A Case for Love (11 page)

The music ended, and a smattering of applause forced Forbes to look away from the gorgeous newscaster.

“Now, though we’re not officially beginning the lessons in the package until next week, we thought this week we could begin teaching you one of the most simple dances, the waltz.” Ruth Arcenault turned slowly as she spoke to make sure she looked at everyone scattered around the room. “So if everyone would line up—men over here, your partners facing you over here—we’ll get started.”

“Forbes, what are you going to do with no partner?” Anne asked.

“Don’t worry about me.” He winked at his cousin and passed her in the opposite direction from where all the men were lining up.

Alaine was looking down, writing something on a steno pad, when he stopped in front of her. Her cameraman noticed him and looked away from his eyepiece before Alaine looked up. Surprise, pleasure, and an attempt at aloofness rushed through her expressive chocolate eyes.

Forbes half bowed and extended his hand. “May I have this dance?”

“No—I—” Alaine looked at her cameraman and then back at Forbes. “I can’t. I haven’t paid for a lesson. I’m working.”

“My sister isn’t going to be able to make it, and I need a partner.” Forbes removed the notepad and pen from her and took her hands in his. “And as you can see, you are the only other person here to dance with.” He glanced at her cameraman. “No offense.”

The guy grunted what might have been a chuckle. “None taken.”

Forbes started backing away. After a moment’s initial resistance, Alaine rolled her eyes and followed him, the hint of a smile playing about her enticing mouth.

They had to practice the steps for a good ten minutes standing three feet apart, not touching. Finally, though, Ruth and Ian demonstrated what they called a
standard hold
and told everyone to try it.

Forbes’s arms tingled, and as soon as he had his right hand on her back—just below her shoulder blade—he had to grit his teeth to keep from sighing with pleasure. Her hand was so small in his, and he hadn’t realized just how short she was until he looked down at her from such close proximity.

She, on the other hand, stared straight ahead, at his chest. Color had risen in her cheeks, and she pressed her lips together as if trying to suppress an unwanted emotion.

A touch on his shoulder brought him out of his admiration for her. He looked around and found Ruth Arcenault standing beside them—throwing Alaine’s petite stature into even starker relief, since Ruth was slightly taller than Forbes in her high-heeled dance shoes.

“Find the rhythm in the music and start whenever you feel comfortable. Remember, gentlemen, lead off with the right foot forward and just make a box. You won’t be traveling around the room for at least a week.” She wandered over to Anne and George, who, of course, performed the steps perfectly.

“Ready?”

Alaine looked up at him. He could lose himself in those endless dark eyes. “Ready.”

He tuned in to the classical music playing through the speakers in the ceiling and, under his breath, began counting the rhythm. “One, two, three. One, two, three. One, two, three...”

Alaine giggled. “You go on the one,” she whispered.

“I know.” Heat tweaked his cheeks, and he suddenly remembered just how bad a dancer he was. Now Alaine was about to find out, too. What had he been thinking?
One, two, three. One, two, three. Now, two, three. Go, two, three. Fool, two, three.

He lifted his foot to start. Alaine anticipated and began to step back, but Forbes hesitated—and threw both of them off balance. Alaine’s momentum pulled her backward, and he stumbled forward, stomping on her tiny foot.

She winced. “Ow.”

“Sorry. I’m so sorry.” He dropped the dance hold and grabbed her shoulders. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine.” She pushed his hands away from her shoulders and put her arms back into the standard-hold positions. When he hesitated, she grinned at him. “Why, Forbes Guidry. I do believe we’ve finally found something at which you aren’t 100 percent confident. In fact, I think you’re completely and utterly out of your element.”

He narrowed his eyes at her, mortified at having been called out. He had to regain control of this situation. “But that’s why I needed you as a partner. Because I am confident that I won’t learn this nearly as well with anyone else.”

“Will it help if I lead?”

He’d never live it down. “No. I’ve got this.” He started counting again, under his breath. He closed his eyes and visualized his feet moving to the rhythm of the music. “Ready?”

“As I’ll ever be.”

He didn’t have to open his eyes to know her eyes sparkled with silent laughter. He took a deep breath and stepped.
One, two, three. One, two, three. One, two, three. One, two, three. I’m doing it. I’m actually dancing.

Taking a risk, he opened his eyes. Alaine’s eyes bored into his with barely suppressed amusement. “Yes, you are doing it. You are actually dancing.”

