Page 82 of Sweet Home Louisiana

Oh God, I can’t do this.

“Ah!That alligator is right by him!”one of the little girls yelled, clearly caught up in the moment.

Maddie’s mouth went dry as the alligator put its front feet up on the mud less than half its body length away from Owen.

Fuck, fuck, fuck.

Maddie took a deep breath, pressed the safety, and then pulled the trigger.

The gun jumped, kicking into her shoulder and taking her breath.The blast was loud, everyone screamed, there was a splash, but Maddie instantly zeroed in on Owen.

Who was striding toward her through the water, his face stormy.

“Oh my God, did I shoot you?”she asked as he climbed aboard her boat and moved toward her.

He grabbed the gun from her in one hand and wrapped his other around her wrist, holding her in place.She didn’t care.She ran her eyes over him, followed by her free hand.

“Are you all right?I didn’t hit you?”Her palm ran over his shoulders, his chest, down his ribs, to his hip.

“Jesus Christ, Mad,” he nearly growled.“No you didn’t fucking shoot me, but you could have.”

Her eyes widened.“I was aiming for the dirt!I just wanted to scare it!”

“Well you—”

His words broke off as she ran her hand over his abs, still, maybe stupidly, looking for injuries.Gunshot wounds, but also alligator bite marks.

Owen swore under his breath.He quickly unloaded the gun and bent to store it, with her hands running over him the entire time.Then he grabbed both her wrists, pulling her hands away.“You gotta stop,” he said, his voice lower, but gruff.“I’m okay.”

“They were coming right for you.”Her voice sounded like a whisper but she didn’t have enough air to put behind them.

“They always come to me.”He blew out a breath.“You know how this goes.We feed them so they’ll come up to the boats for the tourists.”

She shook her head.“I didn’t know that!”

He frowned.“Well, youshouldhave.We’ve been doing this forever.The gators get used to the boats and to us coming out here with food.They swim up, but they wouldn’t attack.They know us.”

She took a deep breath and let his words sink in.They fed the alligators.Every day.The animals were used to them by now.

One of the women in the boat asked, “Theyknowyou?”

Owen glanced over.“They do.”He shrugged.“They know my voice.And my smell.”

“Come on.”

“Seriously.There’s a big old gator down the way that knows my partner, Sawyer.He won’t come out for me, but he always shows himself for Sawyer’s boats.”

“You’re telling me that you’ve trained these alligators?”one of the men asked.

Maddie let them talk around her, breathing deep.The adrenaline was dissipating a bit now that he was standing here right in front of her and was fine.

“Kind of.Not exactly, but like I said, they recognize me, they know I have food for them.We do it for you all,” he said to the tourists.“We can get them up close for you this way.”

Yeah, she should have known that.Shehadknown that.She’d just forgotten because it was Owen, and seeing even ahintof danger near him obliterated any rational thought.

Maddie swallowed, letting all of that sink in.“I’m really sorry I overreacted.”

Owen’s attention was immediately back on her.“I should have gone over it with you ahead of the tour.I’m sorry I didn’t.”

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