Page 30 of Beau
Beau’s brother, dressed in a polo shirt and tan slacks, stepped forward. “Five, Maman. Don’t you know your own children?”
“Oui, mon cher. I changed your diapers like the rest of dem.” She patted his cheek and turned to Aurelie. “He’s in from Memphis for the weekend.” She leaned toward Aurelie and whispered loudly, “He’s a big-shot financial advisor dere.”
Beau’s brother frowned. “Maman. I’m not a big-shot.” Sebastian held out his hand to Aurelie. “My mother is biased,” he said. “Nice to meet you, Aurelie.”
Aurelie smiled up at Beau’s younger, better-looking brother.
Beau’s gut pinched hard. With what?
Jealousy?
He shifted from one foot to the other, studying Sebastian. When had his little brother become so tall and handsome?
Aurelie looked from Sebastian to Beau. “You look so much alike. You could be twins.”
Beau and Sebastian shook their heads.
“No,” Sebastian said. “I look nothing like my older brother. My hair is darker like most of my brothers and sisters.”
“We’re nothing alike,” Beau said, though he wished he was a little more like Sebastian and content to work behind a desk. There were so many more jobs for men who didn’t mind being in an office all day.
Beau couldn’t do it. Thankfully, after the U.S. pulled out of Afghanistan and Beau, with his team of mercenaries, were out of work, Hank Patterson had offered them jobs.
Again, Beau’s mother leaned close to Aurelie. “We t’ought maybe da nurses switched babies at da hospital when Beau turned out to be a tow-headed little boy.” She grinned. “Den, along came baby Elise, our golden-haired angel. Both children were t'rowbacks to my great-grandmother Lanier, an English beauty wit’ golden-blond hair.” She ruffled Elise’s blond curls.
“Maman, please.” Beau’s youngest sister swatted at her mother’s hand. She’d been a baby when Beau had joined the Army. He’d done his best to keep in touch with all his siblings when he’d been deployed to other sides of the earth. He’d loved getting Elise’s letters, detailing the antics of Jacque, Genevive and Marcel, the kids closest to Elise’s age. Now, they were all teenagers.
Where had the time gone?
His mother continued her introductions as she crossed the kitchen and took the spatula from Genevieve’s hand. “The boy with the scar across his temple is Theo,” Beau’s mother said. She dug the spatula into the skillet, moving it around to dislodge the eggs adhering to the metal. “He got that scar swatting at an alligator with his paddle.”
“Wow.” Aurelie looked at Theo, wide-eyed. “Did the alligator bite you?”
“No,” Elise answered for Theo. “He made it mad enough the alligator bumped his pirogue. He flung the paddle in the air and banged his own head with it. All because he wanted to impress Angie Wallace.”
Theo laughed. “How do you know all that? You were only five years old when that happened.”
Elise rolled her eyes as only a sassy thirteen-year-old could. “I’ve heard the story so many times I know it by heart.” She snorted. “Boys are so stupid when it comes to girls. You were no exception.”
Theo held out his hand. “I’m number six.”
Aurelie smiled and shook his hand.
Knowing his mother would take forever to introduce the rest of his siblings currently present, Beau took over. He pointed to the sullen, dark-haired nineteen-year-old brother seated at the kitchen table. “Marcel is number seven. He’s nineteen and going to diesel mechanic school in Thibodeaux.”
Marcel raised a hand. “Hey.”
Aurelie nodded. “Hey.”
Beau nodded to his pretty seventeen-year-old sister. “That’s Genevieve. She’s in high school and our most studious sibling, well on her way to becoming the class valedictorian.”
Genevieve smiled from her post at the toaster. “Nice to meet you, Aurelie.”
Aurelie smiled in return. “Nice to meet you, too.”
“The dude manning the waffle iron is my youngest brother, Jacque. Also in high school.”
“Not on the fast path to class president,” Elise said.