Sweet Home Louisiana

by Erin Nicholas

“Cookies,” Maddie said to him with a big smile. “We should sell cookies in here. That’s perfect. My grandma makes amazing cookies.” She looked at Sawyer. “Shaped like alligators and turtles.”

  “Love it,” Sawyer said.

  Brody frowned, looking between them. “Fine. Five percent. That’s the best I can do.”

  “Oh, I don’t want melted Snickers bars anymore,” Maddie said. “It’s cookies.” She said it to Sawyer rather than Brody.

  “We gonna sell them or just have it available?” Sawyer asked, looking mildly amused.

  Maddie wrinkled her brow. “I’ll have to think about it.”

  Brody sighed. “Fine. Ten percent.”

  Maddie shook her head and came around the counter. “No.”

  “No?” Brody asked, letting her lead him to the door.

  “No.” She pulled the door open for him. “That wasn’t a negotiation technique. I really want to sell alligator cookies instead.”

  “But…” Brody scratched his head. “Are we going to have pie then?”

  She nodded. “You should totally go have pie at Ellie’s. The huckleberry is my favorite.”

  “By myself?”

  She smiled up at him. “Don’t worry. With Ellie, Cora, Jerry, Leo…you’ll have lots of company.”

  With a resigned sigh, Brody headed out of the door. Maddie’s smile dropped as she shut the door and turned back, returning to the front counter.

  “So now we’re not going to have any candy for sale?” Sawyer asked.

  “Two weeks of us selling cookies instead and Brody will come back and give me twenty percent off our bottom line,” she said. “Of course, by then the cookies will be a huge hit and we won’t buy as much from him. But that’s his own fault.”

  “I’ve known Brody since we played football against each other in high school,” Sawyer said.

  Maddie nodded, her attention on her laptop screen. “Yeah. He should have paid more attention in math class. Or maybe you shouldn’t have hit him so hard in the head.”

  Owen could see that Sawyer was fighting a smile. That in and of itself was nearly a miracle and he wanted to kiss Maddie for it.

  Oh, who was he kidding? He wanted to kiss Maddie period.

  “Okay, so we have another similar situation that we need to discuss,” Sawyer told her.

  Owen folded his arms and leaned back against the wall to watch. Sawyer was a grumpy, intimidating guy who got his way ninety percent of the time. The only time he didn’t was when Ellie didn’t agree with him. But now Maddie was here and Owen had a feeling that, at least for this month while they were business partners, Sawyer’s percent might drop into the eighties.

  “What situation?” Maddie asked, typing on her computer.

  “Cash Wilks just called me,” Sawyer said.

  “Who?”

  “He owns Shirts and Slabs.”

  Maddie looked up. “Oh.”

  “Yeah.”

  “That has got to be the worst name in the history of business names,” Maddie said, taking her hands off the keyboard.

  “It was supposed to be a T-shirt shop…and a meat shop.”

  “Supposed to be?” Maddie asked.

  “His girlfriend was in charge of the meat and…they broke up.”

  “His girlfriend was a butcher?” Maddie asked.

  Sawyer lifted a shoulder. “Yeah.”

  She gave Sawyer a you-have-to-be-kidding-me look, and Owen had to cover a chuckle with a cough.

  “So now it’s just a T-shirt shop with a horrible name,” Maddie said.

  “He does embroidery and screen printing,” Sawyer said, in Cash’s defense. “And he does hats, too.”

  “Yes. I know,” she replied. “And tote bags, and pens, and little tiny T-shirts that fit on stuffed alligators.”

  “Exactly.”

  “And he charges you twice what you should be paying for those things.”

  Sawyer sighed. “He’s a friend, Maddie.”

  “I know. Which makes it disgraceful that he’s overcharging you the way he is.”

  “Don’t you mean the way he was overcharging me?” Sawyer asked. “He said you fired him.”

  “I gave him the chance to meet the other company’s price.” Maddie shrugged. “He said no. So technically, he quit.”

  “Hire him back.”

  “No.”

  “Maddie, hire him back,” Sawyer said firmly.

