Page 45 of Beauty and the Bayou

The rougarou were fabled werewolf-type creatures that prowled through the small towns and rural areas of Louisiana.

Maddie sat up a little straighter, clearly excited.“If we specificallytell themthat’s what’s going to happen, rather than, you know, Stan and Betty from North Dakota coming down to see cypress trees romantically draped in Spanish moss, learning about how they could find a brown recluse in her purse when they get back to the Hilton Garden Inn, then it could be great.”

Sawyer grinned at her.That was pretty funny.“We might not sign a lot of Stan and Bettys up.”He looked over at Chase.“But dumb college kids down on vacation might eat that up.”

Chase grinned back.“Sounds like fun.”

“I’ll start working on it,” Maddie said.“But,” she added.“We’re not there yet, and you don’t need any practice scaring people, so why don’t you work on the motor and Owen will take the tours.”

Sawyer nodded.“Fine by me.”He even shrugged.Just for good measure.

Again there was an exchange of surprised looks around the table, but no one said anything like “what the hell have you done with Sawyer Landry?”

“I’ve gotten a lot done these last few days,” he said.“I’m feeling very relaxed.”

“That’s fantastic,” Maddie said.

“Things with the dock look great, too,” he said to Chase.“You guys are doing a good job.”It was aslowjob, but it was good.

“Uh, thanks.”Chase gave a little grimace.

“What?”Sawyer asked.

“He’s not building the dock,” Kennedy said, jumping in readily to tell on Chase.“He’s been messing around with Mitch.Juliet’s doin’ that all by herself.”

Sawyer looked at Chase.“Oh yeah?”What the hell was this?

“Hey, Juliet is cool with it,” Mitch said quickly.“Chase helped me with some stuff for Ellie, we checked Leo’s transmission, he did a couple of hotel pickups with me, and then Ellie sent us out with some boxes for Otis.”

Otis was an old guy who lived in a cabin on the bayou and was essentially a hermit.Ellie knew him from back in the days when he’d been a shrimp boat captain, but after his wife had died he’d retired to his cabin and was rarely seen now.Ellie sent the boys out about once a month with supplies and, in her words, to make sure Otis was still alive and even needed the supplies.

“And then you went fishing,” Kennedy said.

“Juliet thought that was great,” Mitch protested.

“You took Chase fishing?”Sawyer asked.“While Juliet worked?”

“Well, it started out with me showing him how to drive the airboat,” Mitch said.He shoved Chase in the shoulder.“Obviously, he doesn’t know how or he and Juliet wouldn’t be here building us a new dock in the first place.”

Chase nodded.“Mitch was helping us cut some of the boards and we were talking about it and he said he could easily show me, and Juliet encouraged it.”

Sawyer frowned.He wasn’t shocked.He knew that Juliet thought Chase was looking for some new adventures and that she liked the idea of him doing it down here instead of on the ski slopes with his fraternity brothers.But she was also all for Chase getting his hands dirty with good male role models who wereworking, not cruising around, fishing and goofing off.

Fixing Leo’s truck and the hotel pickups and God knew what they’d done at Ellie’s could all be considered work, he supposed, and the trip to check on Otis was nice and definitely representative of the culture and lifestyle down here, where they took care of their neighbors, even when it required a boat ride down the bayou to enable a guy in remaining a recluse.

“And look.”Chase held his hand up, palm toward Sawyer.“Blisters.”

Sawyer nodded.“Nice.”

“Even got a sliver in there yesterday.Ellie dug it out for me.”

Everyone at the table winced at that.

“Man, always have Cora do that stuff—stitches, slivers, relocating stuff—she’s way gentler than Ellie,” Owen said.

Chase looked at him.“Cora puts in stitches and relocatesstuff?As in dislocated joints?”

Owen shrugged.“A couple guys here have shoulders that need put in once in a while.And she’s relocated at least three fingers that I can think of.”

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