Crazy Rich Cajuns

by Erin Nicholas

  “Okay, so this is a relay-race drinking game,” she told the group. “First we toast,” she said to Teddy, who was straight across from her. She lifted her cup and tapped it on his. “Then we chug the vodka—” She did. She had to demonstrate, after all. The vodka was smooth and sweet and she felt the pleasant warmth spread through her chest and stomach. “Then you put the cup on the edge of the table, and with one finger”—She held up her index finger—“you try to flip the cup so it lands upside down.”

  She did it perfectly. She was the Flip Cup champion in her family. Though Ellie’s best friend, Cora, always gave her a run for her money.

  “You can only touch your cup with one hand,” she told them. “You keep trying until you get it flipped over. As soon as it lands upside down, your next teammate grabs their cup, drinks, and then flips. They can’t touch their cup until yours is upside down. And it just goes on down the table. Since there are only three of us on each side, I think we should go down the table twice in one round.”

  Everyone agreed, they cranked up the Hank Williams Jr., and started to play.

  As per usual, the laughter and cussing and cheating and, of course, the liquor flowed freely after only one round. Kennedy’s team kicked Teddy’s team’s ass. Charles, as it turned out, was pretty great at Flip Cup. He also knew all the words to all of the Hank Williams Jr. songs, all the Garth Brooks songs, and all of the Toby Keith songs.

  Finally, after six total rounds and the equivalent of a bottle and a half of vodka, Tawny begged to end the game.

  Steve and Brian mentioned they were hungry.

  Kennedy perked up. “Should we raid the kitchen?”

  They both looked at her. “Seriously? You want to raid Aunt Marie’s kitchen?”

  Kennedy glanced toward the house. This side of the house was made up almost entirely of huge windows. The formal living room was still full of people. She couldn’t even see Maria. She nodded at the guys. “Of course. The caterers have probably cleaned up and put the leftovers in the fridge.”

  Steve wrinkled his nose. “I don’t think I want any more of the chicken.”

  Kennedy chewed her bottom lip, thinking. Not about what she could do in the kitchen but about if she should.

  Well, Marie already didn’t like her and the chances of her getting invited back weren’t great. And if Bennett didn’t want her roaming free, getting into trouble, then he should have taken her straight upstairs. And tied her to his bed the way he’d threatened. She felt heat lick through her. Ugh. That guy was in so much trouble later.

  “I can make sandwiches,” she said. “The shrimp isn’t fried, but with my special sauce, you won’t care that they’re missing the batter.”

  “Sandwiches?” Brian asked, looking very interested. “Like what?”

  “Shrimp po’ boys,” she told him. They were simple and there was no way Marie didn’t have the ingredients in the kitchen. Kennedy hadn’t even seen the kitchen, but a house like this had to have a huge, well-stocked, amazing kitchen.

  “Seriously?” Brian asked. “You can just whip those up?”

  She laughed. “Of course. Now gumbo…that would be way better, but it would take me a lot longer. Can’t do that for you tonight. But po’ boys, absolutely.”

  They followed her into the kitchen where she threw the sandwiches together in less than twenty minutes. The shrimp was already cooked, it just needed a quick sauté on the stovetop. The batter she and Cora used in the restaurant was amazing, but these shrimp were seasoned nicely and were a fine substitution. The sauce was better if it sat for a while and let the cayenne really work its way through, but it was delicious even freshly mixed. Brian, Steve, Teddy, Charles, and even Tawny all exclaimed over the food. Which was funny. It was shrimp, sauce, lettuce, and tomato on rolls. It was so simple, especially compared to some of the stuff she did on a regular basis in Autre. Her seafood souffle was heavenly and her Bananas Foster was talked about all through the parish.

  Still, the way they ate and appreciated even the simple sandwiches made her happy.

  After they’d eaten and cleaned up the kitchen, they all made their way back to the patio. The party was still going inside and Kennedy could see Bennett standing nearly in the center of the room, surrounded by people, all of whom seemed to be hanging onto his every word.