  “Sawyer,” Maddie said, calmly, and also firmly. “No.”

  “Mad—”

  “Look,” she said, twisting on the stool, putting her hands on her thighs, and looking Sawyer directly in the eye. “You have me here to convince me not to sell my portion of this business. In part, because you don’t have enough money to buy me out. I’m not going to sit here and let you throw money away on stuff because you played football with one of the guys and the other’s been over for a few barbecues. You can use the money you save to pay me so that I can go back to my nice, peaceful life in San Francisco where people have actually heard of central air-conditioning.”

  Sawyer opened his mouth. Then snapped it shut. He blew out a breath. Then he turned on his heel, shot Owen a glance that said, “well, shit,” and headed out the door.

  As soon as the door shut behind him, Maddie rolled her eyes and turned back to her computer.

  Yeah, Sawyer’s chance of getting his own way might even get into the seventies.

  “Wow.”

  She looked up. “Wow?”

  “Cash is a long-time friend.”

  “Everyone here is a long-time friend,” she said. “That’s what happens when people never leave a fifty-mile radius.”

  Uh-huh. Owen moved to the counter. “Cash is actually a long-time friend of Tommy’s. Tommy helped him get started. The butcher thing was his idea.”

  She swallowed, then said, “I know.”

  “You do?”

  She looked up. “Yeah, I know. Dad told me about the whole thing. The name, Tommy getting them started, the breakup. All of it.”

  “You talk to your dad?” He hadn’t been expecting that and he was totally thrown off track for a moment.

  “I do. Once a month.”

  Owen stared at her. He really hadn’t been expecting that. “Are you okay with that?”

  She stared back. She looked surprised that he’d asked that. “I’m…not not okay with it. I like talking to him. But it usually takes me a day to get over missing him and being pissed that he made the choice to go to prison instead of being my dad.”

  Owen felt like she’d hit him in the gut. “You feel like that was a choice?”

  “No one turned the key on the truck for him,” she said. “No one told him to go after Bobby. And there’s no way he didn’t know that he’d end up in a cell no matter what happened after he got to Bobby’s house that night.”

  Owen had no idea what to say. She was…right.

  He, like most people here, had chalked Danny’s actions up to grief and passion over his wife’s death. Most people had been shocked initially but then they’d started nodding their heads, saying they understood where he’d been coming from. Or at least forgiving him for his actions because of what he’d been through.

  But Maddie was right. Danny had had two kids to still take care of. Getting in his truck that night had been a choice.

  She sighed. “Anyway, he told me about Cash and Tommy. And I thought the idea was dumb even then.”

  Owen shook his head. He didn’t quite have his head around her talking to her inmate dad on a regular basis, and that she felt her dad had betrayed her by choosing to go after her mom’s killer instead of staying and taking care of Maddie. It made his chest ache and he really wanted to hug her again.

  Maddie lifted a brow. “Owen? You okay?”

  He really wasn’t. But he shook his head, clearing his thoughts. “Cash isn’t…a great businessman. Sawyer’s wanted to fire him for a while.”

  Maddie nodded. “And he won’t do it because he feels guil
ty about Tommy dying. Tommy was the only guy to give Cash a chance and encourage him. And Sawyer feels, at least partially, responsible for Tommy not being here, and so it makes it difficult to put pressure on Cash and impossible to fire him.”

  Owen blew out a breath. “Yeah.”

  “So I just did Sawyer a favor.”

  Owen studied her. She wasn’t saying that flippantly. She actually meant it.

  “You did that for Sawyer? To help him out?”

  “Of course. I can be the bitch for the business. I get that sometimes it’s hard to make tough choices. You guys know everyone and feel like everyone is your friend and because you’re a small-town local business, you want to support everyone else in the same position. So I can make the decisions that you guys can’t and then take the blame. Sawyer’s excuse to everyone who’s pissed can just be that I’m an equal majority partner and there’s nothing he can really do.”

  Again, she was right. And that really did let Sawyer—and him and Josh—off the hook for some of the bigger, tough decisions.

