Page 71 of Sweet Home Louisiana

Maddie smiled.“Kind of.”

He understood.Cora would assume Maddie was with him if she wasn’t in her own bed, so she’d know Maddie was safe, but it might be awkward.“Well, I’m not quite done with you,” he told her.“But I’ll have you home before your coach turns into a pumpkin, how about that?”

She considered it for about three seconds.Then she tightened her fingers in his.“Okay.”

He glanced at their clothes on the porch as he held the door open for her.He’d grab them later.After he’d taken her again.Or maybe after the third time.Or maybe he’d send her home in one of his T-shirts.He liked the idea of her sleeping in one of his shirts tonight if she couldn’t sleep in his arms.

He blew out a breath at that thought.He was in so much trouble when it was time for her to go back to California.

As he followed her inside and realized she was headed upstairs to his bedroom without a single hesitation, he wondered what kind of tour boats they had in San Francisco.After all, they had a bunch of water.And tourists.

He’d miss the bayou.But he knew that he’d miss Maddie even more.

“I’m sorry,a refund is out of the question.”

The man leaned onto the counter on one elbow and gave her a smile.“Ah, come on.You can help us out, right?We’re just a bunch of fun-loving guys trying to have a good time.”

He couldn’t have been more than twenty-two or three and he looked the part of the spoiled, rich frat boy.Or maybe it wasn’t the matching caps with the dark blue Greek letters they all wore, so much as it was his attitude and smile that said, “Aren’t I cute?Don’t you want to give me my way?”

He was apparently the spokesman for the tour group that had just come back with Sawyer.After only thirty minutes.They were all pissed off.

Well, she was, too.

Maddie just met his gaze directly, without returning the smile.“Sorry, no.”

He pivoted, now leaning with both elbows, focusing on her completely.“Come on, beautiful.Let’s work this out.”

He was good-looking.She’d give him that.He had dark brown hair and sharp green eyes and just enough scruff that it looked like hemightbe an outdoors type of guy.He was lean but muscular, but he seemed more lacrosse-team muscular than manual-labor muscular.He wore a simple blue T-shirt, gray shorts and white tennis shoes, but the shoes were just a little too clean and the T-shirt and shorts were a little too crisp to believe that he was used to being on any water craft other than a yacht.Maybea sailboat.She definitely knew the type.She sold expensive pieces of art to guys like this all the time.

“Working this out will be really easy,” she told him, lifting a shoulder.“You and your friends are going to turn around and leave without giving me any more shit.”

His smile dimmed slightly, but he didn’t seem offended so much he did challenged.

Great.

“How about half?”he asked.“That’s reasonable, right?And I’ll even take you to dinner tonight to show there are no hard feelings about you stealing half our money.”

Ha.Right.He didn’t have nearly enough of a beard or enough callouses or enough grease on his…anything…to evenbeginto get her heart pumping.

“I’m happy to know thatyou’renot going to have any hard feelings,” she told him.

“Well, I won’t if we get our money back.At least some of it.”

“No refund,” she repeated.

“But, honey, we only got thirty minutes,” the man said.He pointed at the brochure for the tour that was spread out between them.“This says it’s supposed to be ninety.”

Honey?Really?“That’s because you’re all drunk and your friend wouldn’t stay in his seat,” Maddie told him coolly.Which was a miracle because she wasfuming.

“It doesn’t say we can’t drink on the boat,” the guy said, shaking his head.“We were just kicking back and having some fun.We were over at the bar before the tour andtheydidn’t think we were having too much.They thought we were hilarious.”

Yeah, Maddie was going to have a talk with Ellie and Cora about this, too.It was one thing to serve tourists a couple of Hurricanes on a hot day before a boat tour.That was harmless.But letting people get drunk like this?That was just asking for trouble and it was something they could all absolutely control.They could do a one or two drink maximum if a person was going on a tour.Or they could at least water the stupid drinks down.Ellie and Cora had to help out here.

Owen had told her about Sawyer’s anxiety about safety on the boats and she’d been immediately worried.For Sawyer, for sure.It broke her heart that he couldn’t get past what had happened to Tommy and that he felt responsible and that it was bleeding over into other things.But it was also bad for business.Him freaking out and cutting tours short was not good.Refunding all of that money wasreallynot good.

But putting drunk jackasses on the boats with a guy who needed everyone to follow his direction and do things by the book was a bad idea, too.

Shit, she was going to have to talk toKennedyabout this, too.She needed to screen the tours she assigned to Sawyer better.

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