Ruth came over and observed them for a few moments. “Very good, Ms. Delacroix. I like the way you’re staying on the balls of your feet. Mr. Guidry, too stiff—and don’t hold your breath. Try bringing your heels up off the floor—and bend your knees a little more on each step. No Frankenstein’s monsters allowed here.”

He probably could have lived his entire life without learning to dance—and given the choice between that and being called
Frankenstein’s monster
in front of Alaine Delacroix, he would have found it preferable. He had to hand it to Alaine, though. She didn’t laugh at him. At least, not out loud.

Ruth and Ian stopped the class and demonstrated what they saw most of the students doing and then how they wanted it done. Forbes watched Ian carefully, determined not to draw any criticism this time. Heels up. On the tiptoes for the
two
and
three
counts. Sliding the ball of the foot to the next position instead of lifting the foot and putting it down. He could master this.

He would master this, even if he had to take private lessons. Because when he married the woman standing beside him, he wanted to dance like that Fred-guy from the movies at their wedding reception.

Alaine slid her sunglasses to the top of her head and pulled open the door of Delacroix Rentals.

“Hey, Sis. What’re you doing here?” Joe wheeled out from behind a display of candelabra.

“Do I need a reason to stop by and see my big brother?” She leaned her hip against the front counter.

“No. It’s just that you don’t usually drop by on a random Tuesday night unless something’s up. So what’s up?” He parked himself directly in front of her.

“Well, I was hoping to talk to you.”

“Just me or me and Nikki?”

She shrugged. “Either way.”

“Tell you what. Let’s you and me go for a walk.” He turned to look over his shoulder. “Hey, Nik!”

Her sister-in-law appeared from the back room. “Yeah? Oh hey, Alaine.”

Alaine raised her hand in greeting “Hey, yourself.”

“Al and I are going for a walk if you don’t mind keeping an eye on things here.”

Nikki glanced around the otherwise vacant showroom. “I’ll try to keep the crowd under control.”

“Thanks, dollface.” Joe whipped his wheelchair around and headed for the door. “We’ll be back in a bit.”

Alaine rushed ahead of him to hold the door, then took her place behind him, not pushing, but touching the bar across the top of the seat back, just in case.

Joe cleared his throat. “Alaine, it’s been seven years. I’d hope by now you’d remember that I don’t need or want to be pushed, and I’d much prefer it if you’d walk beside me so I can see you when I’m talking to you.”

Alaine released her hold and moved up beside him. “Sorry. I just can’t help it.”

He stopped where the walkway joined with the small, paved parking area in front of the store. “I may have lost the use of my legs, but I’m not helpless. I know you feel like you have to protect me from the world, but you don’t. I was an Army Ranger, remember? Even now, you could drop me anywhere in the world, and I’d not only survive, I’d be able to find my way home.”

“That’s not because you were a Ranger. That’s because ever since you were fifteen years old, you’ve had this weird homing signal that can take you wherever Nikki is.”

He grinned. “Too right. Come on. Let’s walk up and see what Mother’s making for supper.” Joe set a quick pace toward the only other house on the cove that had survived the Great Moreaux Mills Fire twenty-five years ago. “Are you going to tell me what’s up?”

“I’m meeting with a lawyer tomorrow.”

“Having a will drawn up? I can’t wait to find out if I get the shoe collection or the treadmill.” He made a face.

She punched him in the arm. “No. I talked at length with Mother and Daddy ... about the business situation. I’m meeting with a lawyer who might be interested in taking on the case.”

Joe slowed. “What do you mean ‘the case’?”

“If the guy thinks we have a chance, he’ll put together a lawsuit of some kind to stop the Guidrys from forcing everyone out of the Mills.”

“You’re serious?” He stopped, bracing the wheels to keep from rolling backward down the slight incline.

“Yeah. But of even more concern is ... did Mother and Daddy tell you that their mortgage was bought by an investment firm that’s going to foreclose in ninety days if they don’t pay what’s left on their mortgage in full?”

Joe’s normally deep complexion paled. “Them, too?”

Her stomach roiled. “What—you mean you and Nikki are in the same situation?”

“Business has really slacked off in the last few months—especially business from B-G Enterprises. No surprise there, since they’re wanting to run us out of business. But I’d never have suspected it of Meredith.”

Alaine didn’t want to think ill of her new friend, either, but facts were facts.

