Page 96 of Sweet Home Louisiana

Kennedy wrinkled her nose.“I hate guys like that.”

Maddie started for the door, laughing.“Uh-huh.”She’d sobered by the time she’d pulled the door behind her, though.

“Ready?”Bennett asked, pushing off the railing across from the office door.

She took a breath.“As ready as I’m going to get.”

He fell in step next to her and she headed for Cora’s.At least there they’d have some privacy.

Her pit stop in Autre, Louisiana was about to be over.

“Hey, what’s up?”Owen asked Kennedy as he came into the office to grab his next tour list.

“Bennett Baxter is a dick.”

Owen looked at her.Okay, not the subject matter he’d been expecting.“He called again?”

“He’s here.And he…wears these sunglasses.And he’s in a stupid suit and tie.I mean, who does he think he is?Who wears a fuckingtieto the bayou?What a dumbass.And he has these eyes and this smile.And I—”

“Ken?”Owen interjected Kennedy’s rant.He had no idea why his sister was so riled.Kennedy didn’t rant.She didn’t go on and on and make no sense.

“What?”She scowled at him.

“Bennett ishere?”

“Yeah, he’s up at Cora’s with Maddie.They’re talking about the deal.”

Owen felt a cold trickle down his spine.The deal.Her month was almost up.She’d also just spooked herself badly with the gun-and-gator thing yesterday.And Bennett Baxter, the complete stranger that was planning to come in and be a majority partner overnight, was now in Autre.Ready to sign on the dotted line.Fuck.

Owen shoved a hand through his hair.

It was time to make a decision.

“She’s really leaving?”

Kennedy’s question pulled Owen’s attention back to her.He sucked in a deep breath.And nodded.“Yeah.”

“You going to let her do that?”

He lifted a shoulder.“No choice.That’s what’s going to make her happiest.That’s all I need to know.”

“So you’re going with her this time?”

His heart clenched.Kennedy had figured out what he’d just realized last night, when he’d been holding Maddie in his arms after she’d almost killed a gator and gone to jail for him.

He wasn’t letting her go again.He wasn’t letting her get away.If she was going back to California, then he was going with her.

He finally nodded at Kennedy.“Yeah.”

She didn’t look surprised.“I think that’s good.”

“You do?”

“Of course.If she goes back alone, she’s going to end up all bottled up and by herself, thinking that she’s nuts and she has to stay away from us to be okay.If you’re there, you can make sure she’s…well, happily nuts.Like the rest of us.You are the only person who canreallymake her like that.And make her okay with it.Also, if she’s with you, she’ll come visit and stuff.”

Owen smiled at his cousin.“Happily nuts?”

“Well, if loving life and the people around you and saying what you think and being whatever and whoever you want to be is nuts, then yeah.”She grinned.“But the important part is the happily part.”

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