In Shining Whatever (Three Magic Words Trilogy #2)(50)

She listened to the toads and the crickets and a nutria somewhere in the distance. Hart had spoken the gospel truth when he said she was home in Louisiana. And since she was ready to accept that, then she'd just make up her mind right then and there to go back to work for Laysard. She'd tell him tomorrow and call her mother, Fancy, and Sophie as soon as she did. They'd all pitch a hissy fit, but it's what she was going to do.

Her mind was made up.

To celebrate finally making the decision, she tilted the can back and finished it off. She was thinking about how the decision didn't feel right, when Minnette sat down beside her.

"Zac said you were down here by the bayou. Me and Claud we're fixin' to go home. Want to come on over and have a cup of coffee with me and talk awhile?"

"Why not?" Kate said. When she stood up, she noticed that the trees were weaving, but then she'd jumped up really fast.

"Whoa!" she reached out.

Minnette grabbed her arm and flipped it over her shoulder. "Careful, chere. Before I married Claud there was days when I thought I'd like to put a dagger through his sorry heart. You feel like that tonight?"

Kate giggled and nodded. "I just jumped up too fast."

"Come on. We'll talk all night. I'll just call up Maw Maw and tell her you'll be stayin' over with me tonight. How's that?"

"Don't care where I stay tonight. Hart's mad at me and gone off fishin'."

"Oh, honey, he'll be over it come mornin'. I guarantee it," Minnette giggled with her and, arm in arm, they headed for Mi n nette's car.

"You don't know Hart Ducaine. He won't be over it by mornin'." Kate melted into the passenger's seat and leaned her head back. She shut her eyes just for a minute, and heard Minnette getting into the driver's side and the engine starting up, and felt the car begin to move.

"You are a good cousin to take care of me. You really think he'll be over it in the mornin'?'

"'Course I do, chere. He won't go home tomorrow. I bet he stays the rest of the week"

I want to believe you, but everything is so..." She didn't finish the sentence, but she heard Minnette laughing in the background as everything went black.





Hart followed Bubba out to the boat. Kate could just worry, or maybe she wouldn't worry at all.

"Maw Maw calls me Jedidiah, but everyone else calls me Bubba. I reckon you can call me Bubba too."

"So you're goin' to marry Kate?" Hart asked, when he'd settled into the pirogue. There seemed to be a lot of baggage on one end, but he figured that was fishing gear. Who knew what all they'd need for fishing in the backwaters of a Louisiana swamp. In the distance he heard a woman crying out for help and his eyes began to search the murky night for her.

"Sounds spooky if you ain't used to it," Bubba said in his thick accent.

"Who is it?" Hart whispered, his words only slightly slurred.

"Not who. What. It's a nutria."

"And that is?" Hart asked.

Bubba shoved off with a pole of some kind and began to maneuver through the cypress knees and the algae scum on top of the water. "It's this animal that was brought to these parts and accidentally let loose. Least that's what we're told. Old folks say it was on purpose to wipe out the swamp lands. Don't know how in the hell nutria is goin' to wipe out the swamps, but that's what they think."

"What does it look like?" Hart looked around. All he saw was a couple of snakes the size of an Angus bull slithering down trees and into the water.

"Those'd be cotton moccasins. Don't want to be pesterin' 'em none. They can be right mean and their bite'll put you in the hospital if you're lucky," Bubba said.

"And if you're not lucky?"

"Why, then you go to the morgue."

"So when do we start fishin'?" Hart asked.

"Little bit yet. Got to get on down to the good spot. You just be comfortable," Bubba said.

The strange haunting sounds of the swamp let him know he didn't want to be truly alone in this place. "So tell me about this nutria thing. Is it like a bird?"

"More like a beaver without a flat tail. Kind of like a big old twenty-five-pound rat. They breed like rats too. The momma can give birth, and a couple of days later the females are ready to breed again."

"Good Lord," Hart said.

Bubba pointed with his rowing pole. "Yep, and they have three or four litters a year, so you do the math. Hey, look at that gator."

Hart looked in time to see the critter yawn. All those teeth looked mighty vicious, or maybe it was the reflection of the moon. Nothing could be that big. Not even a swamp rat.

He realized Bubba was pulling his chain about the nutria thing. Why wouldn't he? Hart was a greenhorn in the swamp, and Bubba was in love with Kate. He'd go home tomorrow and tell everyone about the crazy stories he'd told and they'd all have a laugh at Hart's expense. Hart didn't care how big the beaver thing was-twenty pounds or just a plain old Texas-sized rat of about one pound-because he was going home in the morning.

Angry, yes.

In love with Kate, yes.

Facing reality, yes.

There, the yeses had the vote. There were no nays, so it was really over.