“Anyway, we’ve fallen behind in our payments the last couple of months. With our loan coming through a locally owned bank, they were working with us on a plan to get caught up. Three weeks ago, we go in to talk to them about signing the paperwork for the final arrangements, and there’s all new people at the bank and they tell us that it was bought out by this investment firm that is in the process of reviewing all accounts and loans. Then last week, we get served with the foreclosure paperwork. More than ninety days in arrears.”

Alaine nearly crumpled. “You got that far behind? I wish you’d said something to me. I could have helped.”

“How? Mother and Daddy are in the same situation, and we all know that you tend to live paycheck to paycheck because you have a huge mortgage and car payment of your own.”

Not to mention the money she spent on clothes and shoes every month. Guilt wrung at her heart. If she’d been a better steward of her finances, if she hadn’t had to have the
right
address and the
right
clothes and the
right
shoes, she could have been in a position to keep her family out of this situation.

“Anyway, it wasn’t your responsibility to bail us out. We have to face it. The economy tanked. Frankly, with more than half of the business in the Mills closing over the past six months, it’s a miracle we’re still here.” Joe’s dark eyes clouded further; he closed them and dropped his head.

“What? There’s something else you aren’t telling me.”

“Nikki and I were finally at the top of the list for a baby, and when the adoption agency found out we’d been served foreclosure papers, they dropped us. All that money and all the time we spent waiting—hoping, praying we’d finally have a child of our own—and we get kicked to the curb just like that.”

Moisture welled in Alaine’s eyes, followed by bitterness in the back of her throat. How could the Guidrys do this to her family? “Just one more thing I’ll be telling the lawyer tomorrow.”

Thick, black clouds boiled on the horizon. Forbes stepped on the gas, determined to make it to Comeaux before the thunderstorm did. Twenty-four hours should be all Jenn needed to realize that she wanted him there to help her get through this fiasco and back on track.

Huge raindrops splatted against the windshield as he pulled into the parking lot. Grabbing his umbrella—for the deluge that would surely be happening when he left—Forbes dashed into his sister’s restaurant. For six o’clock on a Tuesday evening, she had a pretty good-sized crowd. Of course, given that he’d found her a piece of prime real estate—right on the main highway between Comeaux and Bonneterre—she would have had to try really hard to fail in this venture.

Several of the servers greeted him, including the head waitress, the one who’d discovered the short-term manager’s criminal activity. He stopped, returning her greeting.

“You here to talk to her about what happened yesterday?” Lynne asked.

He nodded. “Where is she?”

“Where else?”

“In the kitchen. Thanks.” He headed toward the rear of the building and let himself into the kitchen through the Employees Only door. He cringed as soon as he entered. He’d been more than happy to go into the restaurant business with Jenn when she’d decided this was what she wanted to do with her life—because it had been under the express agreement that he’d never have to set foot in the kitchen.

Chaos surrounded him—cooks, servers, porters, dishwashers all hollering at each other over the din of equipment, fans, machines, and the clanking of pots and pans.

“Chef, someone here to see you!” The white-clad yeller hardly even looked up from his task of shucking oysters.

Forbes’s mouth watered at the sight of the succulent, juicy mollusks just waiting for a splash of lemon juice and hot sauce and ready to slide across his tongue with a velvety sweet saltiness like nothing else in the world. Maybe he’d have a plate of them before leaving.

Jenn came around the end of the stainless steel island where the shucker worked. As soon as she spotted him, her eyes narrowed and one hand went to her hip. “What do you want, Forbes?”

He worked hard to keep his surprise from showing. “I figured you’d want to talk about what happened yesterday.”

She cocked her head to the side, ponytail swinging. “I don’t remember calling you and begging you to come down here to take care of me. Don’t Marci or Tiffani need you to come rescue them from some crisis?”

Meredith’s recent bid for independence from the family was having a bad effect on the rest of their siblings. “I’m not here to try to rescue you from a crisis. I’m here as your legal counsel to talk to you about the consequences and ramifications of what happened yesterday—because I need to hear it firsthand from you and see all of the paperwork.”

Jenn blinked a couple of times, then her expression cleared. “Oh. Okay. Have you had supper yet?”

Fortunately, the kitchen was loud enough that she couldn’t hear his stomach growling. “Not yet.” He nodded his head toward the oysters. “Those any good today?”

Jenn walked over and leaned down to smell those already on a platter. “Yep. Fresh as can be. Delivery just came in an hour ago. Decker, plate of twelve for my brother.”

The prep cook nodded. “Yes, Chef. Plate of twelve.”

“Forbes, go on and get a table. I’ll get the paperwork and then bring the food out to you.”