  “So you didn’t really mean that you’re doing it so we have money to buy you out.”

  “Of course not.”

  “I mean, that’s not a bad point.”

  “Snickers bars and overpriced T-shirts are not your main problem,” she said.

  “What is?”

  “Losing Tommy.”

  Owen felt his gut tighten. “Yeah.”

  “He was another body that could be taking tours out and dealing with stuff in the office so that Sawyer could take more tours out. Sawyer is awesome. But he’s better with people than books.”

  Owen nodded. “He used to be, anyway.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “He doesn’t like doing the tours anymore.”

  “Why?”

  “He…worries. He can’t get past the idea that he’s responsible for all of these people. If something happens, it’s his fault. A guy reached his hand out to a gator the other day, even after being told not to, and Sawyer lost his shit.”

  Maddie’s eyes widened. “Oh, no.”

  “Yeah. He launched into this big lecture about safety and listening to people who know more and are experts and what the hell did the guy think was going to happen and on and on. People were pissed when they got back to the dock.” Owen shoved a hand through his hair. “And it takes him twice as long to get his fucking boat out on the bayou in the first place because he triple checks everything and his safety instructions take forever. He sucks the fun out of it from minute one. Once they’re out there, he doesn’t get too close to anything, just points stuff out from a distance. Especially the animals. People bitch about that, too.”

  “Oh, crap.” Maddie looked genuinely concerned.

  “So, Josh and I are taking as many tours out as humanly possible. Kennedy knows to try to keep Sawyer’s stuff light and to give him the older crowd, who doesn’t care as much about getting up close with gators and stuff. But we can’t always do that.”

  She nodded. “Right. Well…that sucks.”

  “It does. I wish he’d go talk to someone. But then again, I can only imagine what it was like for him getting that call from Tommy and then going out there and—” He cut himself off, but far too late. This was Maddie’s brother he was talking about.

  She was a little pale.

  “Fuck. I’m sorry, Mad.”

  “It’s…okay. It’s not like I haven’t pictured it all myself.”

  He pulled in a deep breath. Dammit. “Well, thank you. For looking out for Sawyer. And all of us.”

  She nodded. “I don’t want the business to fail. I really don’t. And this is all another reason you need Bennett. He can do some of the tours. He’s very charming and—”

  “I’d better get back out there. I’ve got a boat waiting,” Owen interrupted. He liked feeling like Maddie was on their team and had their backs. Bringing Bennett up was just a reminder that all of this was temporary.

  “Yeah. You should.” Maddie turned her attention back to the computer.

  He felt like maybe he should say something else. But he had no idea what that would be, so he started for the door. He felt unsettled and baffled. Maybe it was just that he was surprised to find her working like she was. She didn’t want to be here, didn’t want the business, yet she was actually diving in. She wasn’t just doing inventory or straightening out the file cabinet. She was fixing things. She could have sat behind that counter and done her nails all day or worked on her art gallery stuff on her laptop instead of actually helping Boys of the Bayou, but she wasn’t.

  He turned toward the dock but he noticed Brody talking to Kennedy at the end of the path. He knew he shouldn’t go over there. He knew he should let it all go.

  But he was wound up and restless. So, of course he wasn’t going to leave it alone.

  “Brody.”

  “Hey, Owen.”

  Kennedy excused herself, leaving the guys alone.

  “Don’t ever touch Maddie again,” Owen told the other man without preamble.

  Brody’s eyebrows rose. “Excuse me?”

  “Maddie Allain is off-limits.”

  “Oh, really?”

  Owen moved in closer to the other man. “I’m serious. You touch her again, I’ll break every bone in your hand. Your jerking off hand.”

  Brody frowned. “What the hell, man?”

  “Just leave her alone.”

  “Okay, fine, fuck.”

  “Good.” Owen turned away. Then he pivoted back. “And tell your brother, too.” Byron worked with Brody and was better looking than his younger brother.

  “Holy shit.”

  Yeah so Brody and Byron were going to think he was nuts.

  And he didn’t care at all.

  Which was exactly how everything had started before.

