Bret – New Orleans

The morning we docked in New Orleans, I woke up alone and found a note that Pappy and Bart had already gone out in search of breakfast and coffee. I was actually glad they were getting some time together. I love them both dearly, and I know they love each other, but sometimes they mix like oil and water. Pappy sometimes gets the attitude that Bart is reckless and irresponsible, which can be true, and Bart tends to think Pappy is overbearing and hard to please, which can also be true. I keep hoping that one day they'll learn to stop and actually listen to the other one. It's gotten better as the years have gone by, but they both need to learn to give a little.

After I got cleaned up, I started off for the dining room in search of some food myself. If I was lucky, Pappy and Bart would still be there. One could only hope they were both still in a good mood.

I'd no sooner walked in than I saw him, the mysterious young man who'd been watching me the last two days. He was at a table alone with a paper, and since I was alone I decided to go make a new friend. I sat down across from him and he looked up, no doubt ready to protest my presence. Then he got a good look at me. His face clouded some, but he said nothing.

"Morning," I said with a smile keeping my tone nice a friendly. "You've been following me around for days now. Just who are you and do you find so fascinating about me?"

"The name's Langley. Martin Langley."

"That answers one question," I said after he offered nothing else. "How 'bout the other one?"

Instead of an answer, I got a sneer. "You're travelin' with that old man."

The comment made me bristle some. There may be times it occurs to me that Pappy isn't exactly a young man anymore, and maybe Pappy sometimes calls himself old, but I didn't like hearing the expression from anyone else. "I'm traveling with my father," I said tightly hoping to convey I didn't appreciate anyone calling my father an old man.

"You look just like him," Langley replied flatly.

"So I've been told. Now, why are you following me?" I'd lost any and all desire to be friendly, so I just looked at him and waited for him to answer my question.

"What's his business with Olivia?" he snapped obviously not in the mood to be friendly either.

"Miss Ames? You know her?" Something told me I wasn't going to like what he had to say.

The man across from me scoffed. "Know her? I've known her nearly twenty years. We were supposed to be getting married in October."

"Supposed to?"

"Well, I guess whether or not we still do is up to Olivia and her old man."

Yep, I didn't like how this was shaping up at all, but I liked Langley and his attitude even less. "You can call him Mister Maverick," I said giving him my best Beauregard glare. Looking like my father does have its advantages, and one of those was having the ability to give out what has affectionately been dubbed by the Maverick clan, excluding Pappy, as the Beauregard glare. Pappy can stop most anyone with that look, and while I'm not quite as well versed in using it as he is, I do all right. It had the desired effect on Langley anyway because some of the fire left his eyes. "None of that explains why you've been following me around, though."

"If you're his son you ought to know something about what's been going on between them. What would a man his age want from a girl like Olivia?"

I leaned across the table not liking what Langley had just insinuated. "As far as I know, he doesn't want anything, but if you really want to know I'd suggest you ask him, and stop following me around like a whipped puppy."

"After he threatened me?"

I'd started to get up, but that stopped me. "He threatened you?" That didn't sound like Pappy.

"He suggested I learn how to treat a lady 'if I knew what was good for me.'" He scoffed again. "Olivia never had any complaints until he started sticking his nose into other people's business."

I had a feeling the man that had been causing trouble for Olivia the other night had been Langley, her fiancé. When Pappy had said a man was making trouble for her, I'd gotten the idea the situation had been sort of serious, now I was starting to wonder. Langley might be a little belligerent, maybe even whiny, but I didn't get the impression he was cruel or anything. What on Earth had gone on between the three of them?

I did stand up this time. "Look, Langley, I'll tell you again, I don't know what happened between the two of you, but if you have a problem with it, you talk to him, and leave me out of it." I tipped my hat and gave him another smile. "Have a good time in New Orleans."

With that, I left Langley with his paper and went to find Pappy and Bart.

I located them in the back of the room and started that way, but before I reached them, Mr. Singer pushed past me looking like he was in a hurry to get somewhere else. I looked at my father and brother and noticed neither one looked particularly happy. I wondered if it had anything to do with the man who had just rushed out.

"What did I miss?" I asked looking between the two of them.

"Nothing, Brother Bret," Bart said. "Absolutely nothing."