Sweet Unrest Read Online Free Page B

things just didn’t seem to make sense together.
    “Lucy, get over here!” Chloe called, her arm still around the man’s waist. “Y’all come meet my man, Piers Dumont.”
    Piers smiled and the warrior disappeared, revealing the charmer.
    I held my hand out. “Lucy Aimes.”
    “Lucy’s father is the professor taking over out at Le Ciel,” Chloe told him.
    Piers seemed surprised and opened his mouth to speak, but Chloe beat him to it.
    “I’m so glad you made it!” She squealed again, a sound that was both irritating and charming, and completely in character with the vibrant person who hadn’t stopped chattering since I’d plopped into her car. “Piers goes to Vanderbilt, up in Nashville,” she told me before kissing him again, soundly.
    I shifted uncomfortably, wondering whether I should leave to give them some privacy.
    “Lord knows why Tulane wasn’t good enough for him,” she added a little breathlessly as she gazed up at him. “I wasn’t sure if he’d get back in time to meet us today, but he did.” She wrapped her arm around his waist and snuggled into his bulk.
    Together, we walked to the Central Grocery and ate muffulettas dripping with garlicky oil while Chloe chattered on about the wonders of Piers. She barely let him get a word in edgewise until the alarm on her phone went off. She looked at it, her mouth turned down. “We’ve gotta go. I’m gonna be late for my appointment with Mama Legba.”
    Piers’s brows lifted. “You still seeing her?”
    “Of course I’m seeing her, baby. I don’t know why you’re even asking, since you’re the one that introduced us in the first place.”
    “I just thought your mom didn’t want you going there anymore.”
    “My momma knows I’ m a grown woman and can take c are of myself,” Chloe said, shooting him a look. “But do you know that?” she asked playfully as she crossed her arms and lifted one brow, daring him to contradict her.
    “Of course I know that,” Piers said, kissing her quickly on the forehead. “Just like I know Mama Legba’s more than capable of keeping you out of trouble if you go messing with the spirits.”
    Chloe laughed at that. “Piers, baby, you know I’m not messing with no spirits. I stay far away from all that.”
    Piers didn’t look convinced, but he kissed her again before he sent us on our way.
    “So who’s Mama Legba?” I asked as Chloe led me through the crush of tourists surrounding Jackson Square, back toward the cathedral.
    “Mama Legba’s the best, Lucy. You’re gonna love her. She’s an old Voodoo Queen. The best in the city, as far as I’m concerned.”
    “Voodoo?” I laughed. “Seriously?”
    Chloe stopped and turned to me. “There’s a lot you Yankees don’t understand, you know. All those silly movies and superstitions. Pins in Voodoo dolls and all that trash.” She wrinkled her nose in disgust. “That’s not at all what Mama Legba’s about.” She started walking, faster now, and I matched my strides to keep up with her as she maneuvered easily past the half-sober groups of tourists who were browsing through the makeshift gallery that ringed Jackson Square. “A lot of fake Voodoo shops around this town make a killing selling tourists all sorts of stupid things. People come here looking for magic, so they go and buy up phony Gris-Gris and all kinds of dime-store junk. They give a lot of money to have some supposed psychic tell them their future.” She gestured to the rag-tag group of fortune-tellers scattered like displaced gypsies around the park, then shrugged. “It’s good for the city, I guess. The tourists come to find some magic, and their money helps keep this old town on its feet. Doesn’t matter that they’re being taken, as long as they’re having fun. As long as money keeps flowing into town, right?”
    I nodded. “I guess so.”
    Chloe shook her head. “Mama Legba—she’s not like that. She’s the real deal.”
    “Wouldn’t that make her dangerous,