Elli (A Second Chance Novel Book 1) Read online

  Elli left the dining room and headed to the parlor where she heard Joey’s laughter mingle with the sounds of the TV and what she now realized was Sponge Bob, not Lisa Simpson. There was also the sound of commentary from a female voice she didn’t recognize. She peaked around the side of the arched entrance and spotted Joey in his recliner with three of her dogs sitting on the floor at full alert near him. He held a big bowl of popcorn that the dogs were clearly hoping to get a taste of. On the sofa, speaking in a gentle, rhythmic tone was a gorgeous, petite woman with coal-black hair and deep blue eyes. She looked like Snow White in faded jeans and a Tulane University sweatshirt. Her running shoes had been tossed askew on the floor, and her sock-clad feet stretched out on the sofa.

  “Elli,” Joey shouted, spotting her. He lifted the remote from his chest and muted the TV.

  “Hey, kiddo.” She walked into the room and extended her hand to the fairy-tale princess. “Hi, I’m Elli Morenelli.”

  The woman accepted her hand with a firm handshake and a nod. It was clear in her intelligent eyes she had recognized Elli’s name. “I’m Camille Comeaux.”

  “She’s a doctor,” Joey offered.

  “A vet?” Elli wondered if she was the person who was supposed to examine Donna, who was looking comfy, tucked on the doc’s very trim lap.

  She smiled a pretty smile with perfectly straight, white teeth. “No. I’m a primary care physician.”

  “She’s my doctor and my dad’s,” Joey offered.

  Elli sat on Ben’s recliner and looked at Joey. “Are you ill?”

  He laughed. “No. She’s our friend, too. She’s here to keep me company while my dad does an invention.”

  “He means an intervention,” Dr. Snow White corrected. “Apparently, one of the dogs he trained a few years back has gone rogue.”

  “I hate when that happens,” Elli said, looking at her Aunt Rosa’s pets.

  “Want some?” Joey extended the bowl of popcorn to Elli, and Jenny thought he was offering it to her, so she stuck her snout in it. Joey snapped his finger and pointed at Jenny. She sat.

  “How do you do that? That was amazing.”

  “I don’t know.” Joey slid out of his recliner and walked to the kitchen carrying the popcorn bowl. The dogs followed him.

  “He takes after his father. They have a gift.” Snow White sounded totally smitten. Elli’s stomach pinched. “I heard you went to the Krewe of Terrenians parade with Tante Izzy today.” She sat up and Elli noticed she had pretty, full breasts that looked impossibly perfect—in the I have great genetics, not a great surgeon kind of way.

  Elli crossed her arms over her chest. “Uh…the parade was fun. Tante Izzy is fun.” Elli smiled and Camille did, too. She wanted to hate this very smart, perfectly built, petite woman, but she couldn’t. She had a nice, genuine smile, and her eyes reflected that she was kind. “I have a huge sack of beads upstairs that I don’t know what to do with.”

  “And you’ll get more. There are many more parades to come.” She petted Donna with long, easy strokes. “You could donate them to the Parish Center for the mentally and physically challenged clients. They have a work program where they take the beads, wash them, and repackage them to sell to Mardi Gras Krewes.”

  “I love that idea.” Elli was thinking of how it gave her the incentive to fight harder for the plastic necklaces at the next parade she attended. “Thank you.”

  “So, Ben tells me you’re a movie producer.”

  “Used to be.” Elli didn’t realize she had rested her hand over her chemo port scar that wasn’t hidden by the sweater, until she saw Camille’s eyes shift to her hand. She dropped her hands in her lap.

  “Produced any movies I might know?”

  Joey walked into the room carrying a bag of potato chips. Jenny, BJ, and Doe were close behind. He climbed into his recliner and laid the remote on his chest.

  “My best friend in college wrote Desert Heat. Because I was too young, naïve, and arrogant to know better, I asked her to let me produce it.”

  “Oh my God, that won an Academy Award,” Camille said, sitting up. “I loved it. It was poignant and the characters were so endearing.”

  “We got lucky,” Elli admitted. “If I had been smart, I would have tried to pitch it to one of the big studios and let them do it. Instead, we took it on—not knowing how Hollywood really operated. It’s scary to imagine that we could have killed her wonderful story because of our ignorance.”

