Page 95 of Sweet Home Louisiana

Kennedy reached under the counter and pulled out a roll of paper towels.She started to tear one off but fumbled the roll and dropped it.The towels unwound and Kennedy just watched them go, her lips pressed together.

Maddie, trying to hold back her smile, bent and grabbed them, tearing one off and handing it to Bennett.

He dabbed at his tie with the towel but his eyes were on Kennedy.

Kennedy’s cheeks were red as she stared at his tie as if tryingnotto look at his face.

And Maddie didn’t know what the hell to think.But she couldn’t wait to tell…well,everyoneabout this.

So this is how they all felt when they couldn’t wait to share something and when they couldn’t wait to have all the juicy details.And how it felt to guess at those details until things could be confirmed.Yeah, this was fun.

“We should probably talk,” Bennett finally said to Maddie.

She nodded, her smile and enjoyment dropping away.“Yeah, we probably should.”Even without him reading about the guy she’d pissed off yesterday, her time was winding down here and they needed to figure out where they were all going from here.

She had an idea.But she hadn’t run it past anyone.Including this man who was, very likely, ready to write a large check to the Boys of the Bayou.

“Kennedy, you okay if I duck out?”

Kennedy was attempting to return the paper towels to some semblance of a roll shape and totally seemed unaware that Maddie had spoken to her.

“Ken?”Maddie nudged her leg.

Kennedy looked up.“Yeah?”

“Bennett and I are going to meet up at Cora’s.You okay here on your own?”

Kennedy narrowed her eyes as she looked at Bennett.“I’m fine.We’reallfine.Everythingis fine here.”

Maddie glanced at Bennett and found him with a half smile on his face, clear interest in his eyes.Interest in Kennedy.

Maddie couldn’t wait to tell Ellie.

“Glad to hear it.Would hate to inherit a bunch of problems,” Bennett said as he turned toward the door, pulling his sunglasses out.

“Pompous ass,” Kennedy muttered.

Maddie was eighty percent sure Bennett heard.

He paused with the door open, giving her a full-blown smile as he slid his sunglasses on.“See you around, Kennedy.”

Oh yeah, he’d heard her.

The second he stepped out the door, Kennedy swung toward Maddie.“Thatis Bennett Baxter?”

Maddie nodded.“Yep.”

“Ugh.”Kennedy groaned, throwing her head back.

“What?”

“He’s hot.”

Maddie laughed.“Yeah, he is.”

“I thought he was like fifty or something.I envisioned him balding and trying to make up for his small dick size with some stupid sports car and being intogolfor something.”She said “golf” the way people most people would say “garbage”.

Maddie grinned and grabbed her purse from under the counter.“Well, he’s thirty-two, has excellent taste in art, he really might golf, actually, but I think it’s safe to assume dick size isn’t an issue.”

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