Page 6 of Beauty and the Bayou

Sawyer looked down at her.And blinked.

There was a long pause, then she looked back at him.“Hold.My.Feet,” she said again.Slowly.As if he was stupid.

Frankly, he was feeling kind of stupid.“What for?”he asked, definitely sounding stupid, too.

She looked over the edge of the dock.“If you hold my feet and lower me over the edge, then I won’t fall in the water or step on snakes or strangle myself or whack my head or paralyze myself.Then you can pull me back up.”

She thought she was going to hang from the dock with him holding her ankles and actually reach her phone?Even if that was possible, which it wasnot,he was a complete stranger.She was just going to trust him to hold her ankles and pull her back up?

“No way,” he said simply.

She looked back.“Why not?”

“That will never work.”

“You are really big.”She winced.“I mean you look really strong.I think you could do it.”

Sawyer felt something happening that hadn’t happened in a while.At least not on a regular basis.He felt the urge to laugh.

“What if your boots slip off?”he asked.“I’ll be up here holding empty boots and you’ll be down there with the snakes.Hopefully not paralyzed.”

“Dammit,” she muttered.She sat up and started to push one boot down.

It took Sawyer a second to stop her.She was baring more of that smooth tan skin after all.He didn’t dwell on the fact that women came down here in shorts every single day, and he hadn’t felt distracted like this in a long time.

Still, he wasn’t going to hold her by her bare ankles off the edge of the dock, either.

“Even if I could pull you back up”—she was petite.He was sure he could pull her back up if she was hanging off the edge of the dock—“you still wouldn’t be able to reach that far down.The phone’s gone, darlin’.Let it go.”

She stopped with the boot, looked back down at the mud below, and sighed.She put her forehead on her bent knee.“Of course it is,” she muttered.

“Tell me about Brandon’s need for design and materials formydock.”

She tipped her head back, staring up at the exposed wooden beams overhead.“We’re going to rebuild the dock.”Then she frowned at him.“And how is thisyourdock?”

He moved closer so he could look down at her directly.“I own it.”

“No.Wait.”She glanced over his left shoulder at the sign that hung on the side of the building.“The Landrys own Boys of the Bayou, right?Well, and Bennett.And Maddie is kind of like a Landry.Am I on the wrong dock?”

Sawyer felt trepidation trickle down his spine.She knew his partners’ names.

Hot on the heels of the suspicion, however, was resignation.Mixed with frustration.What had they done?

He owned thirty-five percent of the Boys of the Bayou.What the fuck was this woman doing here, knowing all four of his partners, without him having a clue about what was going on?

“I’m Sawyer Landry,” he said, his tone firm and don’t-fuck-with-me.“Josh is my brother.Owen is my cousin.Maddie is a family friend.Bennett is our newest partner.”

Juliet’s brown eyes grew rounder.“You’reSawyer Landry?”

“Yes.”The majority partner, thank you very much.The other four each owned about half the amount he did.Bennett and Maddie each had seventeen and a half percent, while Josh and Owen each owned fifteen.

“Wait, you’re…working here.You’re around?”Juliet asked, breaking into Sawyer’s thoughts.

“Clearly,” he said.Then he frowned.“Why wouldn’t I be around?”

“Well, I read the brochure and everything online, but I guess I assumed you were older and retired or something?I mean…why weren’t you at the meeting?And why are you acting like you know nothing about me being here?”

Sawyer lifted a brow.“Because Idon’tknow anything about you being here.”

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