Damn it. He should have checked his phone but he’d been distracted by Sylvie. He was pretty much always distracted by Sylvie these days. She’d become his first thought in the morning and the last thing he saw in his mind before he managed to get to sleep. “We’ve spent time together this semester. You know my credits got messed up and I had to take a history course I was missing.”
Dre nodded. “Yeah, you told me Sylvie was in the class. Somehow I don’t think she was crying about an argument over some assignment.”
“We never argue.” They might debate, but his relationship with Sylvie was one of the most peaceful he’d ever had. Well, maybe peaceful was the wrong word. He didn’t feel peace around her. He felt contentment and happiness and the need to please her.
Lust. He felt a whole lot of lust.
“No, you’ve always been kind to Sylvie.” Dre’s expression had turned distinctly wary. “Just how kind are you planning on being to my sister?”
Rene didn’t want to lose his best friend. All of his life he’d been surrounded by people—family, his father’s employees, people who needed things from his family—and yet had felt so alone. Andre had been the one friend he could count on. Dre had sat next to him in first grade, and when he’d asked Rene if he wanted to come over to play, that had been one of the best days ever. They’d been an odd pair—the rich white kid and the black boy from a hardworking blue-collar family. But oddly enough the Daroises and the Martines were both pillars of Papillon, both families having been there for generations. They understood each other, even as children. This friendship had been the bedrock of his life.
He couldn’t lie to Dre. Even if it meant losing him. “I’m crazy about your sister.”
Dre sighed. “You think I don’t know that? You’ve always been crazy about her.”
“I have not.”
Dre’s warm brown eyes rolled, and he crossed to the big bar that dominated one wall of the living room. “I wasn’t saying you were perving on her when she was underage. I’m saying there was always something between the two of you. You’ve always liked her even when she was a snot-nosed kid. I’m going to need a drink to have this conversation.”
“Pull out the bourbon then.” He could use one, too. “My dad recently restocked. He was up here with Louis last weekend before he took Momma on a cruise.”
Louis had been his father’s closest friend all of Rene’s life. Louis had started out as an employee and rapidly become his father’s right hand. For at least thirty-five years, Louis had been at his parents’ side, always offering good advice and companionship.
“Well, Louis has excellent taste,” Dre said, pouring out two glasses and offering Rene one. “Are you really going to Chicago?”
“I don’t have to, but my father thinks I would learn a lot,” he replied. Why hadn’t he told Sylvie? He knew she thought he would be going right back to Papillon to work for the local branch. He’d wanted to come home, but his dad was right about one thing. It was important for him to learn the whole of the business if he wanted to run it some day.
“So you could stay here in Louisiana,” Dre mused, taking a sip of the bourbon and then sighing. “That’s good.”
Rene couldn’t taste it. All he could think about was the look on Sylvie’s face. “I could. I could stay here. If you want to know my preference, I want to stay here and start a relationship with Sylvie. We can make it work. I can come up and see her on weekends.”
“On weekends when you’re not working and she doesn’t have a project.” Dre sat down at the kitchen table. “Look, my sister is a grown woman, but she’s had a crush on you since she was a kid. I’m going to ask you a question and I want a straight answer. No matter how much you think it’s going to hurt.”
“All right.”
“How far have you gone with her?”
He put a hand up. “I kissed her. Tonight. It’s the first time I’ve kissed her, and it didn’t go any further. But I want it to. I’m not playing with her. I want to have a relationship with Sylvie. I want to see where things go. I should have talked to you about it earlier.”
Dre shook his head. “You don’t need my permission. Rene, you’re under the mistaken impression that I disapprove of this relationship. I love my sister. You two are the most responsible, genuine people I know. I would trust you with her, but I don’t trust that she’s going to do what’s best for herself if she gets involved with you.”
Rene didn’t like the sound of that. “What is that supposed to mean? I would always look out for her.”
“It means that you’re done with college and you’re starting your life. But she’s not, and if there’s one thing Sylvie is good at, it’s sacrificing her own needs to help others. I’m not saying you would mean to do it, but I think you could sidetrack her.”
“I support her getting a degree,” he argued. “I would never want her to give that up.”
“But you’re already talking about sacrificing for her,” Dre pointed out. “Would you go to Chicago if she wasn’t in the picture?”
“But she is.” Rene didn’t like where this conversation was going. He might have preferred an angry Dre to this sympathetic logic.
“Would you go?”
“Yes.” He hated it but it was the truth. “I should spend some time in all of the satellite offices. I’m going to be the CEO one day. I should study the business for the next several years.”
But that would mean leaving her behind. Or . . . he could spend the summer with her, could test it all out, and then if they were happy, he could ask her to marry him. She could see the world with him. Why did she need . . .
“You just figured something out.” Dre pointed his way. “I know that look on your face.”
“I wondered why she needed a degree if I can take care of her.” He hated that he’d even had the thought. She was smart and ambitious, and he could probably convince her to give it all up for him.
“And that is why I’m going to ask you to wait. She is not ready for what you want,” Dre said solemnly. “I know it’s a risk. She could find someone while you’re away. She could get involved in her career and never come back to Papillon. She’s eighteen. You’re in a different place in your life. If this was a casual hookup, I would say go for it. Get it out of both of your systems and move on, but that’s not what’s happening between the two of you. You and Sylvie are serious. If she’s in a relationship with you, you’ll be married within a year and she’ll start having kids. There’s nothing wrong with that if it’s what you both truly want. But she’s always dreamed of working in DC. I have no idea why, but she wants it. So the question is, do you care enough about her to take the risk of letting her follow that dream?”