Page 31 of Must Love Alligators

“But…what about the guys?”Tori asked.“Someone has to…watch things.We can’t just leave…it.You never know what might happen.”

“Owen and Sawyer already left to go pick up some supplies for the new tours,” Maddie said.“Josh has to do the regular tours with me, at least until they get back.”

“Bennett has to be at this meeting with me,” Kennedy added.

“Oh, damn…” Tori muttered.

“I could do it,” Bailey finally offered.

Tori’s eyes widened.“Oh, no, that’s okay.I couldn’t impose.”

“It’s no problem.”

“Don’t you want to spend the day with Chase?”Maddie said.

“Of course, but he can babysit the baby otters with me.”

There was a long pause as her words sank in.Then Tori grinned.“You knew?”

“Yes,” Bailey told her with a smile.

“All along?”

“Yes,” Bailey admitted.“I’ve never been worried about you and the otters, Tori.The gray wolf was a little different story.”She laughed as Tori grimaced slightly.“But honestly, I’ll bet the otters are adorable.And I do know a few things about them.I’d be happy to play with them.”

Kennedy laughed.“So this entire time, you’ve known what we were up to?”

Bailey nodded.“Pretty much.”

“Well, if you know about the otters, we don’t really need anyone to watch them and keep them corralled,” Maddie said, rising from her chair with a grin.“Problem solved.”

“Oh.”Bailey couldn’t deny the stab of disappointment.

Tori leaned in with a big smile.“Youwantto play with the otters, Bailey?”

“Kind of.”

She laughed.“You are more than welcome.”

Bailey grinned and helped the women clean up the breakfast dishes, feeling like a part of the group in a way she couldn’t remember feeling before.

And it turned out that babysitting otters was one of the most fun things she’d ever done.

She was actually still cuddling the pup who had decided she was his favorite later that evening when they were opening gifts around the Landry family Christmas tree.She was shocked, and touched, to find that there were gifts for her.Then she couldn’t stop giggling when she pulled the roll of bubble wrap out of the box from Ellie and Leo.The giggles increased when she opened the hard hat from Juliet and Sawyer.And then the box of Band-aids and ointment from Maddie and Owen.

“Welcome to the family,” Ellie told her with a wink.

Bailey felt her eyes stinging with tears.She did feel welcomed.She believed that she was a part of this family.Even when Chase went back to D.C., she knew she could still come to Autre and find warm smiles, big hugs, hot meals, and lots of laughter and camaraderie.She loved Autre.She loved the Landrys.She also knew it wouldn’t take much Skyping and sexting for her to be falling for Chase Dawson.And not just off the bed

She looked over at him to find him watching her.With a smile that told her he knew exactly what she was thinking and feeling.

“Thank you,” she mouthed to him.

He just put his hand over his heart and nodded.

Damn.She might as well just embrace everything that came with that.Crazy Cajuns and the risk for concussion, for instance.

So when she and Chase walked down to the Boys of the Bayou dock later on and he pulled mistletoe out of his pocket, they both just donned life jackets before they did anything else.

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