The Red-Hot Cajun Read Online Free PDF Page B

Rene!”
    “Huh?” he said, coming back to the present. He shook his head to clear it, which caused water droplets to fly about. “You were the one who started it all by becoming a world-class snitch. In fact, that was the nickname us guys gave you back in elementary school. We could always rely on you to report all our bad deeds back to Sister Clothilde.”
    She shrugged. “There were plenty of them.”
    “Well, it’s been great chatting about old times, darlin’, but I’ve got work to do.”
    “What am I supposed to do?”
    He eyed her carefully to see if she was serious. She was still in her thong-peeping position, which gave him ideas he wouldn’t dare suggest to her. Like, How about another shot? “How do you feel about hard on... uh, hard labor?” Mon Dieu, I’m losin’ my friggin’ mind.
    “You mean the kind you’re going to do?”
    “No. I mean chinking logs.”
    She glanced down at her carefully manicured nails, painted a creamy white color. “Not in this lifetime.”
    “Why don’t you go for a swim?”
    She arched both eyebrows at him. “Are you suggesting I go jump in the creek?”
    “Precisely.” Maybe I’ll jump in, too. Maybe we can both cool off together. Maybe we can do something about that two-year business. Maybe I can show you the staying power I’ve perfected over the years.
    “Maybe I will. Just to cool off, till the plane comes back. I’m sure your goofball friends will realize the legal danger they’ve placed you in, and hightail it back here before nightfall.”
    “Oh, yeah. For sure.” I wouldn’t bet on it.
     

CHAPTER THREE
    Beware of snakes with Cajun accents . . .
    Wearing a pair of Rene’s black boxer shorts and a white Bite Me Bayou Bait Company T-shirt knotted at the waist, Valerie walked down to the stream and proceeded to wade in, waist-deep.
    The slow-moving water was deliciously cool. Despite its tea color—from centuries of bark from submerged trees—it was pure enough to drink. She splashed water on her arms and face and the back of her neck, which was exposed by her high ponytail.
    A black water snake cruised by, way too close, but not one bit interested in her. Her upper lip curled with distaste. Having grown up near the bayous, she knew non-poisonous snakes from the baddies, a lesson she still remembered from her father. She wasn’t afraid of them, but she didn’t like the creatures.
    “Watch out for snakes,” Rene called out, laughing.
    She turned and, without thinking, stuck out her tongue at him. It was an immature gesture that Valerie hadn’t made since she was a child, probably at him. But, hey, the cumulative abuse from the rogue and his wacko friends merited the tongue, in her opinion.
    He just laughed some more. “Is that lawyer sign language?”
    “Yeah. You’ll get my bill.”
    “Hey, if I’m gonna get charged for tongue, I want it in a different way. And I don’t mean with ketchup.”
    She rolled her eyes.
    He stood on the steps of the cabin, which was on stilts—a necessity when this close to an oft-flooding stream. Holding a drill in one hand, he wiped his forehead with the back of his other arm. He was building a rail up the steep stairs. “Wanna hear a lawyer joke?” he asked out of the blue, his dark eyes dancing with mischief.
    “No.”
    “Did you hear about the new sushi bar that caters to lawyers?”
    “No means no, buster. Besides, that one is as old as the hills.”
    “It’s called Sosumi.”
    “Ha, ha, ha. Why don’t you go drill a hole in something... like that hollow globe on top of your neck?”
    “What’s the difference between God and a lawyer?”
    “I am not listening.”
    “God doesn’t think he’s a lawyer.”
    Her nap apparently over, Tante Lulu came out onto the porch, carrying a metal pail. “It’s hotter ‘n a June bride in a featherbed.” Then she yelled out to her, “I’m goin’ to pick huckleberries fer dessert since you ate all the beignets.”
    How nice of her to remind