Joseph went to the door, cracked it open and checked outside.
“You’re doing what we need right now.” He glanced at Luke. “Give me five minutes then leave.” The man closed the door and was gone.
Luke sank deeper into the chair. What kind of project were they planning? He had a hunch who they were working with, but he couldn’t get deeper into the ring of secrecy that surrounded the Acadian Loyalists, not yet. The Militia made their base camp across the river from Cypress Landing. Their members were scattered around the area. Some were like him, businesspeople doing whatever job they could to aid the cause, but keeping their affiliation hidden. Others, such as Duke Swayze, were open with their zealous beliefs. The leadership had a use for each. He stretched to switch off the light, letting his vision get accustomed to the dark. His watch gave an eerie glow, reading one in the morning. Ten minutes had passed and he had another meeting to make on the other side of town.
FIFTEEN BASEBALL PLAYERS, all about ten years old, fidgeted in front of him. When most kids were playing soccer or enjoying the first few months of school with absolutely no other activities, those truly dedicated to this sport started a new season. Luke hadn’t been able to help pick the team a few days ago, but his coaching partner, Pete Fontenot, appeared to have done a nice job. They’d gotten several of the best players in the area. He knew because he’d coached both seasons for two years. The fact that his usual coaching partner was a sheriff’s deputy had been a stroke of luck for him. Joseph Bergeron had been pleased when Luke and Pete had started coaching together…as soon as he stopped laughing. “You’re good, Taylor, really good,” the man had said. And he was, but he worked hard at being good. It kept him alive.
As Pete told them their practice and game schedule, Luke waited quietly beside him. Five of the boys on this team had been with them in the spring. At the rear of the group he spotted Elliot Casio. He was big for his age and Luke was glad to see him. After his parents died, the boy hadn’t been sure if he and his little brother would stay in Cypress Landing. Elliot was a polite kid and bit of a star in the league, but Luke was positive he dealt with mean-spirited comments at school, especially from kids whose parents were deeply ingrained in the Militia. Elliot’s parents had adopted him and his brother and their racial origin was mixed—white, black, American-Indian, Asian. But the Casios had been doing an excellent job raising them, and the community, at least the real community and not the Militia, never gave their race a second thought. They were the Casio kids, the end. Unfortunately he’d been assigned to the case of the drunken idiot, a Militia member, who’d caused the crash that killed Caitland and Robert. Luke would have loved to see him in jail for vehicular manslaughter, but the evidence that the guy had been drunk disappeared and there was no case to be won or lost. It wasn’t his fault…but the kids’ aunt obviously thought so.
He whipped his head around, looking toward the fence where the parents sat in lawn chairs waiting for practice to begin. He didn’t breathe, then he took a gasp of air and let it go. Pete glanced at him in mid-sentence but kept talking. Sitting in a chair next to Pete’s wife was the object of several recent late-night dreams, Elliot and Garrett Casio’s aunt.
Pete finished his speech, and Luke realized it was time to start the practice. He made a mental note not to let Jayden Miller distract him as he instructed the boys on what positions they’d be playing.
A FEW HOURS LATER, Luke waited at the front of his sprawling single-story house. It was way more than he’d expected when he arrived in Cypress Landing. It wasn’t a restored antebellum like a lot of the homes in the area, but its wide porch with huge columns and multiple French doors across the front made it a nice mix of old South and old Acadian. He passed money to the pizza-delivery boy and, with Pete’s help, hauled the boxes to his patio, spreading them onto several tables he’d arranged poolside. The late sun still had plenty of summer heat left in it, and the boys were enjoying what would probably be their last swim of the year.
“So, this is tradition for you, huh?”
Jayden appeared beside him, dropping a piece of pizza onto her paper plate.
“I guess. We do it every season.”
“A heated pool, too. The public-defender business must be booming—or were you an ambulance chaser before you came here?”
He glared at her. Nearly everyone in town knew this house had been repossessed by the bank because the owner had gone to jail on a drug conviction, which explained how he had acquired such a nice home.
“I defended a guy and got him off. He started a business selling solar panels. He came and put this system in to heat my pool for free.”
She didn’t respond immediately, but picked at her slice. General bedlam surrounded them, fifteen boys yelling over the pizza as their parents tried to talk loud enough to be heard. Gradually the noise faded to a low hum. He noted the dark circles under her sea-blue eyes.
“I’m being rude, aren’t I?” she asked.
“Yes, you are, but I get that periodically.”
She shook her head. “My mom would have a stroke if she knew I’d talked to you like that. She says what happened with my sister isn’t your fault.”
Luke grinned. “If you promise to be nice, I won’t tell her.”
“So you know my mother. I should have guessed. She makes it a point to meet everyone in town.”
“And she comes to most of the games.”
Jayden took a bite of pizza and chewed for a minute, washing it down with a drink of soda from the can she’d set on the table next to them. “I didn’t think of that, but I should have.”
“She also cuts my hair.” He fingered the slight curl above his ear. “I’m due for a cut, too. I haven’t been to her since before…” He stopped himself, not intending to lead the conversation to that topic.
She must have noticed the flash of panic on his face because her lips swept into a slight smile. “Since before the accident, it’s okay. We don’t shy away from discussing it, especially since we didn’t feel like justice was done.”
Swallowing the groan that rose in his throat, he wished for the millionth time he hadn’t been assigned to represent the guy who’d caused the Casios’ crash.
“Your sister and her husband were good people and I hated that it turned out like it did, but I had no control over what happened to the evidence.”
“It’s still kind of hard to stomach.”
“I don’t like it any better than you.”
She eyed him skeptically, then turned her attention to her soda.
“I’ve heard rumors that you get a lot of people off using questionable tactics.”
Luke didn’t want to guess what gossip around town had fueled her anger with that statement. “I imagine a few people think that. I do my job and I do it well because I owe it to the client.”
“No matter what they’ve done.”
“I don’t get to pick and choose.”
“I guess not.”
“Elliot and Garrett are good boys, and I wouldn’t have done anything to hurt them, if I’d had a choice. I hope they know it. The sheriff’s office should take better care of their evidence.”
“You’re right about that. And don’t worry, the boys don’t hold what happened against you.”
“So you’re the only one.”
She shrugged. “Guess so.”
They watched the kids playing back in the pool. For now he could forget his purpose here and enjoy being part of the community. He found himself thinking again that if his life were different, Cypress Landing would be the kind of place he’d want to stay, to marry,