The Pepper in the Gumbo (Men of Cane River #1)(73)

“Well, you don’t really have ahold of it,” she said, smiling. “A month lease isn’t forever.”

“Yeah, who knows what else I’ll do before we bug out of here.” His shoulders slumped.

It was funny. When Eric pouted, Alice wanted to smack him. When Paul did the same thing, Alice wanted to cheer him up. Maybe it was because Eric was always pouting over something Alice had done, but Paul was upset with himself. Alice slid a hand down to his wrist.

“Come on. Let’s go eat. It might not be so bad after we’ve had some ribs.” She tugged him toward the kitchen and he pulled his hand out of his pocket, their hands twining together easily. They walked to the counter and sat down on the stools.

Andy cleared his throat. “I think I need to say something. Paul said he always wanted to live in an old place like this. He never would have let them do that. He left me in charge. This is my fault.”

She glanced at Paul. He’d never said that he loved the building that much. But he also shouldn’t have let Andy take over. She sighed. “It’s okay, Andy. It’s done. It happened. I’m over it. Let’s eat.”

Mrs. Olivier had said nothing until now but she came around the counter and wrapped Alice in her arms. “I’m so sorry. And I just knew you were a special girl.”

Alice didn’t want to let go of Paul’s hand but since his mother was hugging her, she thought she’d better participate. When Mrs. Olivier stepped back, Alice was grinning. “Because I’d rather eat ribs than argue?”

Paul snorted. “Nothin’ special there,” he teased. “That applies to most of Natchitoches.”

Mrs. Olivier turned to the oven. “Funny, you two. I better warm these up real fast. Have a biscuit and some beans and slaw, y’all.”

They took turns dishing out the food and Paul asked the blessing. Alice smiled at the Louisiana Creole words, so familiar and yet still so strange coming from him.

Alice took a biscuit and then turned the bag for a closer look and cocked her head. “Who’s Tiffany?”

“Who?” Andy got up and peered over her shoulder.

“It says ‘call me, I can show you around. Tiffany’,” Alice said. She looked from one to the other and noticed Paul’s face had gone red.

“I think that was the waitress,” he said, clearing his throat. “You want slaw with that?”

“Poor Paul. He can’t go anywhere without girls throwing themselves at him,” Mrs. Olivier said. “It’s just not right. These girls don’t have any raisin’, the way they carry on.”

“You should be at some of these game-release parties, Mrs. Olivier. The last one, he was trying to make a speech and the whole front row was flashing him. He could hardly remember what he was trying to say,” Andy said, chuckling. “I just wish I hadn’t been in the row behind them. But that’s the perk of being the CEO, I guess.”

Alice paused mid-bite. The idea of Paul surrounded by beautiful young women willing to do anything to get his attention made her stomach go sour.

“Andy,” Paul spoke quietly, but something in his voice must have told Andy that now was not the time to reminisce on the good times they shared at those parties.

Alice searched for something to say that wasn’t related to how many women loved Paul. Andy’s T-shirt caught her gaze. “Your company logo is a seraph, isn’t it? At first I thought it was just an angel, but then I saw the other sets of wings. With the red and black, it’s really striking. I heard companies pay a lot of money for just the right design.”

Looking down at his chest, Andy nodded. “True. But Paul came up with this. It’s from some book he likes.”

“Oh, one of the Heinlein books?” Alice asked.

“No, just… Some old thing.” Paul stood up and went to the sink to wash his hands.

“He’s got all sorts of weird little names registered around. All of our games are officially trademarked under Fifty Wim―”

“Andy,” Paul interrupted, voice urgent. “Let’s not talk about the company right now. Okay?”

He shrugged. “Okay. It’s not like I was teaching her how to code. We’re just being sociable.”

Alice poked at her coleslaw. She didn’t think for a moment that Paul was shielding her from shop talk. Andy was going to say something she wouldn’t like, and Paul was telling him to keep a lid on it. Maybe there was something worse than the game store opening. If so, she couldn’t imagine what it was.

“I’m real glad you could come to dinner. Paul probably wished I wouldn’t be such a busybody. I know you young people like to hang out without all of us old people listening in to your business,” Mrs. Olivier said. She was smiling but something in her dark eyes seemed not as friendly as they had been the other day. She’d probably heard about Alice filing the petition to stop construction by now. Maybe Mrs. Olivier wondered why Alice was suing her boyfriend because Mrs. Olivier assumed they were dating.

Alice swallowed a bite of coleslaw and nodded. “Thank you for inviting me. It’s true, I don’t usually spend a lot of time with my boyfriends’ parents.” She choked on the last word. “No, that’s not what I meant to say. I meant to say friends’ parents.” Alice had no idea why her mouth had decided to betray her. She studiously avoided looking at Paul, her face burning.