Page 7 of Beauty and the Bayou

“They didn’t tell you about me?”

“I think I would have remembered mention of a gorgeous brunette comin’ down here to give me a hard time,” Sawyer told her.

She looked startled by the “gorgeous” bit—which was ridiculous because this woman’s gorgeousness was like the bayou being muddy…it just was.But she quickly recovered.

“So why weren’t you at the meeting?”

“What meeting?”

“The meeting in New Orleans last week where we set this all up.”

His four partners—two of whom were blood relation and one of whom he liked better than almost all of his blood relation put together—had met with this woman last week and hadn’t told him?What the fuck was going on?

“Why don’t you tell me whatyouthink y’all set up?”Sawyer asked.“And we’ll go from there.”

“I don’tthinkwe set it up.We did set it up,” she said firmly as she got to her feet.“I’m Juliet Dawson.”

Sawyer just looked at her.

“Dawson,” she repeated.“I’m Chase Dawson’s sister.”

Okay, there was a tiny niggle at the back of Sawyer’s mind with that name.

“Chase Dawson.The dumbass who did that.”

Juliet pointed down the dock to the end that had been busted up when a bunch of stupid frat boys had taken an airboat out for a spin—uninvited and untrained—and realized too late that airboats don’t have brakes.Thanks to Owen and Maddie, they’d jumped off the boat at the last minute before the boat had crashed into the dock, but the boat had been totaled and the dock smashed to pieces.

Sawyer frowned at her.“You’re the kid’s sister?”’he asked, disbelief rocking through him.Then anger.“The kid who could have killed his friends?Who could have killedmyfriends?Andhimself?”Sawyer took a step forward.“The kid who decided that because I’d thrown him and his drunk buddies off one of my tours, that they could come down here andsteala boat?”He took another step.“And drive it down the bayou?Then take out one of my docks and set me back on the tours that my partners and I need to making afucking living?”

He was definitely shouting by the end of his tirade, and he realized he was now towering over her.

To Juliet’s credit, she didn’t shrink away.In fact, she stood straighter and faced him squarely.She nodded.“Yeah.That’s him.The dumbass.”

Sawyer blinked at her again.Not because of those brown eyes—though they went beautifully with her full lips, which were impossible to ignore now that he was nearly on top of her—but because she looked truly sorry.She wasn’t sticking up for her brother.She was acknowledging what had happened.And she wasn’t scared of Sawyer.

He was a big guy, with a deep, loud voice.He was intimidating when he got pissed.He knew that.He didn’t get pissed that often, but— Okay, that wasn’t entirely true.Over the past nine months, he got pissed off on a daily basis.Not to mention worried.But he’d been a nice guy before that.Laid-back, even.

“Why are you here?”he asked her, propping his hands on his hips.

He wasn’t trying to make her nervous, exactly.But if he could get some answers, and get her off his dock, he’d be happy.Or at least not as pissed off.

Why did he have the sense that he needed to get her off of his dock?And then far, far away?He wasn’t sure.There was just something about her that made him thinkthis is going to complicate my life.

There was no specific reason for that feeling.Except that his four partners had been conspiring behind his back, and just looking at this woman made him forget what he’d been about to say.

“To make up for what Chase did.”

He blinked at Juliet.Again.Fuck.Then he looked down at her feet.“Not sure why you need hip waders to write a check.”

“No, I’m—” She blew out a breath and stepped forward as she reached out.“Let’s just stop this.”

Her tiny hands encircled his wrists and pulled his hands from his hips.It was likely the surprise at her moving into his personal space—something not many people had done in the past few months, for fear of getting bitten probably—or the shock at her touching him that enabled her to move him.He was clearly much stronger than her.But his arms dropped easily to his sides as he stared down at her.

“There.Much better.”She tipped her head to look up at him, andnotstepping back.“You don’t need to be all angry and defensive.”

Sawyer felt both of his brows arch.“Excuse me?”

“I’m not your enemy and I’m not here to fight with you.”

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