Kennedy nodded. “Yep. I’ve met him personally. He’s odd, but he’s sincere. He’s shown me a few of the coins and if they’re fake, they’re really good.”
“No shit,” the guy said, clearly interested. “That’s cool.”
Kennedy grinned. “It is. And the best part is that he never finds like a million dollars. Never enough to really be rich. It’s always just enough. Enough to help make ends meet or to allow him to do something like buy a new truck when he needed it.”
“That’s all he does?” another man asked. “Hunts treasure?”
“He’s a fisherman, too,” Kennedy said. “The treasure hunting is just a passion or a hobby, I guess. But he gets rewarded for it every once in a while.”
“You really think there are spirits who are punishing and rewarding people?” the first man asked.
Kennedy looked at the kids and gave them a wink. “Well, like my grandpa always says, ‘why argue?’ Bein’ a good person is a good thing to do anyway, and if once in a while you find a few gold coins for it, that’s not bad. And I sure don’t want to have spiders coming out of my walls or hear voices saying ‘turn back’ every damned time I drive down a certain road.”
“Those things have happened to people, too?” Adeline asked.
“Yep. There’s a guy who was treasure hunting with some others. He went along to help out but didn’t actually touch the treasure. He was being paid cash money by the hunter, but wasn’t supposed to have any part of whatever they dug up. But after they actually found some stuff…gold bars, I think it was…he hit one of the men over the head and took off with part of the gold. Later that night, when he was in bed, spiders came out of his walls—hundreds, thousands of them—and bit him all over. He ended up in the hospital and was begging the cops to take the gold back to the men he stole it from.”
“Whoa,” Jaxon said.
Kennedy nodded. “I figure it’s just safer down on the bayou to be a good person, you know?”
Jaxon and Adeline both nodded.
Kennedy grinned. “Or better, yet, we should all just be as good as we can be, no matter what.”
The kids nodded again.
Spirits hanging around after death was a common legend in Louisiana. New Orleans was one of the most haunted places there was. But some of the stories about spirits punishing and rewarding people had probably been started by parents wanting to make their kids behave. Kind of like “Santa’s always watching. You don’t want to be on his bad list, do you?” In Kennedy’s opinion, the idea of an old man watching her all the time and deciding if she was good or bad was also kind of creepy, so why not throw some ghosts in there, too?
“And having a gris-gris bag isn’t a bad idea,” she said.
“What’s a gris-gris bag?” Adeline asked.
They were interrupted by the servers appearing to start clearing away the dessert plates and coffee cups.
“Well, gris-gris bags are little bags that contain—”
“Okay, time to get washed up,” their mother interrupted, pushing her chair back from the table. “You have a little time to play and then we’ll head to bed.”
“But we want to hear more stories!” Jaxon protested, even as he set his napkin on his plate and shoved his chair back.
“Another time, maybe,” his mother said. She glanced at Kennedy. “I think we’ll save the voodoo stuff for now.”
Oops. She probably shouldn’t assume everyone was cool talking about all of that. “I’ve got lots of gator facts and stories, too,” she told the kids. “Oh, and stories about river otters. And wolves.”
Those were all thanks to her brother’s girlfriend, Tori, really. Well, not the gators. Good lord, Kennedy had more gator and snake and bat and spider and fire ant stories than she ever wanted to recount. But kids did seem to love hearing about dangerous animals and creepy crawlies. She saw kids regularly on the swamp boat tours and interacted with them. But that was for short periods. She really didn’t know that much about kids. She’d been the youngest in the family and none of her brothers or cousins had kids yet. But ghost stories and voodoo and pirates were maybe a bit much. Real pirates anyway. They were a lot less funny and charming and interesting than the films and kids’ books made them out to be.
The other adults started getting up and drifting away from the tables as well.
