Page 85 of My Best Friend's Mardi Gras Wedding

“Oh shit.”Owen leaned forward quickly, thunking the legs of his chair back on the floor.He quickly scooped the last couple of bites of redfish into his mouth, chewing fast.

“What’s going on—”

“Logan Trahan, I am here to be impressed.But I’m not holdin’ my breath.”

Josh froze at the sound of that voice.Then groaned.“No.”

Owen swallowed hard.“I can’t have her see me eatin’ someone else’s redfish.If she asks, I had the gumbo and it sucked.”

“Eleanor Landry, what the hell are you doin’ in my bar?”Logan called to Josh and Owen’s grandmother from across the room.“Here to steal my secrets?”

But he wore a big grin and when he met Ellie in the middle of the room, he grabbed her up in a big hug.

“As if you’ve gotanythingI haven’t seenand donebefore,” Ellie told him with a huge wink when he set her back down.

Josh sighed.Ellie got along with everyone.Logan got along with everyone.They were kind of the same person in many ways, and when they got together it was loud and the insults flew.Good-natured insults, but still.

Of course, there was no way Ellie had come to New Orleans, to this bar, today, all by herself.Josh wondered how many family members he could expect through the door in the next few minutes.

“It’s just not fair that you were born too soon for me to sweep you off your feet but in time for me to know you and see you gallivanting with that other young stud, rubbing my face in the chance I missed,” Logan told her.

“Holy shit, boy,” Ellie said, laughing.“Does that pretty wife of yours know that you’re still out here letting all of that charm ooze out all over the place?”

Logan laughed and nodded.“She does.She finds it hilarious.Claims she’s the only one dumb enough to fall for it.”

Ellie cackled.“She doesn’t strike me as dumb.”

“Well…” Logan lowered his voice but definitely not far enough to not be overheard byeveryone.“I got lucky in the beginning.She was tipsy and then had pregnancy hormones raging and making her horny.”

Ellie nodded as if that explained it all.“Yeah, knocking her up was a good move.”

“I agree.”Logan grinned.

Josh watched as Ellie looked across the room and gave a little wave and blew a kiss to someone.Josh didn’t have to look to see that it was Tori.His grandmother’s smile for Tori made his heart swell.But of course, he did look.He found Tori watching the whole exchange between Ellie and Logan.And smiling affectionately.That made him want to stalk across the bar and, not surprisingly, throw her over his shoulder.

Then she looked at him and her smile grew and he actually started to stand.Then Andrew leaned in and said something that grabbed her attention and made her frown.

Josh blew out a breath.Okay, he needed to just relax for a minute here.

And then Kennedy walked in, joining the party.

Huh.Just one other family member.A shockingly small number, really.For which he decided to just be grateful.

But it meant that they’d shut the tour company down for the day.And possibly the bar.And, very likely, that Sawyer was pretty ticked off.

“So,” Logan asked Ellie, his hands on his hips.“Business so bad down on the bayou you needed to come up here and see what a real bar looks like?”

“Oh, Logan, fuck off,” Ellie said with a laugh.“Why don’t you put your tight ass back behind that bar and mix me a Sazerac while I talk to my grandsons?”

“Okay, but you better ogle me all the way across the room,” Logan told her.

“Count on it.”She definitely watched Logan walk away before turning and heading straight for Josh and Owen’s table.Kennedy was right behind her.

Ellie didn’t take a seat since her drink was being mixed and she would much rather talk to Logan.Or Gabe, for that matter.It was impossible to make Logan blush.Gabe, on the other hand, was difficult, but not impossible, and Ellie took it as a personal challenge to do it whenever she was in here.She also usually put away two pieces of the brown butter pecan pie and then threatened to smother them in their sleep and put them in her gumbo if they ever told anyone how much she liked it.Real grandmotherly stuff, for sure.

“What are you doing here?”Josh asked with a sigh as Kennedy did kick a chair out and take a seat at the table.

“You didn’t really think we were going to just sit back and let you take a bus and order up morning grits without us wanting to see this up close and personal, did you?”Ellie asked.

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