sat down. Before long, a young waitress appeared, took their order, and rushed off.
“This place is always so busy,” Sarah commented after the waitress left.
“I know,” said Billy. “We’re lucky we got a place to sit.”
“Are you ready to get powdered sugar all over yourself?” laughed Sarah.
“Not quite,” Billy smiled. “But, it’s hard to avoid it.”
“I always think of that as the fun part of eating beignets,” said Sarah.
Billy looked at Sarah and thought of how she seemed to enjoy herself, no matter what she was doing. He remembered her response to the egrets the night before and how she looked forward to feeding the alligators in the future. Sarah was a happy person and he liked that about her. Even in the midst of their search for the building earlier, she would flash him a smile and say, “This could be it!” Billy wished that the two of them could get to the bottom of the matter that was in her dreams and put the whole thing behind them once and for all.
Billy felt guilty about his initial response to Sarah when she told him about Jessie. She was clearly trying to help him—and Jessie, too, in regard to her father. Standing at the bayou, he had been so shocked to hear about Jessie from a total stranger and did not want the Texas beauty to take him for a fool. Once he got to know Sarah, he realized that she was not capable of such a maneuver. She was authentic—he was sure of that.
If Jessie had anything special to tell him through Sarah’s dreams, Billy definitely wanted to hear it. But, he did not want to let that interfere with getting to know Sarah better on a personal level. There was something about her that was like a magnet. Maybe it was her emerald green eyes. Somehow, the happiness he lacked seemed to be inside of her. Since Billy met her at the crawfish boil the night before, he started to remember what being emotionally connected to someone felt like. It had eluded him for the past four years. Perhaps Jessie’s memory had, in fact, faded more than he realized.
Before long, the waitress brought their coffee and the popular donut-like concoctions. Billy paid the bill and gave her a tip. Then, he and Sarah began to discuss the matter at hand.
“I think that if we go over tomorrow with all of these addresses, we will be able to find what we’re looking for,” Sarah told him. “I am convinced more than ever that the building has been right in front of our eyes today.”
“I gave it some thought last night,” said Billy. “If Jessie’s father was in hiding, do you think that she could have known it all along?”
“I wondered the same thing. Did Jessie ever say anything that led you to believe he was?” she asked.
“No, not all. I only talked about Jessie’s dad when she brought him up,” Billy confided in Sarah. “I knew it was painful for her to discuss his disappearance.”
“I can understand that. But, did her mother act sad when it happened?” she questioned.
“Charla definitely did,” he said. “But, I also got the impression that she was concerned about finances at the time because she sold his shrimp boat right away.”
“Do you know who bought it?” asked Sarah.
“I did,” said Billy.
“You mean that you own her dad’s boat?” Sarah could not believe what she had just heard.
“Yes,
Kami Garcia, Margaret Stohl