Page 31 of Beauty and the Bayou

They were cutting boards.As they had been for the past hour or so.Just as she’d asked them to do.Exactly according to plan.

So why did everything about coming to Autre feel unexpected?

Juliet flipped her long ponytail over her shoulder and focused on the board in front of her.She bent and traced a line in pencil along the edge of the ruler.She was behind where Chase and Sawyer were with cutting the boards, but there were two of them, one of whom had done this before.And she had to measure everything five times.But still, the point wasn’t how many boards they could cut in what amount of time, it was Chase actually cutting boards with his own two hands.

She hadn’t been exaggerating or kidding about wanting him around men who worked for a living rather than men whose idea of manual labor was lifting their skis on and off the top of their SUV.

Was she bitter toward Rhett and Ryan because they’d left her out of all of those ski trips?Yep.She owned that.She loved her brothers, but she didn’t reallylikethem much.They hadn’t given her a lot of reasons to like them.They’d left her behind.Rather than slowing down and making some adjustments for her, they’d gone on without her because taking her along had been too much work.That was hard to like.

But she’d had Chase.He’d been her travel and adventure buddy.That meant more things like sightseeing tours and hot-air balloon rides rather than rock climbing and hang gliding.But he’d been okay with it.

Well, he hadn’treallyknown what he was missing.

The past four years had been a little different.He’d been in college and she’d been in law school.He’d been in the fraternity with guys who skied and scuba dived.She hadn’t come home to visit as often once she was buried in law school work, so he’d had some time with Ryan and Rhett without her.They’d started inviting him along, first for beers, then ball games, and then, yes, skiing.

“You need to do something with your hair.”

Sawyer’s deep voice startled her and the pencil line veered sharply to the right as she looked up quickly.She’d been lost in thought about Chase and hadn’t even noticed that their saw was quiet.She looked over but didn’t see her brother.

“He headed into Ellie’s for a break,” Sawyer said.

“Oh.”She frowned and glanced at her watch.They’d been working for a while and it was getting warm.“Okay.”

“You need to do something with your hair,” he said again.

She had her long hair in a ponytail hanging down her back.Well, when it wasn’t slipping forward as she bent over.She flipped it over her shoulder again.“What do you mean?”

“It’s too long to just pull back.It keeps blowing in your face.Or it’s going to get caught in the tools or something.”

Juliet glanced at the circular saw that lay to one side.“You think so?”Could her hair get caught and twisted around the blade?That was a scary thought.“Wouldn’t the saw just cut it off?”she asked, truly curious.

Sawyer looked at the saw then back to her.“Maybe.But it keeps blowing in your face.What if it does that while you’re using the saw and you don’t see how close to you are to your finger and you cut the tip off?”

Okay,thatwas terrifying.Her eyes widened and she dropped her pencil and shook her work gloves off.She pulled the hard hat off and grabbed her ponytail, pulling it up and wrapping it around the base into a bun.She didn’t have anything to secure it with, but she grabbed the hat again and put it on, tucking the hair up underneath it.She dropped her hands and looked up at Sawyer.

“Bend over,” he said.

Her eyes got wide again but not for the same reason.That sounded…

“Bend over the board and pretend you’re measuring or cutting,” he explained, almost as if he knew what she’d been thinking.

Juliet wasn’t sure if she should grin or blush at that.She wasn’t used to her mind wandering into dirty territory so easily.Then again, she wasn’t used to being around men like Sawyer Landry.At all.

It was the testosterone all over the place.Had to be.

She did what he suggested, bending over to pick up her pencil.The hat wasn’t sitting fully on her head with her long hair piled up under it and it tipped, her hair slipped, and the hat fell off with her hair swinging free again.She sighed.

“You have a pair of scissors?”she asked him, straightening.

“Scissors?No.I can get some.”

“You want to help me chop it off?”

“Your hair?”he asked, eyebrows up.“Uh, no.”

“You think Kennedy would do it?”she asked, bending to retrieve the hat and setting it on top of the board she’d been drawing on.

“I do,” he said.“But you’re not cutting your hair.”

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