Even though the dining room would have its own set of distractions, Forbes was grateful that his sister didn’t want to do this in her office—a cramped little room that, while well organized, still reminded him of the chaos just beyond the doorway. He waited for two servers and a busboy to exit ahead of him, then went out into the restaurant.

He fixed himself a glass of iced tea at the waitress station, then chose a booth in the corner farthest from the kitchen where there would be fewer interruptions, as members of the staff wouldn’t be walking past them every few seconds.

Just when he was about to return to the kitchen to find out if Jenn had gotten distracted by something, she came around the corner, followed by a waiter balancing a tray on his hand and shoulder. She directed the placement of the platter of oysters, the basket of hush puppies, and the bowls of side dishes before taking a seat opposite him.

The first oyster went down like nectar of the gods—the perfect hint of clean salty seawater followed by the sweetness of the meat and the sting of the lemon juice and hot sauce. Forbes barely suppressed a shiver of pleasure.

When six empty shells lined his side of the plate, and three on Jenn’s, he finally leaned back, ready to talk.

Jenn grinned at him and bit into a hush puppy. “I’m starting to wonder if you really came to talk to me or if you really wanted an excuse to come down for the oysters.”

“Ones that size are hard to come by this time of year. But I did really come to talk to you. Tell me what happened yesterday.”

Forbes guided his sister through the story with a series of questions while he sated himself on the greens, macaroni and cheese, and beet salad ... and the remaining three oysters for dessert.

“So do you really think there are going to be legal ramifications for me—like the people whose information he was trying to copy, could they sue me or something?” Jenn swirled a straw in her tea.

“No, because nothing actually happened to their information.”

“I dunno. The sheriff ’s department confiscated all the photocopies as evidence when they arrested him. While I’d like to have faith that everyone who works at the sheriff ’s department is trustworthy and ethical, you never know.”

“If anything happens now, it’ll fall on them, not on you. But if it’ll make you feel better, I’ll pay them a visit tomorrow just to make sure those copies will be destroyed once they’re finished with them.”

“Thanks.”

“Now, are all of your employees’ files up-to-date? Has everyone signed the ethics policy?”

“Do you realize I’m probably the only restaurant that requires everyone to sign one of those things?”

“Do you realize that it gives you the legal recourse to fire someone like that manager when they break it? You’re just covering all your bases by doing it. Speaking of ethics policies...” He caught himself just before a big, stupid grin broke out on his face as he reached for his wallet. He pulled out a twenty and handed it to his sister.

“What’s this for?” She eyed the bill but didn’t reach for it.

“It’s from Alaine Delacroix. She took your place as my partner last night, but since she was there covering the studio’s opening for her TV show, she couldn’t accept anything for free. So she asked me to reimburse you for her participation in the lesson.”

Jenn’s gray blue eyes twinkled. She took the money and pocketed it. “Alaine Delacroix, huh? She’s kinda cute.”

He shrugged and hoped his face didn’t reveal more than he wanted it to. “I guess so.” If one liked short, gorgeous women with a Mediterranean look about them. Which he’d recently discovered he did. “She’s a great dancer already. Looked like she’s already taken some ballroom dancing lessons.”

“Sounds like she’s the perfect person for you to partner with, then, because she can help you out when the instructors are paying attention to the other students. Goodness knows you’ll need all the help you can get.” She dodged the straw paper he threw at her. “Hey now, don’t go trashing my restaurant!”

Forbes looked up and thanked the server who refilled their tea glasses, then returned his attention to Jenn. “Have you talked to Meredith today?”

“Got an e-mail from her about catering some event in a couple of months. I didn’t even know they were back yet.”

“They flew back yesterday. I had lunch with Major today to finalize the paperwork for his restaurant.”

“That’s finally going through, huh? I thought there was some problem with the building permits or something.” Jenn’s eyes wandered around her own restaurant, taking in everything her staff and customers were doing.

“Well, Mom and Dad—and the consultant they’ve brought in—are working to get everything squared away with the city and the few property owners who haven’t decided to sell yet.”

“There’re a lot of good restaurants over in Moreaux Mills—at least, there used to be. I’ve heard a bunch of them have closed down over the past few months. It’s a rough time to be a business owner.” She heaved a dramatic sigh.

“Yeah, especially for you.” He made a face at her.

“No, seriously. It hasn’t been easy here, either. My revenues have been down almost 10 percent. I had a waitress quit a few weeks ago, and I decided not to replace her because the workload just wasn’t there.”