Page 19 of Sweet Home Louisiana

Maddie shook her head.No, she had to quit thinking that way.Normal people didn’t burn things down when someone said something mean to their boyfriend.Wade had had a reason to be jealous.She and Owen had definitely started a hot and heavy relationship immediately after she’d broken up with Wade.

They’d been sixteen and seventeen.Kids.Dumb, hormonal, crazy kids.And they’d acted like it.Even more, they’d acted like Landrys in love.

She’d grown up with a steady guy who had been quietly romantic, indulgent, and supportive, but she’d also been raised around a family that believed in big gestures and that when you fell in love, you made sureeveryoneknew it without a doubt.That was what she’d believed falling in love was like.Big, loud, bold, and yeah, crazy.She’d been led to believe that her father was the exception rather than the rule.In Autre, Louisiana he was.But not in the real, normal world.

She knew better now.She knew that she should feel bad about the shed.Sheepish.

Maybe she did.A little.

But not enough to reassure her that she’d grown out of all of this.

Kennedy had finished off the fries and now sat forward, reaching for a bottle of beer.“Ask her about the car she stole,” she said to Tori.

“You stole a car, too?”

Maddie frowned at Kennedy.“Not exactly.”

“That’s not what the cops said,” Kennedy said with a smirk before tipping her bottle up.

Maddie sighed.She was right.“I…took back the parts that Owen had put in Sarah’s car.He paid for them with his own money.They were technically his.”

“Sarah was his ex?”

Maddie nodded.

“How many parts did he put in her car?”Tori asked, her mouth twitching.

“Just three.Like the wipers.”

Kennedy snorted.“The four tires count as just one thing?”

Tori grinned and Maddie felt the corner of her mouth twitching, too.“Yeah.”

“Hard to drive a car without the tires,” Tori said.

“Maddie could have left the tires alone,” Kennedy said.“The missing transmission was probably enough.”

“You took her transmission out?”Tori asked.

Maddie nodded.

“You know how to do that?”Tori asked to clarify.

“Know how to put one in, too,” Maddie said with a wink.She felt a little surge of pride at that.

“And if she’d just taken the transmission, she wouldn’t have gotten caught,” Kennedy added.

“You got caught taking the tires off?”Tori asked.

Maddie shook her head.Then she felt a little snort emerge.Then a full chuckle.“I got caught taking the wipers.”

Tori’s eyes widened.“You got away with the transmission and the tires?”

“Yep.”

“You couldn’t just let the wipers go?”

“Fuck no.I didn’t want her to have anything of Owen’s left.”

---