Page 79 of Beauty and the Bayou

Sawyer shook his head.“Come on.”

“You said that yourself.”

“I was—” He bit off what he was going to say.But not soon enough.

Juliet lifted a brow.“Overreacting?”

“No.I was…” He blew out a breath.

“You either agree it was an overreaction, or you agree I could have pitched over the edge of the dock and ended up paralyzed.”

“Could have,” he agreed.“But you didn’t.I caught you.”

“I put up a mosquito net and caught a bat.”

“I took care of the bat.”

She hesitated, then nodded.“Yeah, you took care of all of it.”

“And I caught you just now.”He lifted a hand to her cheek.

“Yeah, and I’m decked out head to toe—hard hat to steel-toed boots—to work around wood, and then I try to make out with you for ten seconds, and theonearea I don’t have protected ends up hurt.”

She held up her hand, palm toward him.There was a big sliver of wood embedded in the tip of her middle finger.She must have grabbed the wood behind him when she’d slipped.

“I know it’s stupid.It’s just a little sliver.It’s not a big deal.”She took a breath.“But dammit…I just took my gloves off for five minutes…to put sunscreen on you so you wouldn’t burn.”

Her bottom lip actually wobbled with that and with his hand on her face, Sawyer dragged his thumb over that lip.“Okay, first of all, let’s just both be honest that the sunscreen was not about being safe,” he said, looking into her eyes.“That was pure and simple foreplay.”

Her throat worked as she swallowed hard.

“Second of all, I can take care of this sliver, too,” he told her.“You’re not failing at being safe, Juliet.”Somehow he knew that’s what this was about.He’d felt the same fucking way.It was frustrating as hell to work to do the right thing, be safe, keep others safe, and have shit still happen but…that was life.

And until this gorgeous, slightly klutzy, quirky, amazing woman had walked onto his dock, he’d been fighting it.Just like she was.Sure, she had her stuff together, she’d accepted her situation and was more than making the best of it.She was strong and confident and capable.But of course, there were moments when it was overwhelming and frustrating.She was human.

And he was falling for her.

“Okay,” she said after a moment.

Yeah, it was all okay.And taking care of the sliver meant he needed to take her into the office.The interior office.That had a door.With a lock on it.

He took her hand—the non-injured one—kicked the bottle of sunscreen out of the way and started across the grass.

They headed around the side of the building.They could get to the interior office through the front office where the tourists were signed in and paid for their tours, but that would only delay him getting Juliet alone.

He really needed to get her alone.

They rounded the side of the building and Sawyer opened the door that led into the office.It had once been an office anyway.It was where Sawyer’s and Tommy’s grandfathers had sat at their desks and made plans for the business…and drank a lot of “bayou whiskey,” aka moonshine.The desks were still there.So were the chairs.The filing cabinets, too.It was where Sawyer and Tommy had sat when they’d first taken over the business, feeling important and grown-up, and in over their heads.But they’d sat in their grandfathers’ creaking old chairs, lifted up mason jars of moonshine, and determined to grow the family business no matter what it took.

This was where he’d assumed their grandsons would sit someday doing the same thing.

But as Sawyer ushered Juliet into the room, the sadness was less acute than it had been the last time he’d stepped into the office.

He’d largely avoided the office over the past several months.It had never been a place to get actual paperwork done.That was clear by the stacks of papers, folders and invoices covered in a fine layer of dust that sat on top of the two desks, the seats of three chairs, and the tops of the two file cabinets.It had been a place of conversations.Plans.Arguments.Celebrations.Mourning.

They’d all toasted their first month in the black in here.They’d fought about their first six months in the red in here, too.It was where they’d celebrated adding Josh and Owen as partners.

It was also where Sawyer had gotten drunk after Tommy had died.

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