Missing in Mudbug (Ghost-in-Law #5)(3)

In the midst of her mind storm, a flash of an old friend—an artist welder—went through her mind. “I might know someone who can handle the bulletproof urn thing. Let me check into it.”

Maryse and Mildred both stared at her for several seconds and finally Maryse smiled. “You’re serious, aren’t you? You’re really going to contact someone about making me a bulletproof urn?”

Jadyn froze, wondering if she’d misread the situation. “Yeah, I mean…that’s what you want, right?”

Maryse nodded and sniffed. “I’m not good at girlie stuff, but that’s so nice, I don’t even know what to say.”

Jadyn looked down at the floor and shuffled her feet. If Maryse was “not good” at girlie stuff, Jadyn was practically allergic to it. “Seems like the right thing is all. You helped me get the game warden position here, and you and Mildred have really made it easier to fit in.”

“I brought you here and exposed you to Helena,” Maryse said. “If I were you, I’d kick my butt.”

Jadyn smiled. “Maybe after I’ve had more coffee.”

Maryse rose from the chair and nodded. “I think breakfast sounds like a great idea. Shall we head over to the café?”

Jadyn’s stomach rumbled and Maryse laughed.

“I guess that’s my answer,” Maryse said.

“Watching Helena eat must have made me hungry,” Jadyn said. “Hey, would it be horrible if I had pie after my eggs?”

“I hope not,” Mildred said, “because that’s what I plan on doing. Let me put up the sign.”

They followed Mildred to the front desk where she put the “Back in thirty minutes” sign on the front desk.

“I don’t have anyone booked for today, so no check-ins,” Mildred said and she switched the phone to voice mail. “If anyone shows up without a reservation, they can come back in thirty or sleep in their car.”

“Perfectly reasonable,” Jadyn agreed. “Let’s get some breakfast.”

They crossed the street to the café and Jadyn automatically gravitated to a vacant booth in the far corner. She’d quickly learned that Maryse and Mildred’s topics of conversation were not always the “for public consumption” type, especially with talks of Helena thrown into the mix. Sitting in the back, away from the other patrons, allowed conversation with no leaning over the table and whispering. Leaning and whispering got in the way of eating. And right now, Jadyn was starving.

Maryse and Mildred nodded approvingly at her selection as they slid into the bench across from her. A pert waitress popped over a couple of seconds later to take their order and leave a decanter of coffee. Jadyn poured a round for everyone, took a big drink, and decided she may as well get answers to the questions roaming through her mind.

“I have to ask,” Jadyn started, looking directly at Mildred, “and if you don’t want to answer, just tell me it’s none of my business, but why do you have some of Maryse’s dad’s ashes?”

“Maryse’s mother died when she was four, and afterward her daddy was understandably a mess,” Mildred explained. “But a child doesn’t stop growing or needing things while their parent gets their life together, so I stepped in and did my best to give Maryse a maternal connection.”

“You were wonderful,” Maryse said. “Still are.”

Mildred blushed a bit. “Taking care of Maryse meant I was around an awful lot and after he stopped grieving so hard, well…”

“You started a relationship,” Jadyn finished. So much about Maryse and Mildred’s relationship now made perfect sense. She’d known the women were close but hadn’t realized that Mildred had essentially stepped in to raise Maryse right after her mother’s death.

Mildred nodded. “We started as friends at first and stayed that way for a good long time. I wasn’t anxious to jump into anything. I got no problem being a self-supportive woman. And Maryse’s daddy loved her mother more than anything. It took a long time for him to decide he wasn’t being disrespectful to her if he cared for me.”

“But you never married?” Jadyn asked.

“No, and that was fine too. We were both older and stuck in our ways to the point that living separately was better for us than living together. I honestly don’t think we would have lasted if we’d been under one roof.”

Maryse nodded. “I loved him to death, but Daddy was the most difficult man on the face of the earth. Mildred and my mother should both be up for sainthood.”

The waitress stepped up to the table and slid plates in front of them. Jadyn seasoned her eggs and dug in as soon as everyone had a plate. For several seconds, the only sounds coming from the table were of satisfied customers.

“You know,” Jadyn said, “Mudbug may just have the best food I’ve ever eaten.”

Mildred nodded. “I definitely think the catfish are the best here than anywhere else, but there’s a woman in Sinful, a bayou town a little over an hour from here, who makes banana pudding that is so fantastic there are actually city ordinances about it.”

“No lie?” Jadyn tried to imagine what sort of laws could be cultivated around dessert.

“No lie,” Mildred said. “I was visiting a friend one weekend and managed to get a bowl. It was downright heavenly. I tried to coax the recipe out of the café owner, but she said she’s taking it to the grave.”