Trouble in Mudbug (Ghost-in-Law, #1)(73)

Maryse shrugged. “I’m stressed.”

“Bullshit. You drink when you’re stressed. You clean when you’re avoiding.”

“Well, Mildred hasn’t figured it out, so I guess it doesn’t matter.”

Sabine shook her head. “Mildred knows damned good and well why you’re cleaning. She also knows that you won’t breathe a word to her about whatever secret you’re keeping until there’s no other choice.”

“Got that right,” Maryse mumbled.

“She also knows that you’ll tell me if it’s important, and I’ll tell her.”

Maryse stared at her so-called best friend in dismay. “Is this what the two of you do when I’m not around? Plot ways to analyze my life and then share things I’ve told you in confidence?”

Sabine had the good sense to look guilty. “It’s not like that. It’s just that Mildred and I both worry about you, and you don’t make it easy on people by secluding yourself so much on the bayou. I’ve seen you more since Helena died than I have in the past six months.”

Maryse sank onto the stairs. “You know you’re welcome at my place anytime, or at least you were when I had a place. And Mildred too. I know I didn’t come to town often, but it just wasn’t necessary. I had everything there that I needed.”

Sabine sat beside her on the stairwell and gave her a sad smile. “But don’t you see, Maryse? You didn’t have everything you needed. You’re losing sight of people, how they operate, what motivates them. If you were more social, you would have seen Christopher coming a mile away.” She paused for a moment, then took a breath before continuing. “And I hope this doesn’t make you mad, but I don’t have to be psychic to see what’s going on between you and Luc. Right now, I’d bet anything that’s what drove you to dusting.”

Maryse felt her back tense at the mention of Luc’s name. Was she really that easy to read? “Are you saying I have to become the life of the party or I’m always going to get screwed? If so, then I’m in trouble. I just don’t have what it takes to conquer the world.”

“Raissa’s worried about you. She has the feeling that you’re overlooking something important because it’s too close to you. She’s going to do another reading tonight and call me.” Sabine placed her hand on Maryse’s and squeezed. “You don’t have to conquer the world, Maryse, but you can’t hide from it either.”

She wasn’t hiding, Maryse wanted to yell. But somehow the words hung in her throat. She wasn’t hiding. Was she? Her laboratory work was the most important thing in her life, and it required an enormous amount of time, but surely no one was going to blame her for spending her time in the lab.

But as soon as that thought crossed her mind, she got flashes of long Saturdays where she’d finished up everything at the lab by noon and spent the rest of the day reading medical journals or cruising the bayou looking for hybrid plants that she might not have used for testing before. If she wasn’t working on her research, then she was tearing apart her kitchen to put in shelves or some other household chore that wasn’t really necessary. She hadn’t even picked up a novel or turned on the television in longer than she could remember.

Was her motivation to find a cure really as selfless as she’d thought? Or had the strain of watching her father waste away provided her with a convenient excuse to lock herself away from life?

“Maryse.” Sabine gently shook her arm. “Are you all right? I wasn’t trying to hurt your feelings.”

“I know,” Maryse said. Sabine hadn’t hurt her feelings, but she’d unknowingly unlocked a floodgate that made it frighteningly clear that Maryse had been living away from the world far too long.

Chapter Sixteen

Before Maryse could mull over her newfound revelation and figure out what the hell it meant for her future—if there was one—Helena walked through the hotel wall and ruined the entire moment.

“Helena’s here,” Sabine said.

Maryse stared at Sabine.

“It’s that look on your face…remember, like you have gas,” Sabine explained.

Helena shot Sabine a dirty look, then asked, “Did Mildred find Harold?”

“Yeah,” Maryse said, “he’s at that motel where you left him. Are you ready to do this?”

Helena sighed. “I’m as ready as I’ll ever be to see Harold again, or Hank, for that matter. But I guess I sorta owe you given that this whole mess is my fault.”

A bit of an understatement.

“Okay,” Maryse said. “I’ll check out with Mildred and tell her Sabine and I are going to the store to pick up some stuff I forgot yesterday.” She turned to Sabine. “That’s assuming, of course, that you’ll drive, since Luc sorta left in my car.”

Sabine wrinkled her brow, obviously wanting to delve into the topic of Luc but not wanting to do it now. “Sure, as long as you’re not carrying any kind of weapon in case we run into Hank. I don’t have enough money for bail.”

Maryse sighed. “Now you’re starting to sound like Mildred.”

There was a bit of a scuffle in the parking lot while Sabine and Helena argued, with Maryse as the translator, over who would ride shotgun. Sabine thought Maryse should ride shotgun and Helena thought she deserved the seat as she would be doing all the legwork once they got there.