Kennedy reached under the counter and pulled out a roll of paper towels. She started to tear one off but fumbled the roll and dropped it. The towels unwound and Kennedy just watched them go, her lips pressed together.
Maddie, trying to hold back her smile, bent and grabbed them, tearing one off and handing it to Bennett.
He dabbed at his tie with the towel but his eyes were on Kennedy.
Kennedy’s cheeks were red as she stared at his tie as if trying not to look at his face.
And Maddie didn’t know what the hell to think. But she couldn’t wait to tell…well, everyone about this.
So this is how they all felt when they couldn’t wait to share something and when they couldn’t wait to have all the juicy details. And how it felt to guess at those details until things could be confirmed. Yeah, this was fun.
“We should probably talk,” Bennett finally said to Maddie.
She nodded, her smile and enjoyment dropping away. “Yeah, we probably should.” Even without him reading about the guy she’d pissed off yesterday, her time was winding down here and they needed to figure out where they were all going from here.
She had an idea. But she hadn’t run it past anyone. Including this man who was, very likely, ready to write a large check to the Boys of the Bayou.
“Kennedy, you okay if I duck out?”
Kennedy was attempting to return the paper towels to some semblance of a roll shape and totally seemed unaware that Maddie had spoken to her.
“Ken?” Maddie nudged her leg.
Kennedy looked up. “Yeah?”
“Bennett and I are going to meet up at Cora’s. You okay here on your own?”
Kennedy narrowed her eyes as she looked at Bennett. “I’m fine. We’re all fine. Everything is fine here.”
Maddie glanced at Bennett and found him with a half smile on his face, clear interest in his eyes. Interest in Kennedy.
Maddie couldn’t wait to tell Ellie.
“Glad to hear it. Would hate to inherit a bunch of problems,” Bennett said as he turned toward the door, pulling his sunglasses out.
“Pompous ass,” Kennedy muttered.
Maddie was eighty percent sure Bennett heard.
He paused with the door open, giving her a full-blown smile as he slid his sunglasses on. “See you around, Kennedy.”
Oh yeah, he’d heard her.
The second he stepped out the door, Kennedy swung toward Maddie. “That is Bennett Baxter?”
Maddie nodded. “Yep.”
“Ugh.” Kennedy groaned, throwing her head back.
“What?”
“He’s hot.”
Maddie laughed. “Yeah, he is.”
“I thought he was like fifty or something. I envisioned him balding and trying to make up for his small dick size with some stupid sports car and being into golf or something.” She said “golf” the way people most people would say “garbage”.
Maddie grinned and grabbed her purse from under the counter. “Well, he’s thirty-two, has excellent taste in art, he really might golf, actually, but I think it’s safe to assume dick size isn’t an issue.”
Kennedy wrinkled her nose. “I hate guys like that.”
Maddie started for the door, laughing. “Uh-huh.” She’d sobered by the time she’d pulled the door behind her, though.
“Ready?” Bennett asked, pushing off the railing across from the office door.
She took a breath. “As ready as I’m going to get.”
He fell in step next to her and she headed for Cora’s. At least there they’d have some privacy.
Her pit stop in Autre, Louisiana was about to be over.
“Hey, what’s up?” Owen asked Kennedy as he came into the office to grab his next tour list.
“Bennett Baxter is a dick.”
Owen looked at her. Okay, not the subject matter he’d been expecting. “He called again?”
“He’s here. And he…wears these sunglasses. And he’s in a stupid suit and tie. I mean, who does he think he is? Who wears a fucking tie to the bayou? What a dumbass. And he has these eyes and this smile. And I—”
“Ken?” Owen interjected Kennedy’s rant. He had no idea why his sister was so riled. Kennedy didn’t rant. She didn’t go on and on and make no sense.
“What?” She scowled at him.
“Bennett is here?”
“Yeah, he’s up at Cora’s with Maddie. They’re talking about the deal.”