It was well past dusk. The area was lit by twinkle lights strung overhead across the top of the tents, and the bugs were being kept at bay by tall torches lit at the edges of the party area. And probably some expensive bug spraying techniques. The air was a little cooler now, though there was still a touch of humidity—it was summer in Georgia, after all—but somehow it was pleasant out. Almost as if even the weather didn’t dare mess with Maria Baxter’s event.
“Hope I didn’t screw up there,” Kennedy said to Teddy. “Didn’t mean to bring up voodoo if that’s a bad subject. Was just kind of teasing.”
“Oh, don’t worry. Sarah is just a little touchy with the kids. She’s from Florida, doesn’t really know the Louisiana ways, either.”
“Well, please tell her I’m sorry if I brought something up I shouldn’t have. I can tell the kids some other crazy stories and get their minds off of gris-gris bags easily enough. Or I can make something up. Tell them gris-gris bags are something else. They probably won’t remember what I said by the time they’re old enough to fact check me, right?”
He chuckled and pushed his chair back, stretching to his feet. “Oh, don’t worry about it. She’ll come back out after putting them to bed and want you to tell her all about it.”
Kennedy stood, too, as she laughed. “Really?”
“For sure. But I want you to promise me something.”
“Okay.”
“You make the stories you tell her really crazy.”
Kennedy nodded. “I can do that.”
“You’ve probably been listening to stories like that all your life, yeah?”
“Absolutely. Most of them are even true. Ish,” she said with a grin. “My grandma owns a bar in Autre. She and my grandpa and all their friends love nothing more than a good story.”
“Hey.” Bennett came up behind her and wrapped his arms around her.
She hadn’t even noticed where he was or what he’d been doing. It seemed that most of the party, except for Maria’s side of the family, had moved indoors.
“Hey.” She turned in his arms. “You got any chocolate sauce on you?”
His eyes darkened briefly as he looked down at her. Then a look of regret crossed his face. “I don’t. And I’ve…” He glanced toward the house.
“You have more talking to do?” she guessed.
He sighed. “I know I told you I didn’t want to do any of this, but he actually wants my ideas on some environmental policies and wants to talk about how my foundation can get involved. I have to hear him out.”
“Your foundation?” Kennedy repeated.
He nodded. “I run a nonprofit foundation that funds scientific research into the impacts of industry and climate change on the environment.” He gave her a half grin that was sheepish and adorable at the same time. “Very nerdy stuff.”
“I thought you were a lawyer.”
“I am. I mean, I have a law degree and I do some consulting work. Some pro bono cases, too, from time to time.”
“But it’s all environment based?” she asked.
“Mostly. Every once in a while, a hot girl calls me about harboring endangered wildlife in her grandpa’s trailer.” He grinned down at her.
She couldn’t help but laugh. “Nice of you to help out like that.”
“Well, that’s not for free, remember,” he said. “I’m getting paid back.”
“I’m here at a dinner party, in a pink lacey dress and getting in trouble with your cousin’s wife for talking about voodoo,” she said. “I’m definitely paying my dues.”
“Yeah, but you sucked down stuffed mushrooms like they were candy and have been charming every single man
, and several women, here tonight. Don’t think that you’re not getting something out of this deal.”
“What does charming all of these people get me?” she teased. “Last thing I need is a bunch of stuck-up Georgians showing up and wanting to take swamp boat tours.”
He pulled her closer and dropped his voice for her ears only. Of course, most everyone else, including Teddy, had moved off away from the tables that the catering company was now working to clean up. Still, she loved the deep, gruff note in Bennett’s voice when he said, “It makes me a little jealous and makes me even crazier about you and that means that when I get you upstairs later, you’re going to get as many orgasms as I can wring out of your sweet body before the sun comes up.”
She shivered. “Dammit. Guys wearing shiny shoes should not be able to talk like that.”
He chuckled, the sound dancing down her arm in a tingle. “My shoes being shiny matters?”
“I’m just saying that if you wear some work boots and talk like that, my panties are toast.”
