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“Thank you, Alphé. I love you.”
He stopped and looked down into the cabin at her. “You do?”
“I guess I do. Ha! Where did that come from? I’m just as surprised as you are.”
“I love you, too.”
“Go to church,” she said, waving him off with a grin. “I’ll see you in a while.”
She guessed her options were limited that day, and there was a possibility she was going to go out to sea with him. If that was the case, she had an hour to get some work done because she doubted there would be Wi-Fi in the middle of the ocean.
The thought of being stuck on a fishing boat with Alphé and Pierre and no phone or computer suddenly didn’t seem that appealing. Maybe it wasn’t such a great idea. That room for rent above Café Delphine might end up being her home for a while.
While showering, she thought about the dream she’d had, where she was the mother of Alphé’s four kids, dressed like a television housewife in a pale pink shirtwaist dress and pearls. “No way,” she mumbled, drying off. In retaliation, she dressed for the day in jeans and a white, revealing T-shirt before she woke up the children. Alphé pulled up in his truck about the same time Katrina had the children ready to leave. She dangled her keys and threw them to him.
“Take the car.”
He winked at her. That new Mercedes Lola drove so proudly all over town might become his car after all. The children were quiet during the short ride to the house until Rumor spoke up.
“Dad, are we going to live on the boat with you?”
“It’s too small,” Angela said, answering. “It’s okay once in a while, but where would all our stuff go? And Dad goes to work in it. What would we do all day while he was fishing?”
“I want to go fishing,” he said.
“It’s fun,” Noel said. “Maybe when you get a little bigger.”
“Right, maybe one of these days if you want, we’ll go out fishing for a few hours. I haven’t had a day off in a while. We’ll talk about it.”
He pulled up to the house and saw the unfamiliar car in the driveway, and it made his gut churn, but he didn’t say anything. The children would form their own opinions. He was sure it wasn’t the first time the man had been there when the kids were home.
Lola opened the door as they approached. The look of disdain was clear on her face, but this time he didn’t care.
“They need to eat,” he said, handing over the little guys’ bags.
“Bye, Dad,” they said, kissing him before they went on their ways.
“You could have saved me trouble by texting me,” she said when they were inside.
“It’s not my job to save you trouble. I’ll be setting up custody with my attorney, Lola. If you’re going to leave them alone every evening, I might as well live here, and you can go off with your boyfriend.”
“How would it be any different if you were here?” she asked.
“I’ll hire a nanny instead of using my kid as a babysitter. Tell your lawyer we’re going to work this out as soon as possible.”
“I can’t afford a lawyer,” she said.
“Maybe your friend will lend you the money,” Alphé said before he turned to walk away.
“Whose car?” she called out.
“My girlfriend’s.”
By the time he got back to the boat, his blood pressure was nearly back to normal, and the sun was bright coming up. It was going to be a good fishing day.
“Hey, Gus,” he called out. “I’m living on the boat now, so I can get my own coffee in the morning. You’ve been a lifesaver.”
“Come get some beignets,” he said. “They’ll be too many for me to eat.”
