Elli (A Second Chance Novel Book 1) Page 14

  “Oh, I’ve got a plan.” She stood, walked to the sofa, and plopped down. “It’s obviously a lousy one.”

  “Get yourself another one.” He stood, walked to the sofa, and sat close to her. “I’m a good listener if you have a mind to talk.”

  “Over the past four years, I’ve managed to simplify my life,” she said with a shake of her head. “Somehow, in the last few days here, I’ve managed to completely complicate it. I’ve taken a wrong turn somewhere.”

  Doug took her hand into his and squeezed. It was gesture of support, but his soft, dilated eyes didn’t match what she thought was a sign of friendship. He had been the only person who seemed to be her ally at Sugar Mill. Elli’s stomach knotted. She lived in the top zip code where older men acted on their attraction to younger women, so she recognized the dark, inviting look in his eyes. She certainly didn’t need to deal with this now. He put his arm over her shoulder. Yeah, life was hugely complicated.

  The door swung open and Ben walked inside. Doug grasped Elli’s hand tighter as she tried to pull away. Lucky got up from where he was resting and greeted Ben.

  “Well, this is cozy.” Ben petted Lucky, then walked past them into his office. He turned around and came right back out. His face was red, his jaws clenched. “Where are the Newfies?”

  “I put the puppies in the runner and Elli’s dogs in my yard.” Doug looked at her, and Elli got the distinct impression he was trying to stake claim on her. “Your dogs seem happy there, darlin’.” Elli jumped up, finally managing to pull her hand from his. She wasn’t sure where to put herself. Lucky barked his soft bark at her again, then made a circle and settled on the floor to take a nap.

  Joey rushed into the office, dropping his book bag on the floor and leaving the door open. He looked at Elli with wide eyes. “Everybody at school is talking about how you started a forest fire.”

  Elli couldn’t say why the events of the day came bubbling to the surface then, but they did. She burst out laughing. Joey grabbed her hands and jumped up and down in front of her. He laughed, too. Lucky came running over and joined in the play. Elli saw Ben stuff his hands in his pocket and scowl at Doug. His body was tight and contained as tears streamed down her face. Tante Izzy and the rest of the Bienvenu clan peered through the open door.

  “I think she done lost her mind,” Tante Izzy said. “Might need to get da coroner here to have her declared.”

  Joey leaped onto the sofa and onto Doug’s lap. He laughed as only a child can laugh with abandon and hugged Doug around the neck. “I don’t think she started a forest fire,” he said with total conviction. “She’s too nice to do that.”

  Elli smiled at Joey, a sob caught in her throat.

  He bounced on Doug’s lap. Lucky bumped his nose against Joey’s leg and Joey automatically pet him. “I bet you don’t think she did it either, huh, Grandpa?”

  Elli’s eyes widened. Grandpa! Doug was Joey’s grandfather? The father of Ben’s beloved wife. Sugar Mill Plantation was a virtual Peyton Place of family.

  “Step back,” a commanding male voice demanded from somewhere on the porch. “Let me pass or I’ll toss all of you in jail for obstruction.”

  “Back up, let da law through,” Tante Izzy shouted, and the sea of Bienvenues and a Snow White princess doctor parted.

  “Ben. I’d like to speak with Miss Morenelli,” he said addressing his nephew and ignoring her.

  Ben nodded. “Should Beau be here?”

  Elli’s heart thudded, not so much from the fear of being wrongfully arrested, but because Ben’s simple question touched her. It had been a very long time since someone other than Abby, or someone she’d hired, was concerned for her welfare.

  “Despite what the consensus is outside, no one is accusing her of anything,” Ronald said.

  Ben nodded, then looked at Elli. Did she just want someone to care for her so much that she imagined seeing honest concern in his beautiful green eyes or was it really there? She swallowed past the lump in her throat, hating how wanting someone to care made her feel exposed and needy. She looked away, afraid Ben would see the vulnerability in her eyes.

  “Doug, would you mind taking Joey to the house and getting him something to eat?” Ben asked. He looked at Elli a few seconds longer before turning to Joey, who was complaining about not wanting to leave. “Why don’t you get the Newfies and take them with you to the house,” he told his son. That was all the enticement the child needed.

