The Legacy by Shirley Jump Read Free Book Online Page A

Owning an opera house wasn’t a hardship, as Marjo had said, and required little more than keeping his name on the deed. Still, the idea of being a landlord wrapped around him like a tentacle.
    “Good!” Gabriel’s wide smile risked becoming contagious. “You gonna take pictures of it?”
    “Well, I hadn’t—”
    “I love pictures,” Gabriel said. “Some of them make me sad, but some make me happy. Know what I mean?”
    Paul nodded.
    “You must like pictures a lot.” Gabriel looked again at Paul’s camera, longing clear in his eyes. “I wish I had a camera like that. Then, whenever I wanted to see something again, I could just look at the picture.”
    Paul smiled. He’d had the same wish as a child. How many times had he begged his parents for a camera? And then, when he’d finally received his first one for his twelfth birthday, he’d never been without a camera again. “Here, why don’t you try this one on for size?” He carefully handed over the Nikon to Gabriel.
    He took it from Paul, weighing the silver camera in both palms. “It’s big. Heavy. Like a rock.”
    Paul chuckled. “Yeah, I guess it is.”
    “Can I take a picture?”
    “Sure,” Paul said. “But, first, let me show you how it works.” He came around behind Gabriel, helping him lift the camera into position and sight the image of the bayou in the lens. Then he showed him how to flick the zoom in a little, perfecting the shot. “Now just push that button.”
    Gabriel looked back at Paul, hesitating only a second, before returning his gaze to the camera and doing as Paul suggested. The image imprinted on the digital card inside, then an instant later, appeared on the screen. “I did it!”
    His joy was evident, the pride in his eyes like a beacon. For the first time in a long time, Paul remembered exactly why he’d gone into this job. “Yeah, you did. And you did a great job.”
    “Thanks,” Gabriel said. With two hands, he passed the camera back to Paul. “Wish I could keep the picture. Put it on my wall. So my room, it’s like the bayou, too.”
    “Well, the picture stays in the camera because it’s a digital image, not a real image,” Paul explained. “I have to hook it up to my iBook with a USB cable, then download the file and—”
    He could see he’d already lost Gabriel in explaining the technicalities. “Maybe I’ll get it printed out for you,” Paul said, then immediately chastised himself for making a promise he might not be able to keep. Although he would consider retaining ownership of the opera house, in the end he knew he would probably list the property as originally planned and get back to his life.
    “What are you doing?”
    What was with this woman? She was always coming up behind him. Paul wheeled around to face Marjolaine Savoy.
    “This is getting to be a bad habit,” he said, giving her a grin. As he spoke, he was struck by the strength in her vibrant blue eyes, the long, tight braid that seemed to beg someone to undo it and the soft curves that filled a spaghetti-strap sundress. Okay, so maybe he didn’t mind her coming up behind him.
    Clearly, the bayou didn’t provide the only interesting views in Indigo.
    “Paul’s showing me how to be a picture taker.” Gabriel held up the Nikon.
    Marjo looked to Paul for confirmation. He gave her a short nod. “Gabriel here has quite an eye.”
    Her brother beamed. “Maybe…maybe I can get a job doing pictures. I’d like that better than working with Henry on the dead bodies.”
    “Maybe,” Marjo said, not committing to anything. Gabriel had lots of enthusiasm but little follow-through. “Give Mr. Clermont his camera back and we can get on home.”
    “I want to take some pictures.” Gabriel gave her that stubborn pout that meant he wasn’t going to leave without a fight.
    “Gabriel, we need to get home. I have to get to work. We have a wake tonight.”
    “I want to take some pictures,” he insisted. “Paul said I could take a few of the