Page 29 of Sweet Home Louisiana

“Crazy,” she supplied with eyebrows up.“And yes.”

He couldn’t help it.He grinned.He’d always known that Maddie was the only one that made him lose his cool, and he’d liked the idea that he was the only one that did that to her.But he hadn’t known if she believed that, too.

She shook her head.“You like that too much.”

“Well, let’s just say that I haven’t gone to jail for any other girls, either.”

Before she covered it up, he saw a flash of something that could have been satisfaction.But she did cover it up.

He lifted her hand to his lips and kissed her scar.“Good thing we’ve grown up, huh?”

She swallowed hard and then pulled her hand back.“Yeah.Good thing.”

“And you’re happy in California?”he asked.He needed her to be happy.That was just a fact that had nevernotbeen true.In his whole life.But more so since she’d kissed him, it was true.

Because that’s when she’d become his.

Heat and a bit ofoh, shitwent through him at that thought.He couldn’t think of her as his.That was just going to make everything so much harder.She was here temporarily.She was trying to keep emotional distance from the family and the town.Wanting her to be his again was a sure setup for heartbreak.Not just when she left, but when she rejected everything that mattered to him—his hometown, his business, and most especially his family.

“I’m…content in California,” she finally said.

“Is that good?”

She nodded.“It’s quiet.Everything goes at my pace.It’s all in my control.”She met his gaze directly.“I like being in control.Of my schedule.Of my emotions.”

He got it.Loud and clear.She wasn’t in control here.They were dictating that she had to work at Boys of the Bayou.They were dictating what she did during those hours.Hell, they were dictating that she had to be here in the first place.She might have put her foot down when it came to camping and leading tours, but that didn’t mean she was getting to make a lot of choices here.And, clearly, she was determined to keep her emotions locked down, as much as possible.

“Okay,” he said.It wasn’t really.All of this meant that he was going to be torn between letting her do what she needed to do to be happy—mainly, sell the business and go back to California—and his family and the business they’d built.Making Maddie happy seemed like an ingrained instinct that he couldn’t shake any easier than he could change his eye color.

But Boys of the Bayou had to come first.

So, if she hated being here, was unhappy with all of this, was cold and closed off, it would make it a lot easier to not feel drawn to her.

He didn’t think he could be attracted to someone who wrinkled her nose about stepping onto his dock and who didn’t want to guzzle sweet tea with his grandmother and tell tall tales with his grandpa.

So the more she did all of that, the better for them both.

“I should probably get to bed,” she said after a long moment.“It’s been a big day.”

He nodded.“I’ll walk you.”

“You don’t have to.It’s like three blocks.”

Everyone lived within a three-block radius of Ellie’s.It was a little like a family compound, but they preferred to think of it as convenient.Convenient to work.Convenient to stopping over to help each other out.Convenient for Ellie to ring the big cast-iron bell that was mounted out behind the bar to signal dinner, or that she was pissed at someone and needed to yell at them.Josh and Tori were the only ones outside of the family radius since they’d bought the farm, but it was on the edge of town, their front door along the last street of Autre and their land stretching out behind nearly to the county line.Which meant about six blocks from Ellie’s.They could still hear the bell.At least the pissed-off bell.Ellie rang that thing with everything in her.

“I’m walking you, city girl,” he told her.

She knew exactly what he meant and immediately looked down at the ground.She knew she didn’t need to be worried about people.Just critters.

“Yeah, okay.”

They didn’t talk on the way to Cora’s or as they climbed the front porch steps.

But Maddie hesitated with her hand on the screen door.“It was sweet of you to come down to the dock after me tonight.”

He didn’t say anything.There was a big old “but” sittin’ there.

“But it’s maybe better if we don’t…do that again.”

---