He lifted his head and looked around. Then he pulled her a few feet away and around behind a tree. Without a word, he gathered her skirt up in one hand and dragged the other palm up her thigh and straight to the center of her panties. Her head fell back against the trunk as he slipped a finger under the lace edge and over her now throbbing clit.
“Seems like I can get you plenty wet even in shiny shoes,” he said, staring directly into her eyes as he slid a thick middle finger into her.
He was totally right, of course. “Bennett,” she moaned, gripping his wrist.
“Tell me again that you don’t like my shiny shoes, Kennedy.” It was almost a command.
She knew that he could feel the way her core clenched when he said it. “I don’t like your shiny shoes,” she said, breathlessly.
He slid his finger in and out. “Liar.”
“No seriously. They’re totally…”
He curled his finger to stroke over her G-spot and she lost her train of thought for a second.
“Dorky,” she managed.
“Uh-huh.” Again, he moved that finger. Slowly.
“I mean,” she said, struggling for air. “Who even buys shoes that you have to shine in the first place?”
He added a second finger. “The guy who can get you dripping wet and losing your mind against a tree trunk in his mother’s backyard.”
“You don’t just want to take me upstairs to your big old bed instead of going to talk to a bunch of stuffed shirts about pollution and stuff?” she asked.
“Oh, I definitely do.”
He curled both fingers now and she felt her orgasm tightening already. He stroked his thumb over her clit.
“But I also want to make you think about this for a little while.” He slipped his hand out of her panties and let her skirt drop back around her legs. “Now you can sit all hot and sticky and throbbing and wait for me to come and relieve it all. In my shiny fucking shoes.”
She stared at him, sure that her cheeks were pink from lust. “I hate you.”
“Yeah, I know. Just like you hate my shoes.” He gave her a cocky grin.
She blew out a breath and pushed him back. “Okay, yeah, well, guess I’ll see you upstairs later.”
She started around the tree, but he caught her elbow. “Where are you going?”
“Upstairs. To that shower. To get the orgasm that you just denied me.”
His grip tightened slightly as heat flared in his eyes. “No. You’re not.”
“Oh, pretty sure I am.”
“You’re going to take your pretty ass over to that firepit,” he said, jutting his chin.
She looked and sure enough, Maria’s family was gathering at the edge of the patio. She snorted. “That’s a fireplace. An outdoor fireplace.” The thing was huge. It had clearly been built as part of the patio, with the same stone and iron work. She looked up at Bennett. “You’ve been to real bonfires. Don’t you dare call that thing a firepit.”
“Well, whatever it is, you’re going to take your butt over there and hang out with them while I get the rest of this discussion done. Then I’m going to come get you and we’ll go up the back stairs so that you can start stripping on our way up.”
“You realize that I could just excuse myself to use the bathroom and get myself off quick, right?” she said. “I mean, I could be back down in front of that fireplace, telling tall tales and drinking beer with your family and feeling pretty damned good in my lady parts and you’d never even know.”
He bent and put his mouth next to her ear. “If anyone gives you an orgasm other than me—and that includes you—I’m going to take you upstairs, tie you to my bed, and take you right to the edge of orgasm, but deny you, ten times before I let you come. You understand?”
That hot shiver went through her again. That all sounded great, actually. Except for the denying part. People didn’t deny her things. “Those fucking shoes are really deceiving,” she told him. “They are so not hot, but all of that…damn.”
“God, you’re thinking that being tied up might be okay, aren’t you?” he said with a short laugh. “I really do have my hands full here, don’t I?”
“You really have no idea.”
“I think I know better than you think.”
She was afraid he might be right.
“Teddy!” Bennett called. “Can Kennedy hang out with you all for a bit?”
“Of course!” his uncle called back.
She narrowed her eyes as she looked up at him. Now that Teddy was expecting her, she couldn’t slip off upstairs and do anything. “Just for that, I’m going to get your family really drunk playing Flip Cup.”
She saw the flicker of “oh shit” on his face. He’d played the drinking game with the Landrys once. He’d truly regretted everything about it the next morning. And well into the next afternoon.
