“Sylvie? Did you find him?” Her mother-in-law walked in looking sad and vulnerable, her wrist still in a brace.
“No. He’s hiding somewhere. I think he probably went into New Orleans, but I’m not going to make that drive tonight.” Sylvie held the puppy close as she spoke to her mother-in-law. Louis lingered in the doorway that led to the parlor. “I went to the office, though. He hasn’t announced your firing yet. I think we can assume he won’t truly go through with it.”
“He can’t fire Louis,” Cricket said, dabbing her eyes with a tissue. “Louis didn’t do anything wrong. I do not understand why Rene is acting this way.”
It was time for some hard truths for her mother-in-law. “It’s because you raised him this way.”
Cricket’s lips pursed in a stubborn expression that reminded Sylvie of her son. “I did not raise him to be rude.”
“No, but you raised him to be head of the household, to take care of his family, and that was what he was trying to do,” Louis said quietly. “Cricket, you’ve leaned on him for years, let him handle everything for you, and then you told him flat out the money and the house don’t belong to him. I don’t blame Rene for what he did. But I would like to get a chance to talk to him.”
At least Louis was going to be reasonable. “Rene is under a lot of pressure, and given what I found out at the office, it’s worse than what we thought.”
“What happened? Did you talk to Jane?” Louis moved to Cricket’s side.
As much as anyone could talk to Jane. The young woman had been emotional to say the least. “I don’t know,” Sylvie said. “She cried a lot. I ended up finding Gabriel Layton. He told me that there was a bunch of drama with his sister bringing Roberta into town.”
“She refuses to fly.” Cricket dabbed at her eyes. “Says if the good Lord wanted her to fly, he would have given her wings. So she only travels by car. And she won’t drive herself. I feel for whoever had to go and get that mean old woman.”
It had been Ashley, and she’d been sitting in her brother’s office crying when Sylvie had sought out Gabriel. The tears had quickly turned to anger as she’d told Sylvie every awful thing that had gone down during the six-and-a-half-hour drive from Houston. When she’d stormed out, Gabriel had apologized and helped her track down Jane Calhoun, who had also cried.
Gabriel had stayed with Sylvie, making sure she understood what was going on. It had been Gabriel who’d let her know Rene hadn’t taken any clear actions to fire Louis. He’d been utterly shocked by the idea.
“Jane said Charles had definitely been there this afternoon. He checked in with security shortly after lunch and left after twenty minutes. I’m fairly certain the only person he talked to was Rene. According to Jane, Charles walked out looking happy with himself, and that was almost the same time she got the call from the clinic. If I’d been a couple of minutes earlier, the receptionist at the clinic wouldn’t have made that call.”
“I didn’t even think about the fact that they had Rene as my emergency contact.” Cricket’s fingers crumpled the tissue in her hand. “I hate being treated like a child.”
“Rene didn’t mean what he said,” Sylvie replied. She had to smooth things over or they would be right back to yelling at each other. It was obvious this tension had been building for a long time, but she had to get them all through the board vote or their lives would look very different on the other side.
Cricket paused, looking up at Louis before she turned back to Sylvie. It made Sylvie wonder how much they’d talked while she’d been gone. “He did mean it. Perhaps he should have said it in kinder words, but he was right about some things. I have been acting like a kid trying to keep something from my parent. In some ways, that was part of the excitement of it, having something secret for a while. I should have announced that Louis and I were seeing each other and gotten it all out in the open. Then he would have known that I was the one who gave Louis that stock tip. I wanted him to show Rene he didn’t need any money. I knew how Rene would react.”
Yet Rene had married a civil servant who had little cash. “Yes, I definitely believe that talking to Rene would have been better. We need to do that going forward. My question is, what could Charles have told him that would make him want to break off a relationship that up until that moment he’d wanted quite badly?”
“Charles can be ruthless.” Louis moved into the parlor, Cricket following him. “I suspect it has something to do with you.”
She thought so, too, but couldn’t come up with what he could have found out about her that he could hold over her head. “Whatever he says he has, let him bring it on. If he thinks he can run someone against me in the next election, I’d like to see that candidate. Whoever it is will try to sit through our first town hall–style debate and then run.”
Town halls tended to devolve into craziness. And sometimes fight club.
“Rene would be worried he could cost you your career.” Cricket sank down on the antique sofa, offering Louis the place beside her. “Didn’t he say something about losing everything? Do you think he’s going to let Charles have the job?”
“I think he would do almost anything to save this house,” Louis mused.
“Unless it would hurt his wife, and then he would give it all up in a heartbeat.” Cricket’s healthy hand slid across the arm of the sofa, as though she was remembering all the good times she’d had in this room. “As he should. If there was one thing I could say to him right now, I would let him know how proud I am of him for trying to take care of his wife.”
It was good that Cricket was going to raise her son’s spirits since Sylvie was going to give him a long lecture about not talking to his wife. They could probably solve the entire situation with a nice conversation, but he would have to be around physically or answer his phone in order to do it. “I’m glad you’re willing to talk to him. I’m sure he feels terrible about the situation. He’s in a bad place, and I’m worried he’s been there for a while.”
“Because of everything that’s happened in the last few years,” Louis agreed. “I’m worried Rene’s felt pressure for so long that he doesn’t acknowledge it anymore. He’s got a lot of balls in the air, and the people he loves will be hurt if he drops a single one of them. That kind of pressure can get to a man. It can make him suspicious.”
“You didn’t do anything wrong,” Cricket insisted.
“I should have told him. He trusted me and I broke that trust. Look, it is our relationship, Cricket. But I know Rene. I knew how he would feel, and I wanted to avoid that conflict for as long as possible. He deserved to know that his right-hand man was dating his mother. I have a relationship with him, too. I want to keep my relationship with him, so I’ve got work to do.” Louis looked Sylvie’s way. “Do you know about what’s happening with the bids?”