Page 21 of Sweet Home Louisiana

It occurred to Maddie that she should maybe try to resistallof this.She shouldn’t even risk falling in love with the shrimp.But she had to eat, right?And when in Rome…

She scooped the first amazingly delicious bite into her mouth and at least managed to resist moaning.

Josh and Owen both pulled out chairs across from her, while Kennedy dropped into the seat next to Maddie.Kennedy wasn’t technically a partner, but she was the most involved in the business besides the guys.And everyone else pulling up chairs on the outer perimeter around the table weren’t partners.They were just nosey.If anyone should be curious about this meeting and deserved to know what they were discussing, it was probably Kennedy.

Sawyer stood at the head of the table and tucked his hands into the back pockets of his jeans.“There’s no sense beatin’ around the bush.Maddie wants to sell and we don’t want her to.So we’ve got thirty days to figure this out.”

Maddie swallowed and eyed her grits.How much more could she get down before her stomach knotted and she lost her appetite?

See?That was what emotions did.They ruined perfectly good meals.

Among other things.

“Okay, why do you want to sell?”Josh asked her directly.

Dammit, there was a little knot already.“I just don’t want to own part of a business that I have nothing to do with,” she said.

“You want more of a say?”Josh asked.He glanced at Sawyer.“We could fill you in on plans.We could do a monthly Skype call or something.You can be more involved.”

Maddie ran her spoon through the grits, watching it make a track through the cheese, between two shrimp, rather than meeting Josh’s eyes.“I don’t want to be more involved.It’s not that.”

“Then what?”he pressed.

She put her spoon down with a sigh.Dammit.One bite.She looked at Josh, then Sawyer.She couldn’t quite bring herself to look at Owen.She couldfeelhis tension.He’d be pissed that she’d choose California over Autre.That she’d choose a life far from here without any family around to being here in the midst of them.That she’d choose to make a living in a pristine, air-conditioned, quiet building full of works of art—and rich people—over making a living out in the hot sun on the dirty bayou on airboats full of regular people.

Rich people were really easy not to get attached to.

She definitely needed to keep hanging out with them.

But Owen being annoyed was good.Theycould be emotional.As long as she wasn’t.The more pissed Owen was, the more he’d stay away from her and the easier it would be to avoid getting sucked into everything here.

She lifted her chin and met Josh’s gaze.“I’m not going to own a business that’s a couple thousand miles away that I know nothing about.And more—” she said, as Josh opened his mouth to reply, “—one that I don’t want to be involved with.I don’t know anything about airboat motor parts or fishing lures or—”

“You used to.”

Owen’s muttered comment interrupted her for a moment.

She’d helped him with car and truck engines but never the boats.Still, she didn’t need to correct him.He was just trying to make a point.So was she.

Maddie took a deep breath.This was the hard part.Not wanting this business was a rational decision.It made sense for her.Shelovedstuff that made sense.She craved things that were controllable.This business was none of those things.It was too far away, it was too far out of her wheelhouse, and it was way too tangled up in her past and all of the emotions that went with that.

But they would never get it.This business was a part of them.Part of the family.

So she just had to be tough.Stubborn.Even a little bitchy if needed.

Hell, if she was a bitch, that would only help with them not wanting her around.

“Look,” she said, sitting tall on her chair.“I have control over the things in my life and I make choices that make sense.Owning a business I don’t care about in a place I never come to, doesn’t make sense.”

“You could come visit more often,” Josh said tightly.

She could tell he was offended.But she couldn’t care about that.She couldn’t care about any of this.It was going to be hard but it was self-preservation.Maybe evenshedpreservation.

She didn’t think they’d appreciate the joke so she just pressed her lips together.

“Hell, you could live here and be involved every damned day,” Josh said.

Therewas the tight stomach knot she’d been expecting.They couldn’t really expect her tomoveback here to help them run a swamp boat tour company.She pushed her bowl back and took a deep breath.“I’m not going to do that,” she said.“I have a life in California that I really like.That I’m proud of.”

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