it. I’ve always loved it.”

She opened the driver’s door and sat behind the wheel, touching the dashboard, fiddling with the knobs on the radio.

“It is awful big. Mebbe you’d rather have somethin’ smaller.”

“No, this is perfect. In fact, I bet I could hitch a horse trailer on this baby. I’m thinkin’ about doing some rodeos. Barrel racing. Team roping. Pole bending.”

“There you go,” Louise said.

“But what are you gonna do for a car?” Mary Lou asked. “Maybe you need to rethink this.”

Louise could tell that she didn’t really want her to rescind the gift. “Actually, I have my eye on a little vintage Volkswagen convertible that’s been restored in a pretty shade of glittery purple. Iridescent Grape, they call it. It’ll be the new Lillian.”

“Sounds perfect.”

As they started to walk back toward the house, Mary Lou kept her longer strides in pace with Louise’s much shorter ones, but Louise could tell that the girl wanted to run off to tell her parents and friends about her windfall. So, when they got to the porch, Louise told her to go ahead, alone, that she would follow later.

“Are you sure? I can stay with you.”

“No. You go on. I’m gonna sit on the front porch for a while. All those people and all that noise are fine, but I need to take a break now and then.”

The girl gave her a big hug, thanking her profusely. Once Louise was seated on one of the low rockers, Mary Lou was off with a whoop.

With a sigh, Louise rocked back and forth. She could hear music coming from the back of the house, along with laughter and muted voices. They could go on without her. Someday, probably sooner than later, they would have to. It wasn’t that she didn’t love a party, and she for sure loved her family, every single one of them, but she cherished her moments of solitude when she could grab them, too.

It was times like these when she thought of Phillipe. Yes, there had been other men in her life after Phillipe. Even ones she had loved. When she’d gotten too lonely, there had always been some man to step into her life. Like Justin, the doctor, who’d been the first. And so many others.

Still…always…she wondered what her life would have been like if Phillipe had survived the war. They would have married, of course. And had Adèle. Probably, they couldn’t have prevented the cancer that took her at such a young age, but they might have, together, convinced their daughter not to become involved with that devil Valcour LeDeux.

On the other hand, she had to admit that Valcour made wonderful children. There wasn’t a one of them that turned out bad, as far as she knew. And good-looking, too. The males and females, both, were stunners.

And here came one of the stunners now.

Tee-John sank down into the rocker next to her and sighed.

“Before you say anything, I’m fine. Jist restin’ fer a bit.”

“They’ll be singin’ happy birthdays and blowin’ out the candles soon,” he told her.

“I’ll go back in a minute.”