“Not sure they know how,” he hedged.
“It’s not really rocket science.”
He sighed. “So the longer I keep you waiting on the orgasm, the drunker and louder and more obnoxious things are going to get out here?”
She shrugged. “Pretty much.”
Bennett groaned. “Maybe I can put the governor off.”
“Oh no” she said, shaking off his hand. “You made your choice.”
If he was going to mess with her, she was going to give it back. Tenfold. That’s how the Landrys did stuff.
“I’ve actually lost you for a while, haven’t I?”
She did love Flip Cup. And she kind of wanted to get Maria’s family drunk. She was just that petty. “You go fix the environment,” she said, waving her hand toward the house. “That’s your thing. This”—She pointed at the party that was just starting up on the other end of the patio—“is my thing.”
He gave her a quick kiss and then headed for the house.
For just a second, Kennedy felt a twinge of well, fuck. She definitely knew how to tell ghost stories and play Flip Cup. And about a dozen other drinking games. She was also incredibly good at corn hole and pool. Not exactly stellar credentials to be bragging about though. Bennett was going off to talk to the governor of Georgia about environmental policies while she went to flip plastic cups upside down…and get drunk.
Well, everyone had their thing, she supposed. And she was going to try not to compare her thing to Bennett’s. They were complete opposites. She’d always known that. That was obvious to every single person here tonight. Bennett’s things were big and important and mattered. Whether he liked it or not, he had opinions and ideas that important people wanted to hear. Maybe even needed to hear.
Yeah, they just really didn’t have a lot in common. No one needed to hear about the buried treasure of Louisiana.
As she headed for the patio, she realized that having an excuse to drink a lot just then was really perfect. Because that would maybe help her not think about how Flip Cup and buried treasure really wasn’t a thing. Or that she really didn’t have a thing at all.
>
“Okay,” she said, as she stepped up onto the patio and kicked her shoes off. “I’m going to need eight solo cups, some vanilla vodka, a speaker to hook my phone to, and seven people who aren’t afraid to have some fun.”
“Vanilla vodka?” Teddy asked.
“Don’t tell me they don’t have it,” she said. “I tasted it in the strawberry punch.” And it had been delicious.
“Isn’t that a little lightweight for a bayou girl?” Teddy teased.
“Yes,” she admitted. “And if you tell anyone, I’ll deny it and will do bourbon shots with you until you’re lying under the table in a fetal position.”
Teddy just laughed. “So the vanilla vodka is gonna be like you’re drinking water. Isn’t that an unfair advantage?”
She shrugged. “All’s fair in love and Flip Cup.”
Amazingly, within about three minutes, she had all of the things she’d asked for. Except for the seven people. There were only five others. Adeline and Jaxon’s mom, Sarah, had gone inside to check on the kids and to head to bed herself. That meant teams of three for Flip Cup. That meant the game would go faster and that meant more drinking for the six people playing. Kennedy was okay with that.
The patio didn’t just have a built-in fireplace, grill, and bar area. It also had a sound system with amazing speakers. Of course it did. Maria might seem a little stuffy, and she probably played Sinatra over those speakers, but the woman knew how to entertain.
Country music—Hank Williams Jr., to be exact—came over the speakers that were tucked in the landscaping, and Kennedy felt some of the tension in her shoulders unwind. This wasn’t exactly like the parties in Autre, but it was going to be an okay stand-in for tonight.
Kennedy lined Teddy, his son Steve, his other son Brian’s wife, Tawny, up on one side of the long, wrought iron patio table. She and Brian were across from them along with one of Teddy’s friends, Charles. He was in his mid-to-late forties and claimed he was a lot happier outside with red Solo cups than he was inside with martini glasses. Kennedy liked him from that point on.
She put a cup in front of each person and filled it about a fourth of the way up with vodka. She eyed the bottle. If things went well, they were going to need another.
Crazy Rich Cajuns Page 12
