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Add onion, bell pepper, celery, and garlic and cook until soft and fragrant, about 10 htly with olive oil
Add rice, thyme, bay leaves, paprika, cayenne pepper, and celery salt and stir to h Add to to a boil, reduce heat to medium/low, cover pot, and simmer for 15 minutes or until rice is tender
When rice is done, add shrireen onions Cook on low for additional 10 h Re with fresh parsley
TWENTY-TWO
BIANCA
After I hung up with Jackson, it took a solid fifteenbefore I worked up the nerve to call
"Hi, Mah that ca I’rave;re You worry aboutto the cavernous silence that followed, her mother-bear instincts kicked in She said sharply, "Bianca? What’s the matter?"
I stared at the kitten poster on the wall of ot this Terrified, I cleared my throat "There’s someone I’d like you to meet"
She didn’t even miss a beat "Who, Jackson Boudreaux?"
My jaw hit the desk When I recovered my wits, I said, "How did you know?"
"Sweetheart, I’ve known Eeny for going on fifty years Did you think she wouldn’t call ed into your kitchen and announced you were gettingHouse sweepstakes?"
Eeny! I should’ve known she’d blab! The air leaked fros like a punctured balloon
Ma for his britches, but the man must have some sense in his head to fall in love with you"
Love? I almost slipped into a co married to save his inheritance and your life?
That would so not go over
Her tone beca him by tomorrow at ten o’clock And be prepared to leave for a few et to h for you"
She hung up, leavingintensified
Body snatchers, I thought That was the only rational explanation for her nonchalance Aliens had stolen ht now the robot was sitting blank eyed in Ma instructions from theinside her brain
Or I’d been involved in a serious car accident and was lying in a hospital bed soills,
"Only one way to find out," I said aloud to the e the Beast home to meet my mother The world had officially come to an end
At five e of the sofa in Ma a brain embolism while I waited for Jackson Boudreaux to knock on the front door
Regal in purple, Ma me "Doc Halloran’s office called yesterday to confirery," she said suddenly