  She sighed and followed her little party toward the cushioned patio chairs that faced the fireplace. Brian, Steve, and Tawny took the chairs a little off to the side. Kennedy, Teddy, and Charles settled closer to the fireplace.

  It was stupid to have a fire at all, of course. It was late summer in Georgia. There was no need for a fire in summer if there were no marshmallows to toast. Kennedy surveyed the area quickly. Were there marshmallows? She wouldn’t have been surprised. But all she saw was a cooler full of bottled water sitting in ice. Well, that was a good idea. She grabbed one and unscrewed the top as she settled onto the chaise lounge chair to Teddy’s left.

  The chair was more comfortable than her grandmother’s sofa, for fuck’s sake. She sighed. Sure, some of it was the vodka coursing pleasantly through her veins, but it really was relaxing out here. Someone had turned the music down to a more background level versus a party level. The fireplace was gas and seemed set to give off more light than actual heat. She could hear the crickets and other night noises and, in the distance, outside of the circle of light thrown on the lawn from the house, she could see fireflies winking. Of course, bugs wouldn’t dare come any closer to Maria Baxter’s backyard. But it was reminiscent of the sights and sounds Kennedy would have from her own front porch, and she took a deep breath and sunk further into the cushions.

  “So, you and Bennett.”

  Kennedy rolled her head to look over at Charles. “Bennett is my boss,” she said, stretching her legs out and wiggling her bare toes. “There’s no me and Bennett. We’re not dating.”

  “Okay.” Charles didn’t sound convinced.

  “Seriously,” she said.

  “I have a feeling Bennett doesn’t boss you around much.”

  She laughed. “That obvious that I don’t take direction well?”

  “You just seem very sure of yourself,” Charles said smoothly. “Purely a compliment.”

  “Bennett needs someone who knows herself,” Teddy said. “He’s got plenty of other people to be pushing and fighting with.”

  “Does he?” she asked. “Pushing and fighting, huh?”

  Teddy nodded. “His whole job is convincing people to do things his way.”

  “At the foundation?”

  “Right.”

  “He doesn’t do that at the boat tour company?” Charles asked.

  Kennedy laughed. “Bennett’s the new kid. He’s still learning.”

  “Huh.”

  She looked at Charles. “What?”

  “Bennett is still learning about the bayou?”

  “Yep.” Kennedy watched her toes wiggle in the firelight. “It’s my family’s business. We’ve been there forever.”

  “Ah. Okay, that makes sense.”

  Kennedy glanced at the men. “What makes sense?”

  “Why he’s planning to move his foundation to Louisiana.”

  Kennedy frowned. “He’s doing what?”

  “Already has, mostly,” Teddy said. “He’s been in New Orleans all this past week.”

  So that was why he’d been in New Orleans when she’d called him. But he was moving his foundation there? The foundation she hadn’t even known that he had?

  “Why would he move all of that to Louisiana?” she asked.

  Charles chuckled. “Guessing the gumbo has something to do with it. But thinkin’ you might, too.”

  Kennedy shook her head. “We just kind of started…whatever. We’re just messing around. He’s not moving because of me.” But there was a little voice in the back of her mind that said, You sure about that? Bennett really loved the bayou. And her family. And if she was now sleeping with him, he didn’t have a lot of reason to think that h
e couldn’t just move right in and have it all.

  Except…his life was in Georgia. Sure, he said that he didn’t want the politics and everything that his family was trying to push him into. But he was a lawyer here. He had a foundation. She didn’t even really know what that meant exactly, but even the word foundation was a pretty big, solid, permanent-type word.

  “Well, he’s been interested in projects in Louisiana for a while,” Charles said. “But he never said a word about moving there until he got involved with the swamp boat company.”

  “But he isn’t really involved,” Kennedy said. “I mean, he owns a percent—and not much really,” she added. “It’s like seventeen percent. And it completely runs without him. We’ve been doing it for years without him. He doesn’t need to be any more involved. He comes down some weekends and plays around with my brothers, but it’s not like we’re having board meetings and shit.” She winced. “Stuff.”

