Page 66 of The House on Prytania

Beau scratched the back of his head. “Good question. First off, we have to make sure we know who it is, which I think we do, but I’m not going to say his name out loud because I’m not interested in conjuring him right now, regardless of how weak he might be feeling. And then we need to figure out why he’s suddenly here, which may or may not be related to why my grandfather’s back. Otherwise...”

“Otherwise?” Cooper prompted.

“Otherwise, I’ll have to figure out a way to confront it directly.”

“You could ask your mother,” I said softly, watching my breath rise in a puff of steam. “She wants to help.”

As if I hadn’t said anything, he moved back toward the front door.“I’ll turn off all the lights and check the windows. You wait here so you can lock the door behind me.”

“I’m coming, too,” Cooper said. “I’ll do the upstairs.”

They both went inside and I stood in the yard, watching as the windows went dark one by one, tracing their progress through the house. When they finally emerged, I locked the door and we moved to the street.

I realized I still clutched the yellow ribbon, and I held it up to show Beau. “Cooper found this behind the oleander bush.”

Beau took it, his eyes widening with recognition. “Where did it come from and how did it get there?”

“Good questions. I think it might be the one I found in the hatbox and that I thought was safely hidden in my apartment. Your mother handed it to Sarah last night.”

His eyes flicked to mine as he gave the ribbon back to me. “You should hide it with the other stuff from the hatbox. Not that hiding anything seems to matter.”

I smoothed the fabric between my fingers. “More important than how it got here is why.”

Beau rubbed his face with both hands. “We’re too tired to think about any of it now.”

He glanced behind us, toward the two vehicles at the curb. “Are you on your way home?”

“Yeah. Cooper said he’d drive me.”

“Why don’t I drive you, since Cooper’s hotel is so close? Your apartment is a lot closer for me.”

“I’m happy to do it,” Cooper said, his voice neutral.

I could feel them both watching me, waiting for an answer that felt a lot weightier than it should have. And a decision that I shouldn’t be so conflicted about.

Avoiding looking at Beau, I said, “If Cooper doesn’t mind, I’ll ride with him. We’ve got a lot of catching up to do. And I’m sure Sam’s waiting for you.”

Beau sent me an odd look, then headed toward his truck. “We’lltalk tomorrow. We need to discuss plans for the Esplanade house.” He indicated my cottage. “And what that was all about. Hopefully you can dig up some stuff next weekend.”

After saying our good-byes, Cooper opened the passenger-side door of his car and I slid inside, the leather seats cold beneath me.

“Next weekend?” Cooper asked after he’d sat behind the wheel and started the engine.

“Yeah. About that. Drive slow. I’ve got a lot to tell you.”

“Can’t wait,” he said, with no sarcasm and with the enthusiasm for problem-solving I remembered. And had loved.

As Cooper began to drive, I nestled into the seat, not looking back at the house that had chosen me, afraid of what I might see.

CHAPTER 22

Can’t we take the streetcar?” Sarah asked for the third time since we’d pulled out of the driveway. The first time had been after Jolene had shot across the streetcar tracks on St. Charles Avenue, and the second was when evasive action had had to be taken at the appearance of a giant pothole that could possibly be access to Australia.

“Would you prefer that I drive?”

“No, thanks. I think Mom and Dad would prefer me to return home in one piece. But Iamsupposed to be playing tourist, and it’s hard to see anything when I’m too afraid to open my eyes.”

“If you would bother to look at your itinerary and the map I provided, you would see that we’re headed to St. Louis Cathedral. We have a private tour that starts at ten o’clock. Mimi arranged it for us, so I thought it would be nice if we arrived on time. If I thought you’d want to get out of bed two hours earlier to allow us the extra time to take the streetcar and then walk all the way from Canal Street, I would have suggested it.”