These Sheltering Walls: A Cane River Romance (23 page)

            “So
Henry, how’s Blue?” Ruby asked.

            Her
smile froze. “Oh, he’s fine, thank you,” she said. “I mean, has something
happened to him? I haven’t seen him since last night.”

           
Last
night.
He imagined Blue walking her home, pausing under the little awning
of By the Book for a long kiss. A bolt of white-hot jealousy went through him.
He focused on his shrimp, carefully peeling it and dipping it in melted garlic
butter.

            “No,
not as far as I know. I don’t know him real well. He’s got a good education and
seems to be a real go-getter. And from a nice Creole family, too,” Bix said.

            Henry
nodded. “He seems close to them,” she said, her voice carefully neutral.

            “Always
a good sign,” Bix said, raising his fork like a salute, a piece of potato stuck
on it.

            Gideon
shot a look at Tom. He’d thought it was awkward when Ruby and Bix had given
romantic advice. It was much worse listening to a list of Blue’s attributes.
Tom shrugged as if to say there was nothing he could do.

            “And
such a good lookin’ young man,” Ruby said, letting out a low whistle. “No
disrespect to my man, since he’s as fine as they come, but that Blue is
something special, wouldn’t you say, Henry?” she asked.

            “He’s
handsome,” she agreed.

            “But
not as handsome as Gideon,” Ruby said.

            Gideon
almost inhaled a bite of corn. He saw where this was headed now. Bix and Ruby
thought they could somehow trick Henry into seeing that he was the better
candidate.

            “Not
as handsome as Gideon,” Henry agreed.

            He
made a low noise in his throat, hoping they’d all move on. Henry didn’t have to
coddle him.

             “But,
for me, being attractive is about more than just what a man’s been blessed with.
I like that Gideon doesn’t know he’s the handsomest man in town. Once, when we
were on our way to the Finnemore house, a girl almost walked into a post
because she wasn’t paying attention to where she was going. But Gideon had no
idea.”

            Bix
let out a laugh. “She was payin’ attention, all right. Just not to where she
was walking.”

            “When
was this? I don’t remember this at all,” Gideon said.

            “See?”
Henry asked, laughing. “It happens all the time. A few days ago when we were
standing in front of By the Book, an older lady did a double take right in
front of us and you didn’t even notice.”

            “I
think you might be misunderstanding,” he said. “There are a lot of good reasons
for that.” The fact that he’d spent more than a decade in prison for murder was
one.

            She
didn’t bother to answer, just went on as if she hadn’t heard him. “There’s just
something about a man who isn’t aware of how he affects women. And as much as I
like Blue, he might have an inkling that he’s a good looking guy.”

            “Well,
Gideon sure knows now,” Tom said, laughing. “So, it’s back to square one.
They’re even.”

            She
brushed back her hair and flashed him a smile. “No, it was never even.”

            Was
she flirting? He wanted to think she was flirting, but he was probably wrong.

            “How
are the plans for the jambalaya feed?” Gideon asked. He didn’t care if it was
abrupt. He was torn between wanting to know what she meant and not wanting to
hear how perfect Blue was for her.

            “Everything
is going according to plan,” Tom said, spearing a piece of sausage. “Which
means the real disaster is being saved for the day. That’s the way it goes.”

             Ruby
said, “My cousin Lucinda is comin’ as soon as the sun is up. We’re gonna make a
big batch. Last year we ran out early and wasn’t nobody happy. Remember that?
Ol’ Fitz threw such a fit about not getting a bowl to take home for his wife
when we all know it gives her gas bad enough to gag a maggot and he just wanted
to feed it to his favorite dog.”

            Now
that Ruby was onto the jambalaya feed, Gideon let himself relax a little.

            “Just
remember you both are bringing a pot.” Tom pointed down the table at Henry and
Gideon. He could tell Tom wanted to add “together” but knew he was pushing his
luck.

            “Ooh,
you two should team up! My
mamere
always said the best jambalaya was
made up of mostly love with a whole bunch of yearning and a big ol’ dash of
passion. See, the love is like the rice and the yearning is the chicken and the
passion is the tabasco sauce.” Ruby nodded as if it all made perfect sense.
“Or, maybe the passion was the chicken and the yearning was the tabasco? Now I
forget.”

            “We’ll
take that into account.” Henry took a sip of tea and looked at him across the
top of her glass, clearly trying not to laugh.

            “You
know, this reminds me of the all the outdoor cookin’ we used to do with Mable
Jean,” Bix said. “She lives up near you, Gideon, at Lac Terre Noire. We just
don’t get out there as much, now that I don’t have a license.”

            “I’d
be happy to take you any time,” Gideon said.

            “That’s
real nice of you,” Bix said. “Father Tom, I was telling Gideon that he coulda
had my old green Caddy if we’d known each other last year. Such a shame I had
to sell it to a stranger. You would have loved it.”

            “I’m
sure I would have,” Gideon said, pouring himself some iced tea. He looked
across at Henry, ready to refill her glass but froze at her expression. She
sucked in a sharp breath. His gaze darted around the table for what she’d seen.

            “Nothing
rides like a Caddy,” Bix went on. “That little foreign car you got just wasn’t
made the same. It’s all automatic windows and automatic air and automatic seats
moving back and forth. You make everything automatic and you lose the best
parts of the car.”

            “You’re
probably right,” Gideon said. Now Henry’s expression was even more incredulous.
Her mouth had dropped open and the napkin she’d picked up had fallen onto her
food.

            “We
shoulda kept it and used it for something, Bix. I saw where someone made a car
into a greenhouse. That Caddy woulda made a real big greenhouse,” Ruby said.