  “Exactly,” Charles said, lifting a red Solo cup.

  Huh, still drinking. She had to give the man points for that. It was vanilla vodka, but he showed signs of being able to hang with the Landrys at a crawfish boil.

  “What do you mean by exactly?”

  “I mean, he doesn’t need to be there. He could be nothing more than an investor. He’s done plenty of that. It’s not like he moves to the town where all of his business interests lie. So there must be another reason he’s thinking about getting closer to Autre,” Charles said with a wink.

  Kenney frowned at the fire. Okay, it was one thing for Bennett to think that they would date and she’d fly back and forth to Savannah for him and they’d sleep together on the weekends he was in Autre. Which, honestly, had been all but maybe one or two since he’d bought into the business. It was another for him to move his life to Louisiana.

  “Isn’t it a big deal to move his whole foundation?” she asked. “Uprooting a foundation and reestablishing it in a new state seems like a lot. I assume he has contacts and donors and stuff?” She didn’t know what exactly it did, but foundations typically raised money and then gave it out to groups that needed funds. Wouldn’t it be difficult to start that all over in Louisiana?

  “He has a few donors,” Teddy said. “But his foundation mostly runs off of the investments he made with the money his grandfather passed down to him.”

  Oh. So his connections in Georgia weren’t that critical.

  “Of course, since most of his passion projects have to do with the environment, it helps that he knows a lot of people in public service here in Georgia,” Charles said.

  “Public service?” Kennedy repeated. “You mean politics.”

  Charles grinned and sipped again. “Yeah, politics.”

  “So that would make moving to Louisiana difficult, right? He might have all the same money, but he’d need connections to get things done with it?”

  Teddy was the one to chuckle this time. “Bennett makes connections about as easily as you do, Kennedy. He’s never met a man, woman, or child he can’t make a friend.”

  “You think I make connections easily?” Kennedy asked. She did okay with the tourists who came to the bayou. But that was her job. Other than those people, she didn’t really meet new people. She lived in the same town she’d been in all her life. With the same people. All. Her. Life. She sighed. Her world wasn’t really all that big, honestly.

  Teddy grinned at her though. “I’ve been with you most of this evening. My entire family thinks you’re great. All of the people at dinner who were listening to your stories were enchanted. My sons may never eat a po’ boy that you haven’t made again in their lives. Hell, you have Charles here half-drunk and flipping plastic party cups instead of inside talking business. I think you make connections very easily.”

  That made her feel a little warm and she smiled. “Well, thanks.”

  “And you and Bennett have that in common. You have a way of making people feel comfortable. You’re very genuine and people are drawn to that.”

  Kennedy sipped from her water bottle, thinking about that. So she and Bennett had something in common. Not just their love for Cora’s bread pudding and the bayou—hell, her family—either. There might actually be something in their personalities that was similar. She liked that idea. Even as she realized that was a kind of weird thing to care about in a guy she was using just for sex and hors d’oeuvres.

  You’re not just using him for sex.

  Yeah, well, she was going to ignore that thought.

  Feeding her hors d’oeuvres addiction, though, was real. She couldn’t eat that stuff at home without being majorly teased.

  Don’t be stupid. No one falls for a guy because of stuffed mushrooms.

  Well, of course not. But she could want to spend weekends in Savannah with him because of those mini quiches. She wasn’t sure she should even hint at what she’d do to him to get more of those.

  It’s not about the quiches!

  Kennedy frowned and looked around for the bottle of vodka. Her subconscious was being a real bitch tonight. She was determined to ignore any niggle that her attraction to Bennett was more than physical. Because that complicated things and was risky.

  He might be considering a move to Louisiana—maybe he was already in the midst of it, in fact—but it wasn’t just about her. Bennett was the kind of guy, with the kind of resources, that made a move like that no big thing. He could spend a few months in Louisiana and then head right back to Georgia. Or hell, maybe he’d decide to try Colorado on for size. Or New York. He didn’t have any real limitations. Bennett Baxter was meant to do big things.

