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chapter one“Have you seen the new guy?”
Seraphina Guidry glanced over at her best friend Hallie Rayburn had slid in next to her a fewwith exciteood neas Sera loved souy?”
She kept her voice down in deference to the crowd around them
“I got a look at hily,” Hallie explained in a hushed voice “I had to go buy diapers because Johnny said he would pick the in fu He knows I’ with Gracie despite the fact that child s has permanently ruined the man’s sense of smell”
If Sera didn’t get Hallie back on track, her bestie would end up giving a speech about how Johnny wasn’t paid enough to work on a rig since it would give him every kind of cancer and there really probably were crazy sea creatures that would eat him one day She should never have let Hallie watch that uy”
If houses were towns, Papillon, Louisiana, would be one of those tiny houses where the bedroom was also the kitchen And in a super-sossip The town had really buzzed when Gene Boudreaux’s eighty-two-year-old friend from Facebook had come for a visit
Hallie nodded and glanced around as if looking to see whether anyone was listening “So I was in the baby section of the Piggly Wiggly and I decided to take a walk, you know, look at the expensive vegetables I can never get Johnny to eat I kind of fondle them, to be honest But then I looked up and there he was in that weird section where they keep the kids’ toys and the tools According to what I’ve heard, he’s some kind of contractor and the hardware store had closed and he needed a ha I don’t know I needed a cold shower after I saw him”
“Hallie, you’re married” Sera felt the need to point that out because she knew quite well everyone was listening Well, everyone who could hear them, which was hopefully not a lot of people
“I’m married but I can still appreciate a work of art,” Hallie replied in a whisper “That lows He has all those muscles Hollywood stars have, and when he smiled at me, I actually sta High and I couldn’t talk to the man I nodded and ran aith us I’ll have to eat myself He’s beautiful”
“Are you talking about that Harrison fellow?” Sera’s mother leaned in Delphine Dellacourt Guidry was in her late sixties, but there were days Sera thought she couldn’t keep up with her y and zest for life “Because Sylvie told Marcelle that he was the prettiest man she’d ever seen Zep is up in arms because, let’s face facts, his looks are all he has”
“Momma,” she replied in a hushed whisper because Zep was her brother and he could be sensitive
Zep leaned in from behind her “Nah, that’s fair Look, there’s always a trade-off I couldn’t be both stunningly handsoet a look at the man and he wasn’t all that pretty Definitely not prettier than ot a prominent forehead I think that means he’s close to our Neanderthal ancestors”
“You understand neither human evolution nor oued
“He is” Her sister-in-law, Lisa, sat behind theht and I so to have a heart attack I have to aduy was in the Ar”
“He was decorated for bravery in battle and he happened to lose a leg,” her older brother chimed in “And can we re?”
“It’s all right I’ the service for a few ainst the church pews “Your great-aunt wouldn’tabout Harrison? He see azebo at Beau He’s Celeste’s sister’s son, though they’ve never visited before I like that she’s finding soain It’s been a hard few years for her”