Easy Magic (Boudreaux #5)

The little girl’s smile shines with excitement. “It’s special.”


“If you want to know why I’m a romantic,” Mr. Boudreaux says as he watches the woman, “it’s because of her. The love of my life. We were married for almost four decades when I left. I would have been married for a million more, if it meant I got to be with her.”

I glance away from the children and watch him. “She’s beautiful.”

“Inside and out,” he agrees with a nod. “Much better than I ever deserved. But she gave me six gorgeous children, was by my side through thick and thin. And let me tell you, there was a lot of thin, and no, I don’t mean financially. I’m human, so I wasn’t perfect, but I loved her the best way I knew how.”

“Who are the other two children?” I ask.

“Eli and Declan. Charly and Eli were always inseparable. They’re still close.”

“You watch over them.”

“Of course I do,” he says with a smile. “They’re my crew. And now you’re part of that crew as well.”

“I love him,” I whisper, surprised that I said it aloud. “It’s been hard to admit that.”

“Why?”

“Because I think he deserves better than me,” I reply and watch Mrs. Boudreaux with her children. They’re smiling, laughing, enjoying their time together. “I don’t think I can give him what you had.”

“Nonsense,” he replies. “If you love each other, you make the rest work. I’m going to tell you what I told my own children all of their lives; you can’t control the wind, but you can adjust your sails. You’ll set the right course for you as a couple.”

“I threw up on the boat,” I reply in horror. “I’m not a good sailor.”

He tips his head back and laughs, right from the belly, making me smile too. “Our Gabby doesn’t have the stomach for it either. But the analogy works all the same.”

I sigh, nod, and follow him when he leaves the kitchen, headed toward the living room. We’re still in their home, but time has passed because the children are older.

“Is that Ben?” I ask, pointing at a skinny boy who’s sitting with Savannah. They’re reading together. I’d recognize her anywhere.

“It is,” he says with a nod. “I loved that boy as if he were my own. He’s grown into a good man, on his own path, just like all of my children.”

“He looks at Savannah with a lot of love in his eyes,” I remark.

“He still does,” he agrees. “I wish my daughter would open her eyes and see it. That she would accept it. They need each other.”

“She’ll accept it when she’s ready,” I reply. “I’ve felt it when she and I are together. I can’t tell the future, but I know that you’re right. They’re for each other, but it won’t happen until she’s ready for it. I don’t think she’d know what to do with those feelings quite yet.”

I look up at him and see the sadness in his eyes, and I know that he knows.

“Her ex-husband hurt her,” I say simply.

“And I wasn’t here to kill him,” he replies, then glances down at me. “He’s going to try to hurt her again before it’s all done.”

“And Ben will be there,” I reply, then rub his arm, wanting to reassure him. “He’ll be there.”

He nods and leads me to another room again, and I can see that more time has passed.

“Is that Gabby?”

“Yes, my poor sweet girl.” His face is soft with love as he looks at his youngest daughter. “She’s a good girl, who made a bad decision and got herself into trouble.”

We’re in Gabby’s bedroom, and she’s sitting at the head of the bed, her knees drawn up to her chest, and she’s crying.

“What’s wrong?”

“She’s pregnant with our Sam,” he says. “She was so frightened to tell me, afraid of what I might think of her.” He shakes his head, as if the thought bewilders him. “I could only ever love her, Mallory. Our actions don’t just affect us, and I won’t say that it wasn’t hard on the family to have Sam arrive when he did, but we adjusted those sails and went where the wind took us.”

“She’s a great mom,” I reply, remembering what Beau told me about her.

“She really is,” he agrees and leads me down the hall to another bedroom. We walk inside, and many years have passed now. Mr. Boudreaux is lying in the bed, and Beau is a grown man, sitting next to him.

“Here,” he says to Beau, holding up a coin. “This was one of two of the first dollars made in our company. I’m going to give the other one to Eli, since the two of you are running it now.”

“Papa,” Beau says, his voice cracking with emotion. “You’re going to get well. You’ll be back in your office before you know it.”

“We both know that isn’t true,” his father says as he gently lays the coin in Beau’s hand. “So I need to say some things to you.”

“I won’t say goodbye to you,” Beau says adamantly.

“I understand. I’m not quite ready for that either. But I do want to tell you how damn proud I am of you, son. You and all of your siblings are exceptional people. I couldn’t want more. I know that you will take care of your mother and the others.”

“Papa—”

“Thank you, Beau. Thank you for being my son, and my friend. I admire you. Great things are in store for you, my boy.”

Beau simply nods, unable to speak, and my heart breaks for him. I know what it is to know that the person you love and admire most is about to leave you forever.

“I’m so sorry,” I whisper.

“It was hard on all of us,” he says to me and pats my shoulder. “I wasn’t ready to leave, and they weren’t ready to say goodbye. I don’t know if it’s fair to say it was hardest on Beau, because it was difficult in different ways for each of them. But, he definitely shouldered a burden, as the eldest of the family, to step into my shoes.”

“They’re big shoes to fill,” I reply with a smile.

“All my boys wear the same size,” he says and leads me out of the room, away from a crying man, grieving for his father. “And they’re doing quite well filling the shoes.”

We pass a room where the music from a saxophone plays loudly.

“And that’s my Declan, always losing himself in music. It’s how he copes.”

“He’s amazing. I got to hear him at his wife’s bar not long ago. He’s a talented man.”

“That he is. I will sometimes go listen to him when I’m lonesome for him. It helps me feel better.”

“Mr. Boudreaux, why are you still here? You can move on. You don’t have to stay and miss them all so much.”

“I won’t leave my love,” he replies and when I look around, I see that we’re back in my bedroom, and I’m fast asleep in my bed. “I want to look in on my family, Mallory. I sometimes come to them in their dreams, and I can see them live their lives, marry their own loves, have children. I wouldn’t miss it for the world.”

“They miss you,” I reply, then rise up on my tiptoes to kiss his cheek. “They miss you just as much.”

He smiles gently. “I know.”