“She thought she was becoming a trophy wife. I think she watched too much reality TV. She hadn’t been out of Papillon often. Her family lived out on the bayou. Her daddy wasn’t the kindest of men. She was a couple years younger than me. I guess I felt like I was saving her. Anyway, she got bored because I couldn’t take her all the places she thought we would go. I encouraged her to go back to school. I caught her fucking her history professor, who happened to know an excellent lawyer. By that point my mom-mom had passed and I owned half the business.”

“She wanted her half in cash,” Lisa said, her eyes wide. “She made you sell?”

“I couldn’t sell my momma’s house. I couldn’t. It was the house or the business. I sold my half of the business to my cousin and then I left town. I enlisted and I sent back what I could. When I got my ass blown up so badly not even the Navy wanted me anymore, I got the job at McKay-Taggart. I saved up with the hopes that I could buy back in, but I knew there was a possibility Jean-Claude would tell me to go pound sand and I would stay in Dallas. There was a time when I worried I wouldn’t go home at all.”

“Ever?”

He shook his head. “Like I said, there was a chance. The first time I asked Jean-Claude, he didn’t even give me a response. Then about a year ago, he told me he was open to the idea for the right price. Around the time you first approached me.”

“We don’t need to ever mention that idiocy again,” she replied.

“Did I ever tell you how pretty you looked that day? I remember you were wearing a purple corset and your hair was flowing all around your shoulders.” He’d run as fast as he could and then every time he would close his damn eyes, he would see her standing there asking him politely.

“I told you I don’t want to talk about our nonexistent relationship,” she said primly.

“Just because we don’t talk about it doesn’t mean it’s not real. I told your brother to keep the money. I got the loan for a good portion. I’m going to tell Jean-Claude he has to wait for the rest of it. I’m going to sell this truck and my house in Dallas and we’ll see where we go from there.”

“Will wired your cousin the money this morning,” she said quietly. “Once you hand over the check the bank gave you, the wharf is all yours.”

“He did what?”