  “Instead, you did something remarkable. I remember reading an article about how two college friends beat the odds and did something rarely done. As I recall, a critic called you stubborn, tenacious, loyal, and focused.”

  “You remember that? We did the movie almost ten years ago!”

  Camille tapped her index finger to her head. “Memory like a steel trap. Comes in handy with my job.” Elli laughed. “What else did you produce?”

  “Tug of War, With a Dash of Salt, Newfie…”

  “Newfie,” Joey interrupted. He climbed out of his chair and opened a drawer in the cabinet under the TV. He pulled out a DVD of the movie. “I like watched it a bazillion times. It was while my dad was watching the movie that he figured out he wanted to train Newfies. We’re getting two in tomorrow. You want to watch it now?”

  “Sure.” Elli smiled, finding pleasure in knowing she had done something that affected Ben’s kennel—as small as it was. “I loved making that movie. The dogs were so well trained. They listened better than the actors.”

  “Speaking of the actors,” Camille said, wiggling her pretty, arched brows. “Some of the hunkiest men in Hollywood were in that movie.”

  “It wasn’t hard to cast them. Their agents were chomping on the bit to have their superstar bodies exposed in that movie. It was a two-for.”

  “A two-for?” Camille asked.

  “Yeah, they were cast in the heroic role as lifeguards with their adorable Newfoundland lifeguard rescue dogs while spending almost all of their screen time in a bathing suit.” Elli laughed, remembering the number of phone calls she received. “In the end, we made a really good movie the cast was happy they could show to their children.”

  “My favorite in the movie is Mark Collin. He’s so handsome and…well, you know.” She wiggled her brows again. “Tall, dark, and dreamy. He reminds me of Ben. Especially without his shirt.”

  Joey started the movie and saved Elli from having to respond to Camille’s revelation. It was a revelation that Elli had the distinct impression had been said to let her know that the doctor and Ben were more than friends.

  The credits were rolling on the screen, and when her name came up, Joey shouted and clapped. “I never knowed anyone whose name was in the movies before.”

  * * * *

  Elli woke to her alarm the next morning. She felt rested, having gone to bed when Joey did, around nine, right after the movie ended. She knew she had a long, busy, and stressful day ahead, and frankly, she wasn’t in the mood to see Doctor Snow White and Ben together when he returned. Elli wondered if she had gone home after he did or if she spent the night. As much as she could imagine Ben and Camille together, she knew in her soul that Ben wouldn’t take a lover to his bed with Joey in the house and she knew Joey had slept in his own bed last night. He was back in his own bed. Still, the idea of them being lovers weighed heavy on her chest. Feeling that really bothered Elli. She had no right. They were business partners. Nothing more. The kiss didn’t cast them in the category of being involved.

  “I’m glad I got that settled in my muddled brain. Let’s go out,” she called to the dogs crowded in her bed, noticing BJ had already done her business on the floor. After cleaning the doggy mess, Elli slipped on black Capri running pants and threw a pink hoodie over her Winnie the Pooh shirt before getting Donna out of her crate. She tossed the knit cap from her head onto the bed and grabbed the thermometer. She still wasn’t very good at using it on the difficult Bolonoodle but it had to be done and she intended to get Donna’s temperature
as the other dogs did their business outside. Elli headed to the stairs. This time she let Aunt Rosa’s energetic pack go down the stairs ahead of her. When she got to the bottom of the stairs, she was glad to see the lights off in the kitchen. Only the dim light of the breaking morning lifted the darkness.

  “Good morning,” a pretty, feminine voice called to her as she passed the kitchen.

  Elli jumped and clasped her chest. “Oh, I didn’t see you there. Good morning, Camille.” She paused in front of the doorway just long enough to be polite. She looked at Ben sitting across from Camille at the table with a cup of coffee in his hands. “Gotta let the dogs out.” She rushed outside.

  So, Camille did spend the night. None of her business, she reminded herself. Still, she couldn’t help feeling a little angry about it. Ben was a player. He had kissed her until her insides felt like a gooey brownie and made her naked flesh feel like sunshine while he had a pretty girlfriend on the side. That was despicable. Or, maybe it was part of his plan to get what he wanted from her with Sugar Mill. Was his scheming so different from hers? Heck, yes it was. She wasn’t using sex to lure him into seeing things her way. She was trying to show him that she was a professional, smart businesswoman who had a great plan for their inherited property.

