She’d never gotten out of the habit. It was funny that it hadn’t really struck her until that moment. She couldn’t tolerate a mess. Not because it bothered her. It made her nervous. It made her worry someone would judge her.
How had she never let that go? How was she still in that place she’d been in when she was a kid?
“You don’t have to be perfect here. It’s actually way better that you aren’t. These people respect authenticity,” Lisa assured her. “I’m going to help you fix this place up. It’ll be fun. And who knows—maybe there’s, like, treasure in there. Probably not. He was on a fixed income. From what I’ve heard, he didn’t get out much after his wife passed. His kids were scattered all over the country. When he got sick, he went into a nursing home up in Thibodaux. The kids didn’t want to spend much time here. That’s why you got it for such a steal. Remy says the house itself is solid, but it needs some upgrading. He’s worried about the water heater. And the air conditioner.”
“Yeah, I kind of got that feeling from the sheriff.”
“He talked to you about the house? How did he know about the house?” Lisa’s eyes had turned shrewd. “Armie’s famously tight-lipped when it comes to pulling over drivers. He doesn’t listen to anyone. All he’ll say is ‘License and registration’ and then he passes you a ticket. He got chatty with you?”
She could still hear the deep rumble of his voice. “He got weird with me. He gave me a ticket and then offered to show me around town, starting with some place called Lucille’s.”
Now her sister’s eyes went wide. “Lucille’s is a date place. No one goes to Lucille’s unless they’re celebrating something special or trying to get into someone’s pants. And it’s not here in Papillon. It’s thirty minutes away.”
“If he wanted to date me, maybe he shouldn’t have given me a ticket,” she replied, starting toward the front door. Armie LaVigne was big and gorgeous but off-limits because she wasn’t going to hop into bed two seconds after she’d gotten into town.
Why?
Because he gave me a freaking ticket.
So? He might also give you an orgasm.
Her inner voice could just shut up because she bet Armie LaVigne hit on every single tourist who came into town. The whole parish had less than two thousand people in it. It wasn’t like he had a ton of choices, and she was the new girl. Of course he was going to hit on her. She should probably expect that from most of the single men.
“Don’t let the ticket thing throw you off. Armie’s pretty hot, and he’s a solid guy. And I mean that in several ways. He’s responsible and has a good job, and he’s been shot a couple of times and always survives it.” Lisa went still and her hand went over her mouth. “God, Lila. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that.”
There it was. That memory of when the gun came up and time had slowed down. It was always there, simmering under the surface of every good moment she had. She blinked and reminded herself Dallas was hundreds of miles away.
“I’m fine.” She said those words a lot. She said them to her family and friends. She said them to her therapist. She said them to herself. Of course, if she was fine, why had she felt the desperate need to upend her whole life, move over five hundred miles from the city she’d lived in for years, and spend every penny of her savings on a new start? “I didn’t take it that way. I’m glad to know the sheriff of the parish is capable of surviving a couple of bullets. I’m sure no bullet could get through his thick head.”
Lisa seemed to want to say something else, but her sister let it go. “You know, you could do worse than Armie.”
She wasn’t sure how. Getting involved with a gorgeous man who was sure to break her heart when she was trying to build a business and a new life for herself seemed like pretty much the worst thing she could do. “I’m not here to socialize.”
She fit the key in the door. It was time to see how much trouble she’d bought for herself.
“Yeah, I wanted to talk to you about that,” Lisa was saying as the door opened. “This isn’t Dallas.”
Precisely why she was here. Papillon was about as far as she could get from Dallas and still be close to her family. When she’d decided on a new start, she hadn’t been able to give up being close to at least one of her siblings. She’d thought it through. Laurel had a baby. She’d come through it like a champ, and her brother’s wife, Bridget, had given birth twice. They both had access to good healthcare. Lisa was out here alone. If her big Cajun husband wasn’t packing some hefty swimmers, she would eat her Louis Vuitton handbag. Lisa would get pregnant at some point, and Lila wasn’t leaving her care to anyone but her. “I’m well aware this isn’t Dallas.”