Louis moved to the chair in front of his desk, easing himself in with grace. “The problem is you associate the mayor’s office with the last mayor. His version of the job was to lead by napping. And fishing. Sylvie’s a ball of energy, and she’s got big ideas for the parish. She takes this place seriously. Have you thought about the fact that she’s a smart, ambitious woman who likely won’t stay here for long? I know she promised to work out the mayor’s term, but that’s almost up.”

“She’s planning on running again.” They’d talked about her ambitions for the parish. She had things she wanted to do before she made a decision about her future. She wanted to build up the infrastructure for the parish, to make city hall hum so when she left, the processes were in place to take Papillon into the future.

Then she would likely look into running for a state seat. He could make that work. Louisiana wasn’t some massive state. It was a three-hour drive from Papillon to Baton Rouge, and thirty minutes by private plane. She could commute to work. He would put a landing strip in the backyard.

“Is she, now? When did she make that decision?”

“Would it be so bad if she wanted to stay here because her husband’s here?” He had to play all this out because Andre would show up at some point, and he would likely be having this discussion again.

After all, Sylvie’s career and the possibilities of her life were exactly why he’d walked away the first time.

He didn’t want to make the same mistake again. Or rather the same choice. It hadn’t been a mistake to let Sylvie get through college and see a bit of the world before he pounced and locked her in the cage with him.

That was what bothered him. Did he have any right to drag Sylvie into his problem?

“I don’t suppose so.” Louis had taken over for Rene’s father in many ways. Louis was now the one who came in at least once a week to talk about how Rene was doing. “But I worry about what happens if she does choose her career over you.”

“Because you’ve seen it happen?”

A curious brow rose over Louis’s eyes. “What do you mean?”