  Three days later, Maddie clipped a green band on the wrist of the last guy for Josh’s next tour as Kennedy worked on checking in the group for Sawyer’s boat.

  Typically, Kennedy handled all aspects of getting the tour groups checked in and organized, but Maddie had started helping after a few days of observing. The faster they got people out of line in the main office area, the more time they had to spend browsing souvenirs and snacks. Their sales in the little gift shop had gone up by fifteen percent simply by having Kennedy taking the payments while Maddie supervised signing the consent forms and fastened wristbands onto people.

  And directing them into the gift shop, of course. Especially the families with kids. Hey, it was simple business economics. She’d reorganized the shop so that the shelves with the things like the toy tackle boxes, stuffed alligators, and swamp flashlights were at eye level for the average six-year-old, while the little Louisiana history books and real fishing lures were up higher for the adults. The alligator cookies were also a big hit, and it didn’t hurt that she’d figured out a way to draw the kids’ attention to the display. All it took were a couple of aquariums filled with real fish, a couple of frogs, and two turtles.

  “Okay, head out that door,” she said pointing. “That will take you through the gift shop. The restrooms are on the right and the dock is to your left. You can wait on the benches for your captain.”

  The group with the green wristbands moved off and she turned to the group that needed yellow wristbands.

  She clipped four bands on and explained how the day-long and weekend fishing trips worked to a guy and his brother who were already interested in coming back. Then she looked for the next wrist.

  But the last two for Owen’s group were hanging back, pretending to look over the map they held, while watching the two fishermen. As soon as the men exited, they moved up to the counter.

  “Ladies,” Kennedy greeted. “Names?”

  “I’m Lacey and this is Natalie,” the very pretty, twenty-something blonde said.

  “Great, I’ve got you right here,” Kennedy said.

  “Well, we were wondering…” Lacey glanced at Natalie. “Is there a chance th
at we could split up and I could go on Owen’s tour and Natalie could go on Josh’s?”

  Kennedy shook her head. “We’ve got you booked with Sawyer. Is there a problem?”

  Maddie moved in behind the counter, curious about the request.

  “Well, we were down here Christmas before last,” Lacey said. “We went out on Owen’s tour and then…” Again she glanced at her friend. “We invited Owen and Josh up to New Orleans to party. They brought their friend Tommy and we had a ton of fun.”

  She giggled and Maddie’s eyebrows rose. Fun, huh? She could only imagine. But she didn’t want to. At all. Tommy was her brother. Josh was practically a brother. And Owen was…Owen. And the main reason she wanted to slap this girl.

  “So we were hoping to see them again and hang out,” Lacey said.

  “Or maybe they could give us a ride back to New Orleans,” Natalie inserted. “We could hang out at the bar across the street until they’re done.”

  Lacey, clearly having decided that Kennedy and Maddie were their confidants, leaned in with a big smile. “Maybe you get these requests all the time. But, between us girls—and I’m sure you know this since you work with them—Josh and Owen and Tommy are amazing. We could really use just a night to kick back and…relax…with them.”

  Maddie did not want to know how the three guys-two-girls-relaxing-thing had gone down. Definitely not. In fact, she felt a little ill.

  “You met them this past Christmas?” She’d been under the impression that Josh had met Tori last Mardi Gras and had been waiting on her the entire year in between then and now.

  “Christmas before that. Like a year and a few months,” Lacey said.

  Ah, so they would have met about two months before he met Tori. Got it.

  They did, actually get a good number of people requesting certain captains on return trips to Boys of the Bayou. But it came equally from all age groups and both genders. Okay, maybe not exactly equally, but it wasn’t just the young, pretty tourists making requests.

  “That trip was the best,” Natalie said. “We came down to see Lacey’s grandma—she lives in Mandeville. So we decided to go to New Orleans for the weekend, saw an ad for swamp boat tours and came down for the day. And—” She sighed. “Had the best time.”

  Lacey nodded. “So, you can help us out, right? Come on. There’s just one of each of us. Surely we could squeeze onto their boats.”