Owen felt a cold trickle down his spine. The deal. Her month was almost up. She’d also just spooked herself badly with the gun-and-gator thing yesterday. And Bennett Baxter, the complete stranger that was planning to come in and be a majority partner overnight, was now in Autre. Ready to sign on the dotted line. Fuck.
Owen shoved a hand through his hair.
It was time to make a decision.
“She’s really leaving?”
Kennedy’s question pulled Owen’s attention back to her. He sucked in a deep breath. And nodded. “Yeah.”
“You going to let her do that?”
He lifted a shoulder. “No choice. That’s what’s going to make her happiest. That’s all I need to know.”
“So you’re going with her this time?”
His heart clenched. Kennedy had figured out what he’d just realized last night, when he’d been holding Maddie in his arms after she’d almost killed a gator and gone to jail for him.
He wasn’t letting her go again. He wasn’t letting her get away. If she was going back to California, then he was going with her.
He finally nodded at Kennedy. “Yeah.”
She didn’t look surprised. “I think that’s good.”
“You do?”
“Of course. If she goes back alone, she’s going to end up all bottled up and by herself, thinking that she’s nuts and she has to stay away from us to be okay. If you’re there, you can make sure she’s…well, happily nuts. Like the rest of us. You are the only person who can really make her like that. And make her okay with it. Also, if she’s with you, she’ll come visit and stuff.”
Owen smiled at his cousin. “Happily nuts?”
“Well, if loving life and the people around you and saying what you think and being whatever and whoever you want to be is nuts, then yeah.” She grinned. “But the important part is the happily part.”
Owen leaned over and wrapped an arm around Kennedy’s neck, pulling her into a short hug. “You’re not all bad, Ken.”
She let him hug her for a moment, then shoved him away. “Yeah, I know.”
He looked down at the tour sheet in his hand. He really wanted to go find Maddie and Bennett. Actually, Bennett most of all. He needed to talk to the guy before he told Maddie his plan.
A second later, Kennedy plucked the page from his fingers. “I’ve got this covered. Go.”
“Go?”
“Cora’s house. They’ve been up there for about forty-five minutes.”
“You sure?” he asked, already moving toward the door.
“I’m not going to offer again. If that door isn’t shutting behind you in five seconds, you’re taking this retirement party out to look at gators.”
The door shut behind him three seconds later.
Owen made his way toward Cora’s. His heart was pounding, but it wasn’t with nerves. He was sure of this. But he needed Bennett Baxter to be on board.
He stopped short at the end of the path leading to Cora’s porch. A tall man in a suit and tie was just putting sunglasses on as he came out of the front door.
Bennett Baxter. Had to be. No one wore a tie to the bayou, Kennedy was right.
The man spotted him and stopped at the top of the steps. “If you’re looking for Maddie, she just headed over to the bank. I stayed here to make a couple of calls, but I’m meeting her up there in a little bit.”
“Looking for you, actually,” Owen said.
The man came down the steps and Owen met him at the bottom. He stuck out his hand. “Owen Landry.”
/>
“Bennett Baxter.”
“So you want to be a swamp boat tour company owner.”
Bennett’s face stretched into a grin. “I do.”
“How would you like to own another fifteen percent of Boys of the Bayou?” Owen felt his chest tighten even as he said it. He’d planned to say it. This was why he’d come to find Bennett. But he was giving up the business, the thing that had brought him joy since he was a little kid. Maddie was worth it. Being with her was worth it. But it still felt weird.
Bennett’s eyebrows rose over the top of his glasses. “I’m listening.”
“I’m heading to California and I’m looking for a buyer for my share,” Owen said. “My fifteen will put you at fifty percent ownership.”
That made his chest tighten even further. With Maddie and Owen’s shares together, Bennett would own more of the business than Sawyer did. It didn’t seem right to put a stranger in that much control, but Owen didn’t know what else to do.
Bennett didn’t react right away. But he took his glasses off, meeting Owen’s gaze directly. “Have you spoken with Maddie about this?”
