Butterfly Bayou (Butterfly Bayou 1)

She sashayed away.

Lila turned on her sister. “Traitor. After everything I’ve done for you, this is what I get.”

Lisa had the good sense to wince. “Sorry. There are only the two of them working today, and Marcelle is the best. Sera . . . Sera is very enthusiastic. I let her do my nails a couple of weeks back and I had claws. Actual claws. I couldn’t work my phone or drive until I managed to get those fake nails off. I’m trying to support her because she’s really gotten her shit together in the last year. Being a single mom in a small town is rough.”

She could only imagine. “I think being a parent anywhere is rough.” It had been three days since the accident and that first night with Armie in her bed, but it already felt like the world had changed. “I’m worried about Noelle.”

Lisa turned her chair toward her. “What’s going on? I thought she liked you. You seemed to get along fine the other day.”

“It’s not about that. I like her a lot.” She’d spent the night before at Armie’s. He’d shown up when the clinic closed and convinced her that coming back to his place for dinner was a brilliant idea. She’d followed him, promising herself that it was only dinner and it might convince people that she wasn’t after the richest man in Papillon. The gossip game was strong in this town and there were still rumors about her and Rene. She’d spent a pleasant evening watching Armie cook and then sitting around the kitchen table and listening to Noelle talk about her day. They’d watched a movie and she’d fallen asleep, leaning against him. He’d carried her to bed and made love to her, and she hadn’t had the dream. But she did have concerns, and she wasn’t sure how to go about addressing them. “After you left the other morning, Armie, Noelle, and I had breakfast. While I was cleaning up, I found a large envelope I didn’t recognize. It was halfway in the trash. I opened it.”

“Of course you did. I would, too. What was in it? Was it crazy police stuff?”

Her sister sometimes treated the town like it was all a TV show meant to entertain her. “No. It was a report from Noelle’s college counselor.”

Lisa sat back, crossing one leg over the other. “I thought she was homeschooled.”

“She is, but it’s through a school in California,” she explained. “They offer her a lot of things a physical school does, from what I understand. I know I should have tossed it out. That’s obviously what she was trying to do, but I couldn’t. It was a letter asking her if she’d considered applying to any of the colleges that are interested in her. Apparently her PSAT scores made some colleges take notice. The counselor thinks she could be accepted into an Ivy League school.”

“That’s amazing. I don’t see what the problem is. I knew that girl was smart the first time I met her.”

“She’s insisting on taking online courses instead of leaving Papillon.” She’d gently questioned Noelle the night before during dinner. She hadn’t told her she’d found the counselor’s package. Armie had seemed perfectly happy to go along with whatever Noelle wanted. “I asked about her plans and she shrugged and said she would work part time at the station house and maybe take some online courses. That kid needs to go to college.”

“You can get a lot done online these days,” Lisa pointed out.

It wasn’t the same. “She needs to see more of the world. I get that this is her home, but I know that going to college and having the experience of being independent was incredibly important for all of us.”

They’d been a chain, each sibling leaning back to support the others. Will had worked his ass off to send Lila to college, and Lila had done the same for her younger sisters. They’d slowly climbed their way out of the poverty of their childhood. Noelle wasn’t poor, but she had so much potential. There wasn’t anything wrong with staying in her hometown if that’s what she wanted, but Lila suspected there were other reasons Noelle was staying in Papillon.

“How do I talk to Armie about this?” It had been bugging her for days.

Lisa thought for a moment. “You’re really starting to care about him, aren’t you?”

“I am. I know it’s weird and that we don’t seem like we would fit together. He’s not my usual guy, but I feel different around him, like I don’t have to put on a front with him.” One of the things she’d figured out was that her usual guy had kind of sucked. Her usual guy had basically been a prop, an accessory she selected to go with the life she thought she’d wanted. Armie was real. A relationship with him would be difficult, and he could truly break her heart if he wanted to. And she was still going to try.