Disclaimer: I do not own Justified or any of the characters.
The music playlist for this story if in my profile. I think I know where this is going, but as always I'd love to hear from you.
The car ride to the hotel was short, and I for one was thankful. The outside of the Dauphine Orleans Hotel was beautiful, smack dab in the middle of the lively French quarter. As we pulled up Raylan handed the cab driver our fair as the bell boy started loading our luggage onto a cart.
"This is absolutely beautiful" I said to Raylan as he checked us in. "It is" said Raylan, "What do you say after we get all settled in we go grab something to eat?" "Sounds good to me" I was starving after that flight. After we settled in we asked the hotel concierge to point us in the direction of NOLA's best and we ended up at "Marti's".
"Would you look at these prices?" Raylan half whispered, half yelled.
I just snorted and gave the menu a once over, this was all on the office's dime, and I planned to enjoy it. I ordered the Shrimp and baby tomato salad, the raw half shell oysters, and a glass of red wine. At the red wine and oysters Raylan quirked an eyebrow but kept his opinion to himself. He ordered the New York strip and bourbon neat.
As we waited for our food "House of the rising sun" started to play and I gave Raylan a once over, from that stupid hat on down to the blue Henley he was wearing that hugged him in all the right spots, I looked back up only to meet his eye and he gave me that famous Raylan Givens grin that could melt the panties right off of you.
"Like the view?" He asked me,
"I'd like it better if it would stop talking" I replied and immediately regretted it.
"So you admit you were eyeing me? That's one helleva start, you know they say the first step is to admit it". "Whatever you say" maybe it was the wine or maybe it was just the atmosphere of New Orleans but I no longer cared that he knew, I wanted him and I was no longer keen on hiding it. It was definitely the NOLA-Wine combo working on me. When the waitress brought our food to the table I asked her for a glass of water and some coffee, better still these feelings while my heads still semi in control.
After we finished diner, we decided to have a look around the French Quarter. As we strolled down Dauphine St. we were met with Second Line parades, Mimes, music and the sweet smell of coffee and beignets and Raylan and I ducked into "Nosh" to indulge in the French quarter staples.
As we made our way back to our hotel a strong summer breeze began to blow and the feeling on the street began to change, so much so it was almost palpable, as if everything just slowed down. Couples strolled along, locked in loving embraces, shop owners opened their windows to allow the sweet southern breeze in, the sound of jazz lingered in the air and I couldn't take my eyes off the man next to me.
I watched as Raylan walked up to a street vender selling flowers and purchased a bundle of black Louisiana irises.
"For you" he said as he handed me the bundle. "Thank you, they're beautiful. You didn't strike me as the type to buy a girl flowers."
'Well, Miss Brooks" he said with that lazy southern drawl "There's a lot you don't know about me, and I you, but given the chance I'd sincerely like to change all that."
Without even thinking, I smiled at him. Too afraid to trust my voice I gave him a nod, and that was enough. We continued our stroll back to the hotel and right then and there I had decided, I was done fighting it, whatever this was or might be is worth a shot. Even if it's just a shot in the dark, I was willing to take the chance. Now I'm not stupid, I know how this could end, and blood shed was not that far out of the realm of possibilities.
As we entered the hotel I heard someone call out "Rachel! Raylan!" I turned around to see none other than Tim standing at the concierge desk.
"I tried calling you guys, I got done early so I flew out early." The three of us just stood there exchanging looks, then Tim noticed the flowers in my hand.
"Where'd you get the flowers, Rach?" He asked, giving Raylan a pointed look.
And all at once I'm back to my original thoughts, yup, no damn good can come from this…