  “You want me to take your dogs, too?” Joey asked Elli.

  “I’d like that very much.” She smiled. “Thank you.”

  Joey raced out of the office. Doug patted Elli on the shoulder and followed his grandson.

  Ben walked to the door and turned to his uncle. “Just the same, I think we should have Beau sit in on this.” Ben called Beau inside, then closed the door. Lucky seemed bored with the energy in the room and went back to his spot and settled in for another nap.

  Elli heard Tante Izzy shouting to everyone. “Ya’ll go on home, now. I’ll call youz and let youz know what happens.” The sounds of cars leaving followed.

  Ben leaned against the desk, Beau pulled the office chair next to Elli, who now sat on the sofa, and the sheriff walked over to Elli. He extended his hand to her. “I’m Ronald Bienvenu. Sheriff of Vacherie Parish.”

  Elli shook his hand. “I didn’t start the fire.”

  “No one is accusing you,” Ronald said and smiled.

  “Except everyone at Joey’s school and the entire Bienvenu family.”

  Ronald laughed. “That wasn’t even a fourth of the Bienvenu family. You’ll get to meet the rest of them after the parade on Mardi Gras.” He looked at Ben. “She’s coming to the crawfish boil, isn’t she?”

  Ben shrugged.

  “Of course, she is,” Beau interjected. “And she’s riding in the parade on the family float, too.”

  Ben’s brows lifted, and Elli knew he didn’t approve of the announcement, but he kept his opinion to himself.

  “Good. You’ll have fun.” Ronald sat next to Elli and pulled out a small spiral notebook and stubby pencil from his shirt pocket. “I’ve got the field report from the Fire Chief. Because he thinks it was deliberately set, I have to file a report. So why don’t you just tell me what happened in the cane field.”

  Elli told him the story of her jogging, the dogs racing into the field as if they were chasing something, the eyes staring back at her from the shed, frightening her and causing her to run to the kennel and Ben.

  “That’s when we saw the smoke,” Ben interjected.

  Ronald sat in silence, making notations. After a few minutes, he stood. “Would you recognize the person from the shed if you saw him?”

  “No.” She sighed. “All I saw were eyes. Dark eyes, through a dirty window. It was like looking through a smudged camera lens. Sorry.” Elli’s heart pounded in her chest. “Oh. My camera. I forgot about my camera. I had it with me. I must have dropped it somewhere in the field or near the cabin. Did anyone find it?”

  “No. Not yet.” The sheriff leaned back in his seat. “Can you be more specific about where you dropped it?”

  Elli closed her eyes, trying to recall when she last had it in her hands. “I took some pictures of the dried cane on the ground and then whatever was in front of the lens. I just snapped pictures and at some point I flipped the camera to video. I was too scared and worried about the dogs to frame the shots.” She shrugged her shoulders. “It’s kind of embarrassing to admit, but I had thought that if something bad happened, like an animal attacking me, there would be evidence of my death. Not that you wouldn’t have figured it out from the claw marks on my mauled body.”

  “Do you think you got video of the cabin?”

  Elli shrugged. “I don’t know. I was so frightened of wild animals attacking the dogs and me, that I don’t know where I pointed the lens when I got close.”

  “Could you have been so scared that you don’t remember tripping over or knocking over someth
ing that started the fire?”

  Had she? Elli felt the eyes of the sheriff, Ben, and Beau on her. Could she have started the fire and not known it? “I don’t think so,” she said, but knew her voice didn’t hold much conviction.

  “I think we’ve covered everything,” Ronald stood. Lucky raised his head to look at him but didn’t move from his spot. “If I have more questions, I’ll call you.”

  “Call me, Dad.” Beau said. “I’m representing Elli in this matter.”

  “Dad? Why am I not surprised?” She looked at Beau and didn’t see any obvious resemblances to the sheriff other than similar mannerisms. “Thank you for your offer to represent me,” she said, her heart growing two sizes larger with his offer to help. “But I think I can handle this. I didn’t do anything wrong.” Besides, she couldn’t afford to pay him. She was broke and the money she’d get from the movie filming at the plantation had to be used for the foundation, not legal bills.

