Page 6 of Sweet Home Louisiana

“For bringing those heels and that sassy skirt down here.You’re risking sacrificing a lot of sweet skin to the bugs in that and I appreciate it.”

That tugged a little smile from her.“Flirtatious maybe, but not reallyinappropriate.”

Okay, challenge accepted.He looked down at her feet.“Those heels are gonna feel damned good digging into my ass later.”

Her eyes widened and she stared at him for a long moment.Then she nodded.“Yeah, okay, that would have been an inappropriate greeting after twelve years of not seeing each other.”

“Isawyou just a few months ago.”At the funeral.Yeah, maybe he was still a little annoyed that he hadn’t had a chance to talk to her.

She held his gaze as she chewed her bottom lip.Then she tipped back another swallow of moonshine before saying, “Talking would have made it worse.”

“Worse?How could talking make Tommy dying anyworse?”

She frowned and held out her cup.

He didn’t move to fill it.“Tell me.”

She gave an irritated sigh and reached out to grab the bottle from him.That gave him a quick glance down her shirt to the matching black bra and the gorgeous tits the black silk held.He let the bottle go.She splashed more in her cup, then set the bottle down with athunknext to his thigh.“What would you have said?”she asked him.

“That I was sorry.”

“I knew that.Of course you were sorry.Everyone was sorry.”

He frowned.“That I was here for you.”

“And what wouldthathave meant?That we could sit and reminisce about Tommy?My memories are twelve years old and the last ones here with him weren’t that pleasant.Or would that mean that you’d hold me while I cried?How wouldthathave helped?Either we would have realized there was no way to actually make me feel better and you would have put a fist through a wall and I would have gotten in a huge fight with a TSA agent over the alligator skull I was trying to bring on the plane in my carry-on because I would have been wound up and looking for an outlet.”She took a deep breath.“OrI would have decided to distract myself from the pain and would have kissed you and we would have slept together and I would have driven out of town the next morning andthenyou would have put your fist through the wall and I would have gotten into a huge fight with a TSA agent over the alligator skull I was trying to bring on the plane in my carry-on.Either way, you would have ended up with a sore hand and I would have ended up in TSA jail for a few hours.What would have been the point?”

Owen stared at her as she finished her rant.

That was all…not completely impossible to imagine.They wound each other up.That was just a fact.

“We’re not past those kinds of reactions?”he asked.He’d like to think all of his overreactions had been a product of being a stupid kid who didn’t know how to handle the protectiveness and possessiveness Maddie stirred up in him.It probably wasn’t true, but he liked to think it.

She slumped back in her chair and crossed her arms.“I was in that room in the airportforever.Missedtwoflights back to California.”

Owen felt the grin slowly curve his mouth as what she said sunk in.“Youdidget into a fight with a TSA agent over an alligator skull?”

She nodded.“He was anasshole.I mean, it wasn’t like I was trying to bring alivealligator on board.”

“We could have shipped it to you.”He knew exactly which skull she was talking about.It had belonged to Tommy.

“I wasn’t thinking,” she said.“I just grabbed it and then when he started giving me a hard time, I lost my mind.”She looked up at Owen and took a breath.“But it wasn’t about the skull.”

He frowned.“What was it about?”

“Autre.”

“What do you mean?”

“This place makes me crazy.It’s…chaos.It’s loud and crazy andhot.”She plucked the front of her blouse away from her chest.“Good, Lord, it is sohotdown here.”

“It’s hot in California.”

“No.It’s warm.It’s sunny.It’s pleasant.It’s not holy-crap-I’m-melting-hot.And we have wine.”

“We have wine.”

She snorted.“You don’t havewine.”

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