Page 43 of Sweet Home Louisiana

Owen sighed.“How do you know it’s all stuff I didn’t do?”

“You weren’t at the cabin the night he blamed you for leaving beer cans all over,” she said.“You were at Ellie’s when I went in there to get stuff from the kitchen.”

“I could have gone out after that,” he said, tucking his hands in his pockets.And not making direct eye contact.

Maddie crossed her arms.“Did you?”

Owen blew out a breath.“No.”

“So why did you tell Sawyer you did?”

“Because it lets him bitch at someone, but keeps everyone else from being bitchedat.”

“I don’t understand.”

“Ever since Tommy,” Owen said slowly.“Sawyer needs to…take care of people.He gets all knotted up when someone might be doing something that could be dangerous.”

Maddie nodded.“That makes sense.”

“It does.But he goes way overboard.Ever since that happened, no one can really have any fun.He wants to know where we all are at every moment, he makes us always have someone with us, he constantly harps about being careful and using our heads.”

“He’s not…wrong,” Maddie felt compelled to say.“Going out to that cabin alone is more dangerous than having someone with you.”

Owen nodded.“But we all know what we’re doing.We’ve all done it a million times.”

“So had Tommy,” she said, softly.“I see where Sawyer’s coming from.”

“Yeah.I know.But you can’t live your life that way.”Owen took a step toward her.“If you’re afraid of something happening every damned minute, life is going to get really boring and sad really quick.People are just havin’ fun.Takin’ the boats out, fishing after dark, going out to the cabin to party.”

“So you’re protecting Sawyer by letting him think that’s it’s just you who isn’t being careful and listening to him?”

“I’m volunteering to be Sawyer’s punching bag so that everyone else can still have fun.”

Maddie lifted her brows.“You’re taking the blame so that Sawyer gets to yell at someone and everyone else can keep doing their thing without getting yelled at?”

Owen shrugged.“Pretty much.”

“Are you doing it to protect him?Or them?”

“Both.”

“And you don’t think that Sawyer’s getting suspicious that it’s always you and only you doing this stuff even after he chews your ass?”

Owen gave her a half smile.“I think Sawyer knows that it’s not always me.But he gets to vent his frustrations while not pissingeveryoneoff.”

“You think heknows?”

“Deep down, I think so.And I think he kind of appreciates it.I’m like his therapist.He can’tnotworry and bitch and lecture—that makes him feel better and gets all of his frustration and fears out—but he’s also aware that he’s being unreasonable some of the time.Believing that it’s always me and making me the one he chews out, means he’s not upsetting everyone else.”

“So he can’t help but lash out, but you’re a safe person to lash out at?”Maddie summarized.

“Pretty much.”

She watched Owen for a moment, taking all of that in and studying the face that she knew so well, yet was actually new in a lot of ways.This wasn’t the boy she remembered.That boy had been hot and fun and protective of her and his mom, but not all that self-sacrificing.He’d been a teenage guy.Most guys that age were pretty focused on their own wants and needs.ThisOwen was a man.A man who was loyal and loving and protective but focused on the other person and whattheyneeded more than what he needed.A man who would let his cousin berate him, repeatedly, just to make Sawyer feel better and keep the peace with everyone else.

It was a strange gesture, but it worked.Owen didn’t take what Sawyer was saying seriously.He knew Sawyer was grieving and this was Owen’s way of helping him through that process.

“Why do you always take the bachelorette parties out on the tours?”she asked, as something occurred to her.She’d been noticing some patterns in the schedule and she wanted to confirm her suspicion.At first, Owen being assigned all the bachelorette parties and other all-girl groups had seemed obvious.Owen liked girls and he was charming and good-looking and would keep them happy.But as she’d studied the patterns in scheduling, she’d started to wonder if there was more to it.

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