Beauty and the Bayou

by Erin Nicholas

  Kennedy grinned up at him.

  “Hey, Gabe, it’s great to see you guys.”

  “Thrilled to be here,” Gabe said. “It’s been a while.”

  “Are Logan and Caleb with you?”

  “Logan’s girls had a dance competition this weekend and Caleb is working,” Gabe said. “But they said to say hi and they definitely want a rain check.”

  Kennedy nodded. “Any time. You know that. I’m just so glad he texted you. I was shocked but—” She glanced in Juliet’s direction. “There have been some changes around here.”

  The man followed her gaze and gave Juliet a smile. “Very glad to hear it.” He stepped forward and extended a hand to Juliet. “Hi, you must be Juliet.”

  “I am.” She took his hand, completely puzzled.

  “I’m Gabe Trahan. I’m a friend of Sawyer’s.” He glanced at Tori, who had slipped into the room from the other side of the building. “And Josh and Owen’s.”

  “Josh used to work part-time for Gabe at his bar in New Orleans,” Tori said. “Josh and Owen and Sawyer have spent a lot of time up at Trahan’s with Gabe and his brother, Logan.”

  “We’re very glad to be back down here with the gators in the wild, aren’t we, Stella?” Gabe asked the little girl.

  “Soooo glad!” Stella nodded her head so hard her dark curls bounced. “It’s been forever!”

  “It feels like it,” Gabe agreed. He looked at Juliet again. “I’ve only got so many excuses for not building an alligator pond in my backyard.”

  “Someone wants you to build an alligator pond in your backyard?” Juliet asked.

  He pointed to Stella, who was now peering into the tanks full of frogs and turtles that Maddie had put on shelves in the room to occupy the tourist kids while they were waiting for their swamp tours.

  “Did you know that Stella and Sawyer were engaged?” the little boy asked her.

  Juliet’s eyes widened. “Is that right?”

  “Because he’s got the boats and the alligators,” Stella said, turning back. “But he’s old. And he hunts the alligators.” She frowned. “When he works for me, I’m not going to let him do that though.”

  “You’re going to have a swamp boat tour company?” Juliet asked her.

  “I’m going to have this swamp boat tour company.”

  The girl had to be about nine, but she seemed determined and very sure of her career path. Juliet figured there was time for her to learn about conservation measures and other reasons that keeping animal populations under control was important.

  “It’s nice that you’ll let the guys still work for you,” Juliet said.

  Stella shrugged. “They’ll have to stop hunting and I think we need different hats.”

  Juliet grinned at Gabe and he lifted a shoulder. “Girl knows what she likes.”

  Juliet could respect that.

  “So, you can marry him,” Stella told her. “But he still has to do tours. He’s the best tour guide.”

  You can marry him. She was nine. Those words should not have made Juliet feel like someone had sucked all of the oxygen out of the room. They meant nothing. Stella had been planning to marry him for his boats and the alligators after all. She didn’t even know how truly amazing Sawyer was. In every freaking way. But it was just an innocent, little girl thing to say.

  Still, Juliet struggled for that deep breath for a long moment.

  “Sawyer is the best tour guide?” Kennedy asked. “I think Owen’s pretty good.”

  Stella gave her an unimpressed look. “Owen drives fast and he messes around with Wilma and Betty, but he didn’t even know that alligators can go twenty miles per hour in the water.”

  Clearly true knowledge about alligators was the most important thing. “Who are Wilma and Betty?” Juliet asked.

  “The female alligators who are in love with Owen,” Stella said with a little giggle.

  “Alligators can be trained to recognize certain people by their voices and smells,” the little boy piped up.

  “The alligators love Owen?” Tori asked. “You’re sure?”

  “Yes. All girls love Owen,” Stella said with a grin. “He’s super cute.”

  Tori laughed. “Well, I think Josh is cuter.”

  “Josh is cute, too,” Stella agreed.

  “I think I might have my hands full when she gets to be a teenager,” Gabe muttered.

  Juliet had the impression that his hands were already pretty full. She laughed.

  Sawyer hadn’t said anything about any of these people and Juliet wondered why. Obviously, they all knew each other and the Boys of the Bayou well. They’d apparently been here a lot. Stella was, unapologetically, a huge Sawyer fan. How had he not mentioned them?

  “Well, I think also Josh is the best tour guide,” Tori said. “He knows everything about alligators.”

  “Everything?” the little boy asked.

