Page 64 of Sweet Home Louisiana

She glanced at him.“Yeah?”

“Mad, you’re not going to find me helping younotbe crazy about me.I like it too much.”

And that made her stomach flip.

“I also insulted your grandmother tonight.Because of you.”

He looked interested in that.“Oh?”

“I was pissed that no one was coming over to check on you.And I told her that it would be okay for her to show some love and affection once in a while.”

He winced.“Ouch.And on top of her breaking up with Trevor.”

“Yeah.”Maddie sighed.“I feel like shit.I never talk to people like that.”

Owen didn’t actually shift position, but for some reason she felt like he was leaning closer.“I wouldn’t worry too much about Ellie, if I was you,” he said.“She can take it.We all do stupid shit here.Emotional shit.She does, too.Like telling Trevor she preferswetheat in Louisiana to dry heat in Arizona.”

Maddie groaned.“And she said it with all that innuendo?”

“Of course.”

“Why?Why is she doing that?”

“I think she wants to break up with him, but doesn’t realize it.Think it hit her when Leo took Caroline Trahan to dinner the other night.”

“Who’s Caroline Trahan?”

“Mother of a couple of friends of ours in New Orleans.It was nothing really.Caroline needed a date for some charity thing.But it ruffled Ellie up.”

Maddie rolled her eyes.“Is someone going to say something to her about it?Point that out?”

Owen tipped his beer up.“Actually, we were all just talkin’ earlier that maybe you could do it.Kind of like firing Cash.Easier for you to do it than us.”He gave her a little smirk.

“Well, I want her back with Leo—just so you know before you send me in there.”

Owen nodded.“I want her back with Leo, too.”

“Yeah?”

“Of course.They belong together.So you can talk to her tomorrow.”

For some reason Maddie smiled.“I can probably do that.”She’d be gentle, but yeah, she could be the one who said and did things that were hard for the rest of them to say and do.She could help out that way.She’d be helping Leo, too.And Ellie, too, really.

“Anyway, Ellie isn’t going to be mad at you for snapping at her about me.She gets it.We don’t filter and we don’t suppress things.You know that.”

Maddie did.It was what had worried her about coming back here.But now it felt…freeing.Like she could just feel things and not worry.Not analyze those feelings, not redirect them, not think about what they were really about.They were just what they were.If she was frustrated, or worried, or jealous, or happy, that was just what it was.

Maddie took another drink and pushed against the floor with the toe of her shoe, making the swing move.

“I can’t paint here,” she said quietly after they’d rocked back and forth twice.

“What?”Owen asked.

“I can’t paint here.”She glanced over at him, but then focused on the dark yard in front of them.“That’s what I do.In California.I’m a painter.I run the art gallery, too, but I got into that because the gallery has been displaying my work for a couple of years.”

“Wow, I didn’t know that.You any good?”

She smiled, then took another drink.She nodded after she’d swallowed.“Yeah, I’m good.I’ve sold several pieces.”

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