Page 64 of Beauty and the Bayou

Juliet frowned.“Where do you live?”

He pointed through her window at the house next door.

He was her neighbor?Or Cora’s neighbor, anyway.“Oh.”

He grinned.“You have another of those nets?”

She did.She’d brought one for Chase, too.Who had laughed and said no thanks.She nodded, a bit sheepishly.

Juliet wasn’t shocked Sawyer had assumed she’d have a second one.

“Okay.”Sawyer entered the room and Juliet backedoutof the room.

The next thing she knew he was out again, the net and the bat in hand.

In.Hand.

He was holding onto the thing.It was wiggling but Sawyer seemed to have it under control.

With wide eyes, Juliet followed him down the stairs and out the front door.

Sawyer crouched and set the thing, net and all, on the grass.The bat was clearly trying to bite him, but Sawyer flipped the net back and the bat crawled a few inches away and then took off.

Juliet shrieked as it swooped up into the air.She hated that she’d screamed, but dammit, bats were not an everyday occurrence for her.

Sawyer got to his feet and held up the net.“Good news.I didn’t have to cut it.”

She stared at him.Yeah.Good news.

Sawyer looked at her, then handed the net to her.“Need help hanging this back up?”

“No.”She’d gotten it up there herself the first time.

“I assume you’re gonna put it back up?”

She wasn’t sure.It wasn’t supposed tocatchthings.“The net was supposed to keep thingsout,” she said, her voice a little shaky.

Sawyer nodded.“What are the West Nile stats down here?”

She peered up at him.Was he teasing her?But he seemed sincere.It made her feel a little warm—in a different way than his wide, naked chest did—to think that he’d figured her out.

“Louisiana had the highest number of cases in the country last year,” she said.

“Figured it was something like that.”

She frowned a little.She’d overreacted with the netting, and it was the reason she was not riding the high of a Sawyer-induced orgasm at that very moment.Yeah, she was sure it wouldn’t have taken him long to get her there.“Only twenty percent of people infected actually show symptoms,” she said.

“So eighty percent of those infected are walkin’ around without even knowing it,” he said.“Weird.”

“Well, only one percent of those infected actually get West Nile encephalitis.”

“Still, that would suck,” he said.“What if you were that one percent?”

He didn’t laugh.He didn’t even smile as he said it.He seemed to mean it.

“You’re not going to tell me I’m overreacting with the mosquito netting?”she asked.“You’re not going to tell me that those of you who live down here don’t use mosquito netting?”

“Nope.”He tucked a hand into his front pocket.

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