Page 34 of Sweet Home Louisiana

“What situation?”Maddie asked, typing on her computer.

“Cash Wilks just called me,” Sawyer said.

“Who?”

“He owns Shirts and Slabs.”

Maddie looked up.“Oh.”

“Yeah.”

“That has got to be the worst name in the history of business names,” Maddie said, taking her hands off the keyboard.

“It was supposed to be a T-shirt shop…and a meat shop.”

“Supposed to be?”Maddie asked.

“His girlfriend was in charge of the meat and…they broke up.”

“His girlfriend was a butcher?”Maddie asked.

Sawyer lifted a shoulder.“Yeah.”

She gave Sawyer a you-have-to-be-kidding-me look, and Owen had to cover a chuckle with a cough.

“So now it’s just a T-shirt shop with a horrible name,” Maddie said.

“He does embroidery and screen printing,” Sawyer said, in Cash’s defense.“And he does hats, too.”

“Yes.I know,” she replied.“And tote bags, and pens, and little tiny T-shirts that fit on stuffed alligators.”

“Exactly.”

“And he charges you twice what you should be paying for those things.”

Sawyer sighed.“He’s a friend, Maddie.”

“I know.Which makes it disgraceful that he’s overcharging you the way he is.”

“Don’t you mean the way hewasovercharging me?”Sawyer asked.“He said you fired him.”

“I gave him the chance to meet the other company’s price.”Maddie shrugged.“He said no.So technically, he quit.”

“Hire him back.”

“No.”

“Maddie, hire him back,” Sawyer said firmly.

“Sawyer,” Maddie said, calmly, and also firmly.“No.”

“Mad—”

“Look,” she said, twisting on the stool, putting her hands on her thighs, and looking Sawyer directly in the eye.“You have me here to convince me not to sell my portion of this business.In part, because you don’t have enough money to buy me out.I’m not going to sit here and let you throw money away on stuff because you played football with one of the guys and the other’s been over for a few barbecues.You can use the money you save to paymeso that I can go back to my nice, peaceful life in San Francisco where people have actually heard of central air-conditioning.”

Sawyer opened his mouth.Then snapped it shut.He blew out a breath.Then he turned on his heel, shot Owen a glance that said, “well, shit,” and headed out the door.

As soon as the door shut behind him, Maddie rolled her eyes and turned back to her computer.

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