Page 36 of Beauty and the Bayou

But, seemingly undeterred by her use of the “p” word, Sawyer’s eyes darkened, even as he grinned, and he leaned in slightly.“You have a point.Though getting naked isn’t always the best way tocool off.”

Maybe flirting withSawyerwould help with that no-sex thing she had going on.

“Hey, Jules!”

Chase broke into their…whatever it was.

They both straightened as if they’d been caught telling each other secrets.Or about to kiss.

She looked to where her brother was standing on the edge of the road at the top of the slight hill where they were working.“Yeah?”

He was holding what looked like a sandwich.She hadn’t ever seen him eat this much.He looked…happy.She frowned.It wasn’t as if Chase wasn’t a happy guy.He definitely was.But she knew he was put out about being here.Mostly because he knew she intended this to be a couple of weeks of life lessons and he thought she was overreacting.

“I’m going to go to New Orleans with Mitch,” Chase called.“He’s dropping a busload of people off at the hotels and then he needs to pick up a bunch of supplies for his grandma.”

Juliet frowned and looked at the pile of wood he and Sawyer had cut that morning.“You’ve got work to do here.”

“We got a lot done,” Chase said.“And I’m still helping out.”

“But you—”

“Let him go.”

She looked up at Sawyer.“What?”

“Let him go with Mitch,” Sawyer said.“You wanted Chase to come here to help us out.If Mitch needs to do a pickup for Ellie, he could use an extra hand and this will keep one of us from having to go along.”

“But…” She looked at her brother again.“We have to finish the dock while we’re here and we don’t have a ton of time.”

“Mitch is a good guy.You want a positive influence on Chase, Mitch can be one, too,” Sawyer told her.

“Ellie said that he’s a troublemaker,” Juliet told him.

Sawyer shrugged.“He is.”

“Chase is already a troublemaker.I don’t think he needs more influence in that department.”

“Yeah, well, Mitch has something Chase probably doesn’t.”

“What’s that?”

“A grandma that he’s afraid of.”

Juliet gave a little surprised laugh.“Ellie can catch him?”

Sawyer shook his head.“No, but she’s got a ton of people who would catch him and hold him down for her.”

“She’d actually smack him?”Juliet asked.

“Smack him?Nah.Not that she’s above that.But she’s found something that works better for disciplining us boys.”

“I have to know,” Juliet said.

“He’ll have to sit in a chair behind the bar for a full day and she’ll read Ralph Waldo Emerson to him, talk to him only in French—and will respond only ifhespeaks French.”

Juliet stared at him.“She’ll read Emerson?”

“Well, she’ll recite a lot of it.But yeah, as she works, she’ll have her book of his poems open on the bar top and she’ll read out loud.”

---