Page 40 of Sweet Home Louisiana

“Okay, then.We’ll go with Sawyer,” Lacey said.

Maddie resisted rolling her eyes.Great, Sawyer had passed their test.“Great.”She held out the wristbands and the girls presented their arms.She clipped them on and pointed.“Right through there.You can wait out on the benches.Should just be a few more minutes.”

They had just stepped through the doorway into the gift shop when Kennedy started laughing.“Oh my God, that was hilarious.”

Maddie grimaced.“Pathetic is the word you’re looking for, I believe.”She covered her face with her hands.“Why did I do that?”

“Because you were super jealous and wanted to stake your claim but couldn’t just come out and say ‘he’s mine’, so clearly you had to give him a communicable disease to keep the women away instead.”Kennedy nodded.“Makes total sense.”

“Is typhoid communicable?”Maddie asked.

Kennedy shrugged.“I mean…probably?”

Maddie glanced toward the door the girls had gone through.“I guess as long astheythink so.”Kennedy started laughing again and Maddie groaned.“Ugh, why does he make me crazy?”

“Hey, there was no lighter fluid this time.I think you’re getting better.”

Maddie shook her head.“Still.”

Kennedy’s laughter faded but she was still grinning as she leaned in.“You’re not crazy, you know.”

Maddie gave a short laugh.“Oh, I don’t know that at all.”

“If I had the one and only bowl of Cora’s jambalaya in the world and someone came walking in here and tried to take it away from me, I’d grab it out of their hands and yell ‘mine!’too.That’s not crazy.”

Maddie felt her heart flip but she teased, “You’re comparing Owen to a big bowl of jambalaya?”

Kennedy widened her eyes.“Excuse me?I’m saying he’s like theonlybowl of thebestjambalaya in the world.”

Maddie laughed.“Okay, I apologize.”

“And,” Kennedy said, sitting back on the stool and propping her feet on the counter.“If I hadn’t had Cora’s jambalaya intwelve years?I’d be diving into it headfirst and not coming up for weeks.”She grabbed a magazine off the stack to her right and flipped it open.As if she hadn’t just essentially told Maddie that she should be diving intoOwen.

Maddie swallowed hard.“You’re making jambalaya a euphemism for sex?”

She shook her head.“Owen is the jambalaya.The idea of stuffing yourself full of it is the sex euphemism.”

Maddie started choking and Kennedy started laughing.

“Oh my God, that’s your cousin!”Maddie said, her eyes watering slightly.

Kennedy nodded.“This is what happens when you grow up around all guys.I’m very inappropriate and slightly disgusting a lot of the time.”

Maddie leaned over and hugged Kennedy around the neck.“You’re awesome and I missed you.”

Kennedy actually sniffed slightly at that.“Ditto.”

Maddie pulled back and took a breath.“I shouldn’t claim Owen is mine,” she finally said, seriously.“That’s not fair.I’m not staying and it’s been a long time.”

“Well,” Kennedy said, laying the magazine on her legs.“The way I look at it is, if I can’t have that jambalaya all the time, then I’m sure as hell gonna enjoy it when I can.And…the jambalaya deserves to be appreciated by the person who truly loves it, right?”

“Jambalaya probably doesn’t have feelings about the people eating it,” Maddie said.But she knew what Kennedy was saying.

“Well, a comparison between a guy and jambalaya is bound to break down at some point,” Kennedy told her.“But you don’t really want me to go into a whole thing about putting it in your mouth and swallowing, do you?”

Maddie instantly felt her cheeks heat.“Oh my God, Kennedy!”But a second later she was laughing.

“I’m just sayin’, you donotspit jambalaya out, you know?”Kennedy’s grin was huge…and evil.

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