Page 3 of Beauty and the Bayou

“I thought about tying a rope around my waist and around that post.”She pointed to the upright that supported the corner of the roof that extended over the dock on this side to provide shade.“That way if I slipped, that would have kept me from going over.”

“Or it could have ended up wrapped around your neck with you still hanging over the edge,” Sawyer said with a scowl.“Or it could have slipped down and ended up around your ankle and you could have gone over the side and then swung back and whacked yourself against the dock underneath.”He could see those scenarios plain as day in his mind and his scowl deepened.It took him a second to focus on her again and realize that she’d gone a little pale.“Hey, you okay?”he asked.Was she going to pass out?Shit, what would he do then?He supposed he’d carry her over to Ellie’s, his grandmother’s place.Everyone would be there having breakfast.

He stepped forward.He needed to keep her from crumpling to the floor and whacking her head that way first, he supposed.

She took a step back.

Sawyer frowned and stepped forward again.

She held up a hand to stop him.“What are you doing?”

“Making sure I’m close enough to catch you if you faint.”

She swallowed.“I’m not going to faint.I don’t think,” she added.

Sawyer sighed.“I really need to you not to faint.”

Her eyes widened.“Youneed me not to faint?”

He nodded.“I really don’t want to explain you and”—he looked around—“this.And if I have to carry you, unconscious, into my grandma’s bar, I’m going to have to explain.And I don’t even know who you are or what you’re doing here.”

“Well, if you don’t want me to get woozy, you have to stop talking about how I could have strangled myself or given myself a serious concussion.”

“But you could have,” he said simply.It was a fact.

She nodded.“Yeah.”

Sawyer cocked an eyebrow.He wasn’t used to people agreeing with him when he did his worst-case-scenario thing.Mostly people rolled their eyes.Sometimes they argued with him.Sometimes they tried to reassure him.The only thing he wanted and liked, however, was when people said, “You’re right.I’ll be careful.”That was all he wanted in life.Well, and for people to actuallybecareful.

The bayou wasn’t a place to fuck around.There were a lot of things that could be dangerous here.From the insects, snakes, and animals to the sun, weather, and the bayou itself.Drowning was a possibility out here just like it was around any body of water.His brother, sister, and cousins had all grown up down here.They should know what they were doing.They should know what precautions to take and what to do if something happened.But he’d lost a friend who’d known the bayou like the back of his hand, and Sawyer had since become obsessed with keeping everyone else safe.

He knew others used the word obsessed.He owned it.He didn’t care what they thought.As long as everyone stayed safe, they could think he was an asshole or a kook.

That included this woman.

“So how do I get down there?”she asked, moving toward the railing and looking over.

“Down there?Under the dock?”he asked.“You don’t.You keep your sweet ass right up here.”

She glanced at him quickly.Probably because of the “sweet ass” comment.Oh, well, she could think he was a sexist pig or that he was hitting on her.Again, he didn’t care.As long as she really did keep her sweet ass up here.

“I dropped my phone down there,” she said after a second.

“Too bad.”He shrugged.

She frowned.“Too bad?I can’t just leave my phone down there.”

“Well, there’s no way to get it.”

“I can’t climb down there somehow?”she asked, looking around.“I could climb down the bank there.”She pointed to the rise behind the muddy, grassy bank.

“No, you can’t.”

“Why not?”

“You might slip and fall in.”

She swallowed hard but said, “I have hip waders and a life jacket on.”

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