  Elli sat on the back steps. Despite seeing the doc here so early in the morning, her instincts remained rock solid on the point that Ben wouldn’t allow any hanky-panky under the roof while Joey was there. He was too protective of the child. The cozy scene in the kitchen was intended for her to see either by Ben or Camille or both. Joey had referred to Camille as his doctor and friend, not his dad’s girlfriend. Even little boys knew the difference between girlfriends and girl friends. It was something she’d have to think about. How far would Ben go to get his way, she wondered? She thought for a long time. The only logical responses to any number of scenarios were for her to stay on course and on guard against his advances.

  The back door opened and Ben and Camille stepped out onto the screened porch. “Thanks for breakfast,” she told him. “Tell Joey I’ll see him later.” Elli moved off the step so she could pass. “It was nice meeting you, Elli.”

  “Likewise.”

  Camille’s eyes fell to Elli’s chest, then to her collarbone. Elli grabbed the two ends of the hoodie and zippered it up. Those blue eyes were much too intelligent for comfort. If she saw the med-port scar, she would know what made it.

  “I’ll see you tonight?” Camille asked Ben, then leaned in and kissed him on the cheek. He smiled. Elli had been in the business of storytelling long enough to know that they were telling her a story. She just wondered whose point of view she needed to consider. She suspected Camille had more to say. She also knew that whatever her story was, the kiss she and Ben shared was chaste, not a kiss between lovers.

  “I’ll pick you up around seven thirty. Thanks for last night.”

  “Anytime.” She fluttered her fingers in farewell to Elli and walked to her Volvo. Scene exit. If Elli had to pick a car that suited the doc for a movie scene intended to show her personality, that would be it. It was the kind of car a person thought about in a smart, logical way. It wasn’t the kind of car a person bought with crazy emotions because a salesman said the overpriced, pretty Mercedes matched the color of your eyes. That was the car she’d cast for herself. Heck, she bought that car for herself the day her first movie went from the red to the black.

  “How’s the man and his dog?” Elli asked once Camille drove away.

  He took Donna from Elli and felt the pads of her paws. “The man was fine once I brought the dog back here. Seems he needs a refresher course.”

  “Who? The man or the dog?”

  “The man.” He sat on the top step. “You’ve been taking her temp?”

  “Yes.” She lifted the thermometer, already covered in the sleeve. “I was about to get a morning temp.” She sat next to him. “It’s been about the same, a few points lower at times. Never higher than at the clinic.”

  He took the thermometer from her, and she handed him the small packet of petroleum jelly she had in her pocket. Without saying a word, he took Donna’s temperature and showed her the digital reading.

  “I’m glad it isn’t getting worse.” She scratched Donna behind the ears. “What time will the vet be here?”

  “Around eight.”

  “You know, I thought Camille was the vet when Joey told me she was a doctor.”

  Ben smiled. “She has helped take care of my dogs a time or two when I couldn’t get Dr. Danos here fast enough.” They sat companionably silent for a while, watching BJ and Doe sniff around the backyard.

  “I guess I should go find Jenny. She’s probably in the bayou or playing in a puddle somewhere.”

  “She’s a Lab. Labs love water. She’s fine.” He stood and stretched his arms over his head with a big yawn. His button-down cotton shirt lifted just enough to give Elli a peek at his tan, flat belly. Just that little bit of skin showing convinced her that he would have looked just as good as any of the actors in Newfie.

  Ellie started to ask him about setting up another meeting, but Ben spoke first. “I don’t think we are going to ever agree on what to do with Sugar Mill.” He ran his hand through his wavy hair. It was the first time Elli had ever seen him without his usual stubby ponytail, and loose, his hair went just past his collar. “Why don’t you give me a couple of months to see if I can work up something? Maybe, I can get Beau to buy the place and put it in trust for Joey.”

  Elli shook her head. “I wouldn’t mind doing that, but we can’t sell it to a relative.”

  “I know that.” Ben blew out a breath. “I’m just making a point that there has got to be a way to zigzag to get to the right resolution. I just need some time to figure it out. Give me some time.”

