Butterfly Bayou (Butterfly Bayou 1)

Her business was going to be the center of her world. It would be her baby.

“I hope it works like that. Sometimes the people here can be stubborn about change. Be patient with them,” Lisa said. “Are you sure you’re completely done with Brock?”

Her ex-fiancé was in her rearview mirror. Like the rest of her life in Dallas. “Like I said, I figured out he wasn’t the one. I knew I didn’t love him. I guess I thought I should get married. It was like checking something off a list. Go to college. Get a job. Get married. I’m sure if I’d done it I would have scheduled sex and built a family plan.”

“I know that sounds like the way to do it, but it’s not. You have to let some spontaneity in. You can’t plan love.”

“Well, I don’t intend to plan love. It wasn’t love with Brock.” She’d never been in love, wasn’t sure she was capable of the emotion. “I’m not planning on getting involved with anyone.”

“That’s what I was afraid of. I’m going to ask you for a favor. I’ve done everything I can to make this transition easy, and you asked me if you could do anything to pay me back.”

Lisa had done a lot to make this happen. She’d been the one to deal with the paperwork on the house and the inspectors. Her husband had put in his time, too. “Of course.”

She had a little money left over. Not a ton, but she wouldn’t be surprised if Lisa needed a loan. The restaurant industry was infamously tough. It wouldn’t be a loan, though. She would never ask for it back.

“Keep an open mind.”

“What is that supposed to mean?”

“It means you’re still checking things off that list,” Lisa explained. “It’s just that the list has changed. You went through something horrible and you’ve got a plan for how to get through it. Tell me your therapist didn’t mention a change of scenery.”

Oh, she had. “I don’t think she meant for me to take it this far. She was talking about a vacation or a retreat for a couple of months.”

“But you like to do things big,” Lisa pointed out. “Lila Daley doesn’t do anything halfway. You throw yourself in one hundred percent. You take over and get the job done, but this isn’t a job. This is your life, and I think you made the right choice coming here. I think if you’d stayed in Dallas, you would have eventually found another Brock and gotten back on your path. You might have changed hospitals, but you wouldn’t have essentially changed your life.”

“I assure you my life changed.” She could barely sleep through the night without dreaming about it. “I didn’t need to do anything to have my entire life turned around but go to work and be in the wrong place at the wrong time. That was spontaneous.”

“No.” Lisa shook her head vigorously. “That was planned. He’d planned to kill her for years, and you know it. That wasn’t your fault and I pray you figure that out soon or I worry you’ll let your life slip by and you won’t ever know the truth.”

“What’s the truth?”

Lisa leaned toward her, eyes shining. “That you are worthy of love, sister. That you deserve every bit of happiness you can find. That it’s time to let go, to find that person who can lift you up the way you always did for me and Laurel and Will. Somewhere along the way you forgot that you need support, too, and I’m going to be here for you.”

Emotion welled hard and fast, but she shoved it down. This was too much after an already rough day. “How about you help me find something to eat in this town?”

A smile lit up her sister’s face. “That I can do.”

Lisa started talking about the new foods to try, and Lila prayed she got through the night. Tomorrow would be better. Tomorrow she could leave all the emotional crap behind and get to work.

Tomorrow her new life began.* * *• • •

Armie stalked into the station house, his stomach grumbling, but he’d promised Noelle he would stop eating greasy burgers and that was about all he could get at this time of the day. It wasn’t like he could eat a salad in his car. Not that he wanted to eat a salad.

He bet Lila Daley ate a lot of salads. She had that I-think-about-my-cholesterol glow about her.

Damn but he hadn’t been able to get that woman out of his head all afternoon.

He needed intel. That was what had gone wrong today. He’d gone into battle without proper intel. He should have found out that the woman got irrationally angry about perfectly reasonable ticketing practices.

“I can’t believe you gave her a ticket for going thirty miles over the speed limit.” Noelle looked up from the book she’d been reading. “Do you have any idea how much that is going to cost her? You’ll be lucky she doesn’t run you over the next time she sees you. You realize that woman is now in charge of your yearly physicals?”