            “What?”
Gideon whispered, leaning over the table.

            “You,”
Henry said. “You…” It was as if she were having trouble speaking.

            “Naw,
that car needs to be driven. That’s what it was made for,” Bix said through a
mouthful of corn.

            “Me?”
He searched back through the last few seconds and found nothing.

            “You
just…” Moisture glinted at the edge of her eyes and Gideon felt panic rise from
deep inside. He’d offended her, somehow. They’d only been at the table for a
few seconds and he’d already upset her so much she was close to tears.

            “The
best part of a Caddy is the trunk,
sha
,” Ruby said, snapping a pincer.

            “As
big as a back seat. You can fit three grown men in one. And don’t ask me how I
know it,” Bix said.

            “I’m
sorry. Whatever it was, I’m sorry,” he said. He reached out and to grab her
hand, wanting desperately to reverse what he’d done. Then he remembered that
she was afraid of him and stopped.

            “You
lied,” Henry whispered.

            Gideon
blinked at her.

            “Remember
when we took Janeese’s kids to the drive in movies, we got ten people in that
car. Best five bucks I ever spent on two movies,” Ruby said.

            “But
they got popcorn in the seat. I found popcorn for years, like it was just
multiplyin’ in the cracks.”

            “You
two need anything? Tabasco sauce? Pepper?” Tom raised his eyebrows at them,
concern shading his voice.

            “No,
sir.” Henry brushed back her hair and picked up a piece of corn. “Everything is
just right.”

            Gideon
stared down at his plate.
I guess you’ll know when I lie to you.
He’d
said those words to her with complete confidence that he never would. He’d
thought having something to lose was a decision he could make, like choosing
the color of his socks. Instead, it had happened without him knowing.  

                                                            ***

            The
sun slipped toward the horizon and the sky turned from palest pink to deep
orange. Henry felt terribly lazy as she relaxed in her chair, hands folded in
front of her, perfectly content to listen to Bix and Ruby talk about their
courting days. Gideon was making slow circuits of the back yard and she
wondered if he was avoiding more of Ruby’s romantic recipes, or just didn’t
like to sit still for long.

            Father
Tom emerged from the back door, carrying a large glass pan. The sweet scent of
warm vanilla filled the air. “Bread pudding with whiskey sauce. I don’t make
this real often because I want to eat it all,” he said, placing it in the
middle of the table.

            “And
that would be a problem?” Ruby inhaled deeply.

            “Yes,
ma’am. There’s a shortage of priests, haven’t you heard? I have to keep this
heart in tip-top shape.” He tapped his chest.

            “I
need to send your mama a thank you note,” Bix said. “You have the gift that
keeps on givin’, I do believe.”

            Father
Tom laughed. “You can tell her when they come visit in a few weeks.”

            “Do
they come to visit very often?” Henry asked.

            “Every
few months,” Father Tom said. He started to cut generous slices of the steaming
dessert. “I can’t get away for the holidays so they usually come down here.
Birthdays, too.”

            Henry
glanced at Gideon, wondering what he did at Christmas and Easter and all the
other times of the year when people gathered with their family. If Father Tom
was hosting the parents he wasn’t close to, that could be awkward.

            He
seemed to guess what she was thinking. “He avoids the Mass they attend, makes
sure they’re gone before he comes over, and generally acts like a stubborn
mule,” he said. “Nobody can make him take a step he doesn’t want to take. Or at
least that was what I used to believe.”

            Bix
passed a plate to Ruby who passed it to Henry. “Has he changed his mind? I
always knew he’d come around, sooner or later.”

            “So
what do you think caused this change of heart? Is it about that man getting out?”
Ruby asked, taking up a fork and tasting the bread pudding.

            Father
Tom slid another piece onto a plate and shook his head. “No, I think it’s
somebody else.” He met Henry’s eyes and gave her the tiniest wink.

            She
glanced around the table, utterly lost. So, Gideon might be reuniting with his
estranged parents and it had something to do with her? “Which man, Bix?”

            He
chewed for several long moments and then shot her a look that was so comical
she nearly laughed out loud. It was a ‘someone is behind you’ look, but on Bix
it was like waving a flag in the air and shouting. There wasn’t a subtle bone
in his body.

            Gideon
sat down beside her. “Not one of y’all called me back to the table so either
you’re planning on eating this bread pudding all alone, or you’re talking about
me.”

            Henry
leaned over and nudged him with her shoulder, whispering, “Don’t worry. It was
about some man who was coming. I couldn’t figure out the whole story, so we’re
both in the dark.”

            He
looked down at her, his lips turning up. She realized the last time they’d been
this close, she’d been covered in tears and sweat and dirt. If he moved toward
her now, she wouldn’t jump back. She didn’t care who was watching. He held her
gaze for a long moment and then whispered back, “Maybe if we ask nicely,
they’ll let us in on their conversation.”

            “You
think?” she whispered back. Henry wasn’t curious in the least. She just wanted
Gideon to stay close.

            “We
weren’t trying to be mysterious. We were talking about Duane Banner,” Father Tom
said. There was a hint of regret in his voice.

            Henry
sat up straight, feeling ridiculous for flirting about such a horrible topic. Henry
opened her mouth but wasn’t sure what to say. She’d read the newspaper article.
She knew exactly who Duane Banner was.

            “He
was the man who murdered my family,” Gideon said, misinterpreting her silence.

            “I’m
so sorry,” she said.  

            “Nothing
to be sorry about. He’ll be getting out of prison soon and these three are
probably ready to stage an intervention, hoping to keep me on track.” Gideon’s
tone was light but he kept he gaze somewhere in the middle of the table.