  How could she tell him that she didn’t have time, that the Gene I.D. Foundation was on the brink of bankruptcy, she had no liquid capital, and what residual money she had coming in a few months wasn’t going to be enough to solve the problem? She needed the money now. To tell him all that would completely negate her efforts to prove to him that she was a good businesswoman who knew how to best deal with Sugar Mill. “I don’t know.”

  Ben looked at her, his green eyes darkening to the shade of magnolia leaves. The muscle in his jaw tightened from clenching his teeth. “Think about it,” he said, his tone controlled but angry. She nodded and he walked back into the house.

  * * * *

  An hour after her upsetting conversation with Ben, Elli prepared for a run with all the dogs except Donna, who remained in her crate in the bedroom. Elli slipped her camera into the small pack she strapped to her back. She was excited about capturing the scenes she had scouted for the sales brochure during her earlier run and was certain there were others she had yet to discover. She thought of how the overcast sky would diffuse the morning light and sharpen the greens, browns, and grays of the plantation landscape. It was a perfect time to get the shots she needed, she thought as she secured the dogs to the leashes she shortened by wrapping them around her hand a few times. Giving them less of a lead seemed to work better. Having them run in front of her, albeit pulling her along, also worked until they turned onto the road through the sugarcane fields and neared the area where she had found the rustic shed. Once again, the dogs went on alert and started pulling her into the cane field. The force of their powerful movements painfully tightened the leashes around her left hand.

  “Stop it,” she shouted. “Heel.” As expected, they ignored her. So, to keep them from choking themselves or dismembering her, Elli didn’t fight them. “I’m going to stop taking you with me on my morning runs if you keep this up,” she threatened. They didn’t seem to hear, understand, or care what she was saying. They kept straining against their collars and coughing from their efforts.

  Elli grabbed the straining leashes and fought to unwrap them from her hand. “This was a bad idea,” she shouted, managing to free herself. The dogs must have sensed their
opportunity and lunged forward. The leashes flew from Elli’s abused hand.

  They took off running into the field; barking, howling, and baying. Elli stopped chasing them. She wasn’t keen on meeting up with whatever animal had gotten them this excited. Hadn’t she read somewhere that there were bobcats in the area? Her heart sank a little. God help her, but she couldn’t leave those animals vulnerable to whatever wildlife was out there. Even if it meant she would be vulnerable, too.

  She retrieved her camera from the backpack and powered it on. She wasn’t sure why she had, but she felt a little more armed because of it. She headed off toward the dogs, stomping through the field with loud, heavy steps, hoping to scare away any wild animals. Old, dried cane crunched under her running shoes. She took a quick picture of the cane under her feet as she moved forward. It was crazy, but she wanted to document what might be her last minutes on earth. God if she videoed her last seconds on earth, it would make it onto YouTube for sure. It would go viral. That was not a way she wanted to be remembered, she thought, and kept it in camera mode. Elli snapped another shot of the dry stalks as they bit into her ankles, and then pointed the camera ahead of her. Without checking the framing through the viewfinder and took one photo after another. She could have taken a dozen or two hundred photos. She had no clue. All she did know was that she was scared and the fear was escalating with each step she took toward the barking dogs. It was like riding in a clacking rollercoaster as it slowly climbed the first steep rise. She knew once she reached the crest she would take that awful, frightening plunge.

  The dogs’ barks grew louder and more frantic as she neared them. The scent of her fear and the earthy sweetness of the cane filled her nostrils. Her heart beat harder. Her eyes scanned the area, praying she didn’t come face-to-face with a bear or bobcat. She flipped the camera to the video mode as she took a few steps more and spotted the rustic shed she had seen yesterday. It was to her right, twenty or so yards through the cane. She turned toward it, knowing there was cleared land around it and hoping there might be a real weapon inside the shed if she needed one. The closer she came to the clearing, the more she could see what the dogs were doing. They were scratching at the weathered, gray cypress door—Jenny on her two hind legs, BJ with her nose on the ground, and Doe with her snout pressed along the seam. Elli didn’t see any bears or bobcats, so she snapped a quick photo, fumbling awkwardly with the buttons as she raced toward the animals.