  Ronald shook her hand and nodded to Ben. “See you on Mardi Gras, if not sooner.” Beau walked out with him, closing the door behind them.

  Elli looked down at her hands. “Thank you. I appreciate you being here.”

  “I don’t like someone starting fires on my property,” he said, his voice quiet and steady. “That fire, cher, was definitely not started by natural causes. I look out for what is mine.”

  Elli knew that didn’t include her, but she couldn’t help but think how nice it would be if it did. She knew such fanciful thoughts were useless. She didn’t want, hope, or need to be cared for, protected by, or committed to a man or to anyone. She didn’t want intimate, close relationships. If the cancer returned, the ugly, awful, destructive beast would rip into the world of someone she cared about. Why would she ever want that?

  She stood. Lucky stood and walked to Ben and sat near his feet. “I know I have complicated your life since I got here,” she began, fidgeting with her hands. “That wasn’t my intent.” She clasped her hands in front of her and looked at him. She was about to tell him about her ideas of selling the plantation to solid venture capitalists and how that would resolve their problem, but every fiber in her body stopped her. This was not the time. She shouldn’t mix her expressing gratitude with her desire to leave the plantation. They were two separate things—or were they? Oh, she was so confused. Her mind was too muddled. She needed a nap. “I’ve got to go,” she said, noticing a contained smile on his face. “What’s so amusing?”

  “You.” He walked up to her and lifted her chin so she’d look into his eyes. “You’re right. You do have a knack for complicating things—intent or not.” This time when he smiled, it was a full-force, sexy, crooked grin.

  Elli lifted her hand to his beautiful, scarred lips and touched them lightly with her fingertips.

  He exhaled hard. “What am I going to do with you?” He swallowed. “One minute, I want to toss you over my shoulder and put you on the first plane to California and the next—” He hesitated, wet his smooth lips, and leaned in so close she felt his breath on her lips. “The next minute, I want to toss you on the cool grass and have my way with you.”

  Elli’s heart pounded so hard in her chest that she knew it would explode if he didn’t kiss her in the next instant. It was wrong. They hardly knew one another. They didn’t even like each other. Yet, here it was. She wanted his mouth on hers so desperately she could feel it in the marrow of her bones. “Kiss me.” She gripped his shoulders and pulled him to her.

  “Oh, hell.” He grabbed her bottom and pressed her intimately against him. He swore, his words riper than before and with more heat. She understood that he didn’t want this any more than she did and just as much as she did. He closed his mouth over hers.

  The room tilted and the floor seemed to slip from under her. She gripped his shoulders tighter, and Ben must have realized her bones had turned to liquid. He lifted her into his arms as his warm, wet mouth and tongue continued their hot exploration of hers.

  Fire and lust heated Elli’s flesh, blood, and all the places identifying her as a woman. She trembled as feelings too big for her body to control swamped her. Her fingers played with his ever-present ponytail, feeling like cool silk. His scent wrapped around her, mixing with the hint of smoke from their bodies. His mouth left hers, and he scraped his teeth over her chin and down the column of her neck.

  “Oh,” she gasped, tilting her head back.

  She heard him suck in a breath as her fingers traced the outline of his ear, following it with her mouth and tongue. His back muscles bunched beneath her hands. Ben sat on the sofa, put Elli on his lap, and found her mouth again. He fed off her like a starved man in an isolated desert as she took his tongue into her mouth and suckled. Ben growled from deep in his throat and lifted his hips to press more firmly against her bottom. She shifted and slid closer to him.

  Ben swore again. The word sounded both angry and sexy. Elli trembled. He slid his hands along her sides and over her breasts, his thumbs rubbing firm circles over her nipples. Surgeries had left them numb, but she felt the pressure of his touch and the intimacy. Sounds she didn’t know she could make, slid over her lips as Ben dipped his head and took her left breast into his mouth through her T-shirt. Her legs parted a little, and her hot center pressed tighter against his hard erection. He sucked in a deep breath and pulled her shirt off, leaving her in a sports bra. His mouth claimed her left breast as his hand slipped under the tight bra to claim her right. Elli bolted off his lap and nearly tripped on Lucky who had managed to wedge himself next to Ben.