“Not yet. Getting my ducks in a row first.”
Bennett nodded. “Okay. Then my answer to your question is yes, I’d be interested in buying your share as well.”
“I’m going to insist on some commitments from you,” Owen said.
“Such as?”
“You can’t sell for at least five years. You have to invest fifty percent of your share of the profits back into the business. You can’t get rid of Sawyer or Josh. That kind of stuff.”
Bennett didn’t seem offended or frustrated by Owen putting contingencies on the sale and Owen was reminded that this man was a businessman. He was used to negotiations and deals. Owen felt pretty good about seeming firm on those stipulations, too. The truth was, if Bennett didn’t agree to those things, Owen was in a bind. He was set on selling. He didn’t really have another option. He couldn’t own a portion of the business but never be here to help run it. That wasn’t fair to Sawyer and Josh at all.
“Is there a reason you think I might want to get rid of Sawyer or Josh?” Bennett asked.
“Not unless you get full of yourself and think you can do a better job than they do or something,” Owen told him.
“I don’t see that happening,” Bennett admitted. “This isn’t about taking something over. This is just about being a part of it. You guys and the way you run the place are part of its marketability.”
Huh. Was that right? Owen hadn’t thought about that.
“In fact, the idea of losing one-third of the guys who make this place what it is, on top of the recent loss of Tommy, makes me wonder if Boys of the Bayou will really be all it can be going forward.”
Owen frowned. That was nice and all, but he wasn’t part of the deal. If that changed how Bennett was looking at this whole thing, they might all be in trouble. “You might not be interested if I’m not here?” he asked.
“I’ll have to think about it,” Bennett told him. “This company isn’t just about floating down the bayou or spotting an alligator or egret here and there. It’s about you guys. Your love for it all, your knowledge of the area because this is your backyard, your protection of it. The bayou and the area down here all benefit from having you guys running the tours and fishing trips as much as the tourists benefit from it. Maybe more. If people from the outside come in”—Bennett paused, clearly meaning him—“who don’t understand it all and are just here to make money, then the bayou and the natural balance out here suffer.”
Owen frowned. “You’re an outsider who sounds like he knows what he’s talking about.”
“There are oil companies, logging companies, tourism companies, any number of people who don’t care if they’re destroying the marshlands. People like you need to stay here, claiming the territory and helping protect it.”
Owen squinted at him. “Aren’t you…”
“A rich guy who only looks at how to get richer?” Bennett asked.
Owen shrugged. “Something like that.”
“Yes and no. I’m a rich guy. But I have a law degree, along with a master’s in biodiversity and conservation.”
“You’re a scientist?” Owen couldn’t hide his surprise.
“I am. But I decided that I could be even more effective using my knowledge and passion combined with my money and network than I could trudging through the swamp. So I invest in green technology and conservation programs and I lobby politicians and other investors on behalf of those efforts.”
“You don’t want to get richer?”
Bennett grinned. “Green technology has tons of potential.”
“Ah.” Owen couldn’t fault the guy for using what he knew and had to get more. He was giving back, at least. “You’re going to run for office eventually?” Owen guessed.
Bennett nodded. “Eventually.”
“But now you’re investing in a swamp boat tour company so you can also trudge through the swamp once in a while.”
Bennett grinned. “Yep.”
“So you’ll keep the company and the business as is? And invest in it?”
“I really like what you guys do. Not just for all the reasons I gave you but because you also show people a hell of a good time.” Bennett shrugged. “I don’t have a lot of friends who can take apart an airboat and put it back together or who can kill, clean, and grill up an alligator.”
“And you’re into that?” He had to admit the guy standing in front of him looked nothing like the guys who gathered around the bonfires and twisted the heads off of crawfish.
“I’m a stereotypical nerd who wants to be one of the cool kids.”
Owen laughed. “You might have low standards for cool kids, but you’re in the right place if you want to get dirty and drunk and dumb once in a while.”