  And if Ellie can leave Leo, then a guy like Bennett can absolutely find something bigger and better than you.

  Yeah, she really needed to find that vodka bottle.

  8

  “I guess Kennedy and the Boys of the Bayou explain why he’s trying to fast track everything,” Charles said, seemingly to Teddy.

  Kennedy located the vodka bottle next to the leg of Charles’ chair. It was empty. Dammit.

  Teddy nodded. “When things get personal, the drive amps up.”

  “He’s fast tracking his move?” Kennedy asked.

  “He’s fast tracking Sauveuse Island,” Charles said. “Or trying to.”

  “Sauveuse Island? Where’s that?” Kennedy found herself unable to relax fully into the chair now.

  “It’s how he’s trying to protect you,” Teddy said with a smile.

  “Me? He’s trying to protect me?” Kennedy felt her heart start beating faster. “What do you mean? From what?”

  “Well, you and the rest of coastal Louisiana,” Charles said.

  “What are you talking about?” Kennedy turned on her cushion to face the men and folded her legs under her, tucking her skirt in around her.

  “You know what the barrier islands are?” Teddy asked.

  “Of course.” The islands were naturally occurring strips of land that lay between the open waters of the Gulf of Mexico and the wetlands.

  “You know what they do?” Charles asked.

  “They protect the coast from the waves out of the gulf. They act as sponges and speedbumps with storms,” Kennedy said. “They slow all of that stuff down so that storms and wind and waves lose some of their power by the time they get to the coast. Especially, the wetlands.”

  Charles nodded. “They also provide calm waters for fish, crabs, oysters, and shrimp to live and reproduce. Along with millions of birds who nest there or stop on their long migrations. They protect the bayou and the things that live there.”

  Including the people, Kennedy thought, but she didn’t add it out loud.

  Teddy nodded. “The towns and seaports would be slammed by storms without them. But they’re eroding very quickly.”

  Kennedy nodded. “We know.”

  “Do you?” Charles asked.

  “It’s obvious,” she said with a frown. “The people that live there know. The storms are stronger, we have a lot more water coming in now. And those wh
o make a living off the fish and crabs and shrimp, all definitely know. Some of the fish that don’t survive in saltwater have died off with the rising salt content in the water that washes in. We’re even worried about the alligators eventually. They can live in saltwater for short periods, but they really need fresh water.”

  Charles nodded. He looked a little surprised. Or impressed. Or something. “Sea levels are rising and burying some of the islands,” he said. “Hurricanes are getting stronger and more common. They’re washing some of the islands away faster than they are replenished. If those islands disappear, people aren’t going to be able to live right along the coast.”

  “It’s not just nature, Charles,” Kennedy said. He knew that, she was sure, but suddenly she wanted him to know that she knew about all of the forces that were changing Louisiana. “Sure, sea levels and storms are part of it, but so is the fact that the oil and gas companies have carved out some of the land for their ships. Not to mention that the Mississippi has been redirected. It’s not bringing the sediment in to rebuild the islands and coast. Even New Orleans is sinking.”

  “You’re right,” Charles told her.

  Of course, she was. “But what’s all of that got to do with Bennett?”

  “He’s building an island.”

  Kennedy blinked at Teddy. “What?”

  “There’s a lot of negotiating and troubleshooting going on about what’s happening above Louisiana with the river,” he said. “But one big way of protecting the coast is by building up the barrier islands.”

  “Okay. But…” Kennedy shook her head. “He’s just…making a whole island?”

  “Well, he’s working to help build up the others as well, but…” Teddy shrugged. “Yeah. Sauveuse Island will be a manmade barrier island.”

  “Sauveuse?” Kenney repeated. “That’s French for ‘savior.’”

  Teddy nodded.

  Wow.

  Kennedy frowned. “So Bennett decided to just build an island himself.”

  “Pretty much,” Teddy said with a shrug. “It’s a huge project because he wants to use natural materials and he has to work with the state and federal government, but he’s getting it done.”