Page 18 of Sweet Home Louisiana

Maddie lifted a shoulder.“I’d wanted to kiss him for a long time and that seemed like a good reason.”

“Very good reason,” Tori agreed.She leaned in further, clearly anticipating the rest of the story.

Maddie laughed.“Well, Wade wasn’t happy about the breakup or Owen’s threats, but he was especially pissed off to find out that I’d spent the night in Owen’s room.”

Tori gave a little gasp.

“Yep.But we didn’t have sex.That night.I just slept there.In his bed, while he took the floor.”

“Aw, he’s a good guy,” Tori said.

He was.He always had been.One of the best.Owen was everything she’d grown up thinking she wanted.He was loyal, hardworking, funny, and cute.At age seventeen, he’d been very, very cute.That cute had turned into hot.But she’d always been attracted to him.

Part of it was his blue eyes and his I’m-mostly-full-of-shit grin and his willingness to jump into any situation where one of his family members needed him.He’d reminded her of her dad.Danny Allain had been a great guy, always willing to help anyone out, plus steady and protective.Which was good, because Maddie’s mom had not been steady.She’d been fun.She’d fit right in with the Landrys.She’d loved the always-a-little-chaotic environment around the Landrys.

Maddie hadn’t fully realized it until she’d lived with her mom’s parents and understood what a stifled atmosphere her mom had grown up in.It had been a relief to Maddie after all the craziness surrounding her mom’s death and her dad’s imprisonment.But it was easy to believe that Molly Allain had left California and found a lifestyle that was fun and loud and boisterous and so different from the way she’d been raised, that she’d jumped right in.

Owen was wrong.Maddie wasn’t worried about being like her dad.She was worried about being like her mom.And making Owen like her dad.

“What happened next?”Tori asked.

Maddie shook off the thoughts of her mom’s love of a good party and the way she’d yell at football games and do shots at the bar and argue politics with the old men.She was always loud and in the middle of everything and happy and fun.Everyone had loved her.

Danny had been the steady one.The quieter one.The one who smiled indulgently watching his wife pull a wallflower out onto the dance floor or call for another round.

Danny Allain plowing his truck into a living room wall, trying to kill the guy who’d killed Molly in a drunk driving accident, had been a shock to literally everyone who knew him.Put simply, he’d snapped.

If that could happen to him, it could definitely happen to a guy like Owen, who hadn’t hesitated to put Wade up against the wall with his hand on Wade’s throat, or who’d gone crashing through a plate-glass window with her brother.

Maddie cleared her throat.“Well, Owen and I got together and our exes didn’t like it.Wade tried to start something by showing up at Owen’s house one night, threatening to take his dog since Owen had stolen me.”

“Noooo,” Tori gasped.“Not the dog!”

Maddie glanced at Kennedy who gave her a nod and a wink.“Yep.His dog.That pissed me off, so I went to Wade’s house.”

“And…the fire?”Tori asked.

“Yep.”Maddie nodded.“I took his football jersey, a T-shirt he’d given me, a teddy bear, and a photo of us together.I threw them on his front lawn, doused them with lighter fluid, and tossed in a match.”She felt herself grinning, remembering.She quickly made herselfstopgrinning.That wasn’t a good memory.She never should have done that.It was a huge overreaction.

But damn if she didn’t clearly remember the feeling of satisfaction that washed through her when she’d struck that match.And when the football jersey started to burn.And when Wade had come thundering out onto his front porch.

“I thought you set a shed on fire?”Tori asked, glancing at Kennedy.

“Wait for it,” Kennedy told her, tossing another fry into her mouth.

Maddie shook her head.“I set Wade’s stuff on fire.But their grass was really dry, which I didn’t notice or even think about, and the fire took off.It ended up at the shed and…it took a bit to put it out.”

Tori stared at her for a moment, then she grinned, and started laughing.“Wow.”

Maddie nodded.“Yeah.Wow.”

“What happened after that?”

“Firefighters showed up, including my dad.”Danny had been a volunteer firefighter in Autre for as long as she could remember.“They put it out, but there was a lot of damage.Wade and his dad were furious.The police chief took me downtown and asked me a bunch of questions and my dad had to pay a fine and then Owen and I had to rebuild the shed.”

It had been okay.No one had gotten hurt, she’d made her point, and she and Owen had been able to spend a bunch of time together.Owen without his shirt on.And her kissing him and touching him and flirting with him the entire time, especially whenever Wade was around.Right in his backyard.

That had been fun.The kissing and touching for sure.But the revenge, too.

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