Bennett laughed. “Boys of the Bayou will be safe with me,” he said. “But I am concerned about you not being a part of it.”
“I don’t have a choice, man. I’m going with Maddie.”
Bennett seemed to ponder that. Finally he nodded. “Okay.”
They stood for a long moment, neither saying anything.
Finally, Owen asked, “So now what?”
“Write up an offer. Let me know how much you want, when I could take ownership, all of that.”
Owen nodded. But he had no idea how to really do that. He wasn’t a businessman. Not really. He could balance a checkbook and knew his log-in information to get into the online banking. And that was about it. “Is there a standard form for stuff like that or something?” he asked. He would have expected to feel a little intimidated by Bennett Baxter to be honest, but he didn’t. Bennett seemed like a straight-forward guy.
“How about for now, we can just write something up that lists all the stuff we both want and agree to,” Bennett said. “I’ve made business deals on reams of expensive linen stationary and I’ve made deals on the backs of bar receipts.”
Owen relaxed a little. “I’m definitely more of a bar-receipt guy.”
Bennett smiled. “Think Cora has a notebook or something?”
“Absolutely.” Owen led the way back up into Cora’s kitchen and twenty minutes later, he and Bennett both scrawled their signatures across the bottom of a piece of paper that read GROCERIES AND SH*T at the top and had a bear carrying a basket of food in the corner.
Owen felt good as they made their way over to Ellie’s for lunch. Their agreement, written like that, felt like the partnership agreement Leo and Kenny had written up out at the fishing cabin all those years ago. Was it completely legal? Well, maybe. But more importantly, it spoke to the commitment of the two men who’d signed it. Owen was going with Maddie. He’d officially put it down on paper.
And now she had to let him tag along to California. In another week, he wasn’t going to have a job in Autre anymore.
“So, everyone knows that Bennett Baxter is in town,” Maddie said later that evening as everyone—sans
Bennett—gathered around the big table at the back of Ellie’s. It was another “partner meeting” which meant that Cora, Ellie, Leo, Kennedy, Mitch and several other random friends were also there and that there was food. “He wants to meet you all, but he didn’t want to crash our dinner. He’s staying at Leo’s tonight and is over there working now.”
“He’s crashing at Leo’s?” Josh asked. “The trailer?”
Leo had been living in a trailer behind the bar since he and Ellie had split up. It was nothing fancy. It didn’t even come close to fancy. And that was where the big millionaire investor was going to stay?
Owen actually chuckled at the thought. Bennett seemed enamored with all things bayou and “downhome”—anything different from his rich upbringing. He’d probably love the trailer.
“Where’s Leo going to sleep?” Mitch asked. “Don’t tell me you’re putting Baxter on that couch. He’ll never walk straight again. And that couch will snap Leo in half.”
“Really, he could just go back to New Orleans to stay,” Kennedy said. “He can have people kiss his ass at some swanky hotel instead of expecting us to all do it. At least they’d be getting paid for it.”
“He doesn’t expect anyone here to kiss his ass,” Maddie protested.
“So when he asks me for something tomorrow, I can tell him to fuck off?” Kennedy asked.
Maddie sighed and everyone else laughed.
“Guess that depends what he asks you for,” Owen said with a wink. He hadn’t missed that Kennedy was particularly annoyed by Bennett, and he hadn’t missed that her irritation probably meant something was up between the two of them.
“No, you cannot tell him to fuck off,” Sawyer said. “He’s going to be your boss.”
Kennedy scowled at him. “Well…not really.”
Sawyer nodded. “Yes, really. He’ll own part of the business. You work for the business.”
“Yeah, but Josh and Owen own part of the business, too. I don’t listen to them.”
Sawyer gave his little sister a look. “That’s because Josh and Owen let you get away with that. I don’t think Bennett Baxter will.”
Kennedy did not look happy about that.
Sweet Home Louisiana: Boys of the Bayou Book 2 Page 23