  He looked at her with dark, heavy eyes. His hair was tousled and he was breathing hard. He had to be the sexiest man she had ever seen. Just looking at him made her want to climb back onto his lap—but she couldn’t. She shouldn’t. She mustn’t. This was wrong. He hated her. She didn’t like him. Most of all, she already felt so ridiculously vulnerable around him. She couldn’t stand the idea of him seeing her scars, her damaged breasts, and finding her lacking. Why in the world did she care what he thought about her?

  “I…I…can’t,” she managed, a tear sliding down her cheek. She turned her back to him and wiped it with the heel of her hand. She pleaded to God to not let her cry and humiliate herself more than she had already.

  She heard him exhale hard, and the sofa seemed to moan from him moving. She knew without looking that he’d leaned back on the sofa and probably folded his arms over his chest. She owed him an explanation, but couldn’t think of anything to say other than the truth. She couldn’t tell him the truth.

  “I’m sorry. I should have stopped this sooner…I’m just…”

  “A tease? Using sex to get your way?”

  She jerked around to face him, her arms covering her breasts already hidden behind a sports bra. “No! You’ve got it wrong. I was drawn by your eyes,” she admitted, “and your kiss made me. . .” How much should she tell him? Why did it matter?

  “Save your breath, Miss Crocifissa.” He picked up her T-shirt and balled it in his hands. “I have a good idea what happened, and you should know I’m not like my dogs that get crazed and stupid when I’m around a bitch in heat.”

  “I’m not trying to manipulate you,” she snapped. “You are culpable in this too, you know. I wasn’t the only one doing the kissing.”

  “No, but you were the one who asked for it.”

  Before she could answer, the door opened and Beau walked in.

  “The state fire marshal is coming tomorrow to investigate the…” Beau stopped in midsentence when Ben jumped up from the sofa and blocked him from looking at Elli in her sports bra. Beau smiled at Ben. “I see you took my advice.”

  Ben scowled at his cousin and pointed to the door. “Get out.”

  Beau grinned, saluted Ben, and turned to leave. “Elli, you should know this guy’s bark is worse than his bite.” He walked out, and a few seconds later, they heard him drive off.

  Ben tossed Elli her shirt and walked out the door with Lucky.

  Chapter Five


  Why do people call the doxorubicin chemo drug the red devil? I say we should call it the RED ANGEL for the good it does destroying the cancer. Think of that, my Bosom Blog Buddies, when the nausea and fatigue knocks you back into bed and your bones ache like a horrific flu that won’t abate—the RED ANGEL is working her blessings through you…not the devil. Keep the faith and positive spirit; you will not be receiving chemo and radiation forever! It is finite…stay focused on the end-goal. I wish you good health, E.

  Bosom Blog Buddies Post

  Tante Izzy walked into the Sugar Mill kitchen dressed in a royal purple T-shirt, kelly green Capri pants, canary yellow tube socks, and matching yellow sequined Keds. “Get dressed,” the old lady said, looking at Elli’s clothes.

  Elli paused in mid-bite of her organic yogurt, but didn’t get up from the table. “For what?” She shoved the spoonful of yogurt in her mouth and closed the book she was reading.

  “We are goin’ shoppin’.” She looked at the yogurt and the book, then frowned. Elli suspected the yogurt was more distasteful to her than the book, which was titled You and Your Neurotic Dog. “Then we’z is goin’ to have lunch with Ruby.”

  “And who is Ruby?” She tossed her yogurt carton into the small can she had found to use for recycling.

  Tante Izzy harrumphed. “You met her yesterday.”

  “Let me guess. She’s the lady with the ruby red hair who kept accusing me of starting a forest fire.” Elli washed and dried the spoon before putting it in the drawer.

  “Seems to me she wasn’t da only one pointin’ a finger at you.”

  “I didn’t set the fire.”

  Tante Izzy waved her hand. “Tell it to da judge.” She looked at Elli from head to toe. She smiled. “I know youz didn’t do it, child. Now, go get out of da pajamas and get dressed.”

  Elli smiled, pleased that Tante Izzy believed she hadn’t started the fire. “This,” she waved her hand over her clothes, “is the very fashion forward, nautical blue, Juicy Couture track suit.”