Page 109 of Beauty and the Bayou

After the longest shower she’d ever taken in her life—and the most satisfying—she sat wrapped in a towel on his bathroom counter.Sawyer knelt in front of her and applied ointment and a bandage to the knee she’d scraped on the edge of the dock when he’d pulled her back up.He leaned in and pressed a kiss to the bandage, then looked up.

“I’m moving to Alexandria.”

Juliet blinked down at him.“What?”

He nodded and stretched to his feet.“The bayou is…complicated.For both of us.I just want to be with you.”He braced his hands on the counter on either side of her hips.“I want you to feel safe and I want you to be happy.”

Juliet lifted her hands to his face.“But I want to be badass,” she said.“And Cooper Trahan helped me see that.When I went out on those bike rides, that wasn’t really brave.I was never really scared of the bikes.Or of falling.I was scared of scaring my mother and scared of being left out of things.Getting on the bike wasn’t brave.The water, on the other hand,thatI was afraid of and I’ve never faced that.But now I know that I still don’t like it and never will, but I can handle it if I have to.”She took a deep breath.“I also don’t really want to get bitten by a bat or a snake or a black widow.But if I do, there’s a big, sexy man who will apply his grandmother’s best friend’s cream and then kiss it all better.”She scooted to the edge of the counter and let her towel fall, wrapping her arms around his neck.“And I’ll tell you, there’s a little part of me that was wondering about how to fake a good snake bite once in a while just for that reason.”

He pulled in a ragged breath and ran his hands down her sides, his gaze never leaving hers.“Okay, how about the Grand Canyon?”

Juliet felt her eyes widen.“What about it?”

“We should go.”

“Sawyer, I—” Wow, she really wanted to go to the Grand Canyon.With him.

“That’s something we can both do.No sharks.No life jackets required.”

“I can’t climb up and down the Grand Canyon,” she said softly.

“I think you can do more than you think you can.And I’ll carry you up and down however far I need to.”

Her heart melted.He would.She knew that.Her eyes filled with tears and she nodded.“Yeah, let’s go.I’ll research a few things.”

He grinned.“I know you will.”He scooped his hands under her butt and lifted her, naked, off the counter, the towel drifting to the floor.He carried her into the bedroom and laid her down under the mosquito netting.“Now, did you say that you might have a snake bite that needs some attention?”

“I’m clear of snake bites,” she told him.

“Oh.”

She pulled him down beside her.“But I was reading up about Lyme disease.I was wondering if you know anything about checking someone for ticks?”

His grin was fast and huge and definitely wolfish.“’Course I do.I’m a bayou boy, Ms.Dawson.”

“That’s great news.You know me…take every precaution, be totally prepared.”

He leaned in putting his mouth against hers.“I promise that you will never have an inch of your body that is not thoroughly examined on a daily basis.”

“I feel safer already,” Juliet said, her voice breathless as his big hands started their inspection.

Epilogue

Two dayslater

“They knowwe’re watching them, right?”Tori asked.

“Oh, they for sure know,” Maddie agreed with a grin.

“What a bunch of idiots,” Kennedy muttered.

Juliet was gathered with the three women at the window of the Boys of the Bayou office watching Josh, Owen, Sawyer, Mitch, and Bennett Baxter put the dock together.

The three sections were finished and the pilings had been put in yesterday.

Watching the big machinery rumble in and pound the thick metal stakes into the floor of the bayou had been fascinating.It was very much like a deck off the back of a house, but the poles holding everything up had to be driven through the mud and into the solid ground underneath the water.They also had to be constructed to withstand being constantly submerged.They had to be tall enough to stand up out of the water, of course, and solid enough to support the dock and several hundred pounds of weight from the human beings on top of it, not to mention the storms that blew into this part of the country.

Juliet couldn’t help but feel a little thrill at watching the structure she’d built actually being put together out there.It was just as she’d imagined it.Not to mention the thrill of watching Sawyer lifting and pounding and flexing and yeah, being wet.

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