  “That’s Cooper, by the way,” Kennedy said to Juliet. “He’s our human encyclopedia. Just watch.”

  “Well,” Tori said, putting a hand on one hip. “I am a veterinarian and I’ve taught him lots of stuff. I even pulled a fishing hook out of an alligator’s foot about a week ago. The guys saw it and caught him, then held him down while I took it out.”

  Cooper and Stella stared at her.

  “No way,” Cooper said, clearly impressed.

  “Way,” Tori said with a nod. “The guy was mad, but I had to help him, right?”

  “Do you have pictures?” Cooper asked her, looking fascinated and horrified at the same time.

  “I do,” Tori said. “Even a video.”

  Cooper’s eyes got wide. “Did you know that there are American alligators and Chinese alligators and the Chinese alligators are endangered?”

  Tori nodded. “Did you know they have two kinds of walk?”

  Cooper nodded. “A high walk with their belly off the ground and a low walk where it touches! Did you know that an American alligator can weight up to one thousand pounds?”

  Tori smiled. “That’s so big. Did you know that the word alligator comes from the Spanish word el lagarto which means ‘the lizard’?”

  “Yes!” Cooper had inched closer to her throughout the conversation and he was looking at her with wonder.

  So, Sawyer had a fan, but Tori obviously did now, too. Juliet grinned.

  “Really happy that Sawyer invited us down,” Gabe said. He’d moved closer to Juliet and was watching his kids as he spoke.

  They were all talking to one another and Tori, peppering her with questions about other animals. She’d told them about the eagle she’d rescued—though she’d left out the fact that the bird was currently hanging out in Leo’s trailer—and about the river otters. Juliet knew she was worried about Gus. He hadn’t taken the bait in the cage yet, so he was still out, wild and free, and she was afraid he wouldn’t come back. Or that he’d come back just in time to be caught by the wildlife woman.

  “Sawyer invited you down?” Juliet asked Gabe. She was mildly surprised by the invitation portion of that. “You didn’t just schedule a tour?”

  “We’ve tried to schedule a couple,” Gabe said. “But Sawyer hasn’t been up to it.”

  Juliet frowned slightly. “Yeah, it’s been rough for him.”

  “It has.”

  “But you guys came down regularly before?”

  “Absolutely. I used the boat tour to win Stella and Addison over when I was first showing her how we could combine the parenting thing with the dating thing.”

  Juliet smiled. “And it worked?”

  “Definitely. Stella is an adventurer at heart and the bayou won her over immediately.”

  “The bayou and Sawyer.”

  Gabe grinned. “And Sawyer. But it really was about the boats and gators.”

  Juliet shook her head. “It was the way he was clearly enjoying every bit of it, too, and how much he loved watching her discover it all. And the way he let her be curious and try things her way, but also let her know he
was looking out for her. The way he made her feel safe and made her feel interesting and amazing and brave.”

  Gabe looked at her with surprise, but he slowly nodded. “Yeah. It was all of that, too.”

  Juliet swallowed. “Yeah.”

  “And now I know for certain why I finally got that text from him inviting us down here.”

  “Because of me?” she asked.

  “Apparently you’ve made him feel safe and amazing and brave, too.”

  That hit her directly in the heart. God, she hoped she’d made him feel those things. She really wanted him to feel those things. And to think she might be helping him feel them…she got tingles thinking she was making him feel stuff he hadn’t in a while. Could hearts get tingles? It seemed they could.

  “We haven’t seen him up in N’Awlins in a while, either. Glad to know that might change now, too. Missed having him around.”

  Juliet nodded. That didn’t surprise her. Sawyer had really pulled back. That made her want to hug him. Then again, him walking into a room made her want to hug him.

  Which he did just then.

  “Hey, everybody!”

  The kids squealed and Stella and Cooper beelined for him.

  Juliet actually felt her heart flip over in her chest. He looked so good. He’d clearly not overdone on the moonshine. He looked great. Fully awake and ready to go. He was wearing khaki cargo pants and a black Boys of the Bayou shirt that clung to him. He had sunglasses on and a black cap set backward on his head.

  She saw him take a deep breath, but she was sure that no one else would even notice—no one else was watching him as closely as she was—just before he took his sunglasses off, hooking them in the neckline of his shirt, and knelt and opened his arms.

  A thought occurred to her just as Stella threw her arms around his neck.

  “Oh my God, he hasn’t seen the kids since Tommy’s accident, has he?” she asked.

