Wild Fever Read Free

full of blond hair as the sun glinted off the Sheriff’s badge on his chest. “Just wanted to let you know things will be moving along soon.”
    “Thanks.” Olivia tried to raise her window in the hopes that she could get away without him realizing who she was.
    Unfortunately, he put his hand on the window and pulled down his sunglasses. “You look familiar.” He studied her a moment with his dark eyes, and then suddenly smiled. “I’ll be damned. Olivia Breaux has come back to Lyons Point.”
    “Hi, Sean. What’s in the road?” she asked, hoping he would forget any questions he might have. Sean had always been good looking, the guy every girl wanted to date in school – her included for awhile.  
    “Gator,” he responded with a wide smile. “You know how they like to cross this area to the other canal. So, what’s brought you back home? We figured never to see you again? Are you married?”
    Here was one question she could answer. “Nope. Not married.”
    “Want to go out while you’re in town?”
    She pushed her sunglasses back up and forced a smile. “I need to see to a few things.”
    “Of course, of course,” he hurried to say. “I know where to find you.”
    “Alrighty then.” She rolled up her window when she saw the tail of the gator disappear over the other side of the road. The cars began to fire up and drive away.
    Olivia, however, couldn’t move her car since Sean was still leaning against it. He kept smiling as he straightened and patted her hood.
    She drove away hoping every encounter would go as smoothly, if not as strangely, but she knew there were old friends who hadn’t forgiven her for leaving. Friends who would love to rub it in if they knew why she had returned.
    Her heart was still hammering by the time she turned off the main road onto a dirt road. It was just as bumpy as she remembered, which, oddly, brought a smile to her face.
    Cows and horses grazed peacefully in the pasture on her left, while on her right, a new house was being built. How she missed the rice fields. Strange, since she had thought she hated them.
    She had to slow the car to a crawl as some parts had slag while others had so many holes she had nowhere to drive. It was thirty minutes later when she spotted the mailbox with the immaculate flowerbed around it.
    “I’m home,” she murmured.
    Olivia turned in the drive and found herself grinning wildly when she saw the old wooden house on stilts, just as it had been nine years earlier.
    She parked her car behind her grandmother’s old Chevy truck and turned off the ignition as she sat there looking around. She could almost pretend that it was the day after graduation, and that the last years hadn’t happened.
    Sitting in a parked car without AC in the Louisiana sun was a great way to get heat stroke. Olivia opened the car door and stood.
    The first thing that hit her was the humidity. The second was the smell of the bayou, and then her grandmother’s cooking. There was nothing that could match it.
    “It’s about time you arrived. Now get on up here,” her grandmother said with a wave of her wooden spoon from the steps of the porch.
    Olivia let out a laugh. She might have spoken to her grandmother every week, but she hadn’t seen her in years. Her silver hair was pulled back in a loose bun, and she wore her favorite rose embroidered apron.
    She didn’t hesitate another second in grabbing her purse and one of her bags before running up the steps. Olivia paused long enough to look over the bayou and the cypress trees.
    With a shake of her head to dispel memories, she turned and opened the door to the screened porch. She didn’t dwell, because there would be enough time for that later.
    Olivia hurried into the house. As soon as she entered, all her cares dropped away just as they used to. She shut the door and dropped her bag and purse seconds before she was enveloped in a hug.
    “It’s so good to have you home, sha,” her grandmother whispered