Page 54 of Beauty and the Bayou

“Isn’t it?”she asked.“If it keeps you from doing things you want to do.Things that other people do without trouble.”

Sawyer just stood, looking at her for a long moment.Then he said, “Yeah, maybe it is.”

He looked like there was a lot swirling through his mind.

And he looked really good standing there just being him.

And the bag he was holding was clearly full of food and it smelled amazing.

“Do you want to come in for some iced tea?”she asked.

He nodded slowly.“I really do.”

She smiled and moved back, giving him space to step into the house.

He headed straight for the kitchen, clearly comfortable in Cora’s house.He got plates and forks out while she retrieved a glass for him and filled it, along with her spill-proof cup, with iced tea.

They set everything on the table and Juliet took her seat, pulling in a deep breath.“That smells amazing.”

Sawyer pushed a plate toward her.There was shrimp, sausage, rice, and a savory sauce.She didn’t even care what this was specifically called.Her stomach rumbled.

“You haven’t eaten?”he asked, picking up his fork.

When was the last time someone cared if she’d eaten?Maybe when she was six.She grinned.“I did, actually.But I think Cora uses voodoo or something to make you hungry even if you were completely full five minutes ago.”

He grinned and picked up his tea.“There is very little I’d put past the women in my family.”He took a drink and grimaced.

Juliet laughed.“Oh yeah, regular iced tea.No sugar.”

“That just isn’t right.”He got up, returning with Cora’s sugar container and proceeded to dump three spoonfuls into his glass before stirring.

Juliet lifted her completely non-sweet tea and took a long drink.“We’re going to have to agree to disagree on this.”

He took a long draw of his as well and then said, “It’s actually a relief to know there’s one imperfection.”

“In what?”

He gave her a steady look.“You.”

She snorted at that.“Oh, sure, safety-obsessed, water-fearing, addicted to accordion files.”She lifted her spill-proof cup.“Klutzy.Total picture of perfection.”

He was still looking at her, almost studying her.“Klutzy?”

“I knock cups and glasses over all the time,” she said.“I use accordion files because they make it easy to organize things but also because I love the elastic band that goes around the outside.When I drop them, everything stays together.”

He nodded, then took a bite of food.As if all of that made total sense.

Which it did, of course.If you spilled a lot, it made sense to use a spill-proof cup.

At the same time, it wasn’t exactlynormalfor a twenty-seven-year-old woman to spill a lot.

“In Chase’s defense,” Sawyer said, after swallowing his bite of rice, “I started the conversation about you and airboats and the water.”

“Oh?”

“I wanted to know why they hadn’t invited you along on the ride and Mitch said you’d declined.Adamantly.”

She nodded.“Definitely.”

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