Page 44 of Beauty and the Bayou

His mom and dad sat at a table near the bar.His grandma was behind the bar, of course, and his grandpa was perched on his stool—the one with the bright yellow seat—and Josh, Tori, Owen, and Maddie were sitting at a table near the back.Chase and Mitch were with them.

Kennedy headed for the back table after blowing her parents a kiss, but Sawyer crossed to his mom first.“Hey.”

Hannah Landry smiled up at him.“Hey yourself.”

He bent over and kissed her cheek.“You look pretty tonight.”

His mother tipped her head.“And you look…different.”

He nodded.“I’m relaxed.”

Her eyes widened slightly.“Yep, that would be different.”

His dad chuckled.“Looks good on ya.”

“Thanks.I might try to keep it up.”

They both grinned and he felt good about making someone—two important someones—happy.

He headed for the table at the back.Not because he necessarily needed to see any of those people, but he found himself curious about how Chase was doing.And if anyone wanted to drop any information about Juliet.

Sawyer pulled an empty chair away from another table, turned it, and straddled the seat.

“How’s the engine?”Owen asked.

“Not great.But I can get a part in Mountville tomorrow and finish it.”

Owen nodded.“Want me to go over and get it?”

“Want me to do your first tour of the day?”Sawyer asked him.

“No,” Maddie inputted, before Owen could say a word.“It’s beenreallynice havingfourfull days without anyone talking about the Doom and Gloom tour.”

Sawyer cocked a brow.“The Doom and Gloom tour?”

“Well, that’s just whatwecall it,” Maddie said.“Behind your back,” she added.“But it’s those tours you take out where you talk about which poisonous snakes and spiders live on the bayou and the statistics on alligator attacks and how much damage hurricanes and storms can do.”

Huh.He did do that.He hadn’t realized he’d done ita lot.But the bayou wasn’t a place to fuck around.

That was what had been going through his head for months now.

The thing was…fucking around on the bayou was a very popular pastime down here and something he and his family had been doing all his life.

“Maybe we should market that,” he said, reaching for a shrimp on his brother’s plate and popping it in his mouth.“We call it that up front, tell people they’re going on a ride into the dark and dangerous bayou, throw in some voodoo and ghost stories…we could sell a shit ton of tickets to that.”

Maddie looked at him, clearly stunned.

He swallowed the spicy shrimp.“What?”

“That’s…” She glanced at Owen and Josh.“That’s not a terrible idea.”

Owen snorted.“It’s not?”

“People take ghost tours in New Orleans all the time.People go through haunted houses and to horror movies.The New Orleans cemetery tours sell a ton.People love to be spooked,” Maddie said.

“There are lots of creepy stories from down here,” Mitch said.“Hell, there was a supposed serial killer for a while in the thirties or something.”

“And there are the legends about the rougarou,” Kennedy said with a little gleam in her eye.

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