  Gabe was watching his kids greet Sawyer, his eyes looking a little shiny. He shook his head. “Nope.”

  “So, they haven’t seen his scar.” Her gaze was back on the trio.

  “No. I told them he’d been hurt though. They know about it. But they’re both very…inquisitive.”

  “He’s ready for that.” Juliet was sure Sawyer had braced himself.

  She watched Stella pull back and study Sawyer’s face.

  Sawyer just let her look.

  Stella lifted her hand to Sawyer’s scar, touching it gently. “Does it hurt?”

  Sawyer shook his head, swallowing hard. Juliet held her breath.

  “Not as much as it used to. It’s getting better all the time.”

  “I’m glad it was just your face,” Stella told him.

  Juliet hugged her arms around her middle, watching the emotions cross Sawyer’s face.

  “Oh yeah?” Sawyer asked.

  The little girl nodded. “Faces heal better than internal organs. Like hearts. Heart problems can be bad.”

  Juliet felt her breath catch in her throat.

  Sawyer nodded. “Heart problems really can be.”

  “And livers,” Stella added, immediately deflating the emotion around the idea of hearts being hurt. These kids were nine. They were talking about the actual organ. “You’ve only got one liver, so you can’t just get rid of that like you can a kidney.”

  “You can get a liver transplant though,” Cooper informed his sister, moving closer to Sawyer and Stella. “It’s a long list though. So yeah, your face was probably better.”

  Juliet heard Gabe give a soft snort beside her and felt herself smiling.

  “What about a spleen?” Stella asked Cooper. “You only have one but you can live without it, right?”

  “Yes. But you’ll get more infections,” the boy said with a tone that indicated he was the authority on all things related to the spleen. “And you could actually live without any kidneys,” he told Stella. Her eyes grew wider and he looked pleased. “You’d have to go on dialysis, but you could be alive.”

  “You could live with no kidneys at all?” Stella clarified.

  “Yep.”

  “Wow.”

  “But,” Cooper turned back to Sawyer. “Hurting your face was better than hurting your kidneys.”

  Sawyer nodded. “I think I completely agree.” He looked from one kid to the other. “It doesn’t look scary though?”

  They both shook their heads. “You look badass,” Cooper said.

  “Coop,” Gabe said with warning—while clearly trying not to laugh. “I don’t think badass is appropriate for a nine-year-old.”

  “But he does,” Cooper told his father. “And Uncle Logan says sometimes bad words are the only ones that really express feelings fully.”

  “I’m sure he does,” Gabe said, clearly trying to cover a grin. “But Uncle Logan isn’t right about everything.”

  “I’m going to tell him you said that,” Cooper said, giving Gabe a mischievous grin.

  Gabe sighed. “He already knows.”

  Juliet giggled.

  Sawyer also grinned and it made Juliet’s stomach flip. He looked happy and completely at ease. Seeing the kids and talking about his scar had been okay. He was doing alright.

  Seeing him happy and dealing with all of this with a smile, teasing and interacting with the kids with ease, made her feel a sense of happiness herself that she could only compare to how she felt when she saw Chase surrounded by the Landrys. Seeing someone she loved happy like that gave her a sense of deep satisfaction that was hard to explain.

  And she definitely loved Sawyer Landry.

  And she kind of wanted to tell him that suddenly.

  “Can we go now?” Stella asked. “I haven’t been out on the water in forever.”

  Sawyer grinned and stretched to his feet. He put a hand on her head. “We can definitely go now. I’m really sorry it’s been so long.”

  Juliet heard the little catch in his voice, but no one else seemed to notice. The kids cheered and Gabe and Kennedy grinned. Tori led the kids out to the dock to get them onto the boats and Gabe followed them out.

  Kennedy started after them but at the last minute turned back, crossed to Juliet, pulled her into a hug and whispered, “Thank you for making him smile again.”

  Juliet squeezed her. “It’s the kids.”

  “You know it’s not the kids.” Kennedy let her go, gave her brother a smile, and headed out to the dock.

  Through the window, Juliet saw Tori applying spray sunscreen. Kennedy joined them and started helping the kids with their hats and life jackets.

  Juliet turned to Sawyer. “This is a big deal, isn’t it?”

  But instead of answering, he stepped close, cupped the back of her head, and pulled her up against his body. He kissed her, long and deep and sweet. Juliet wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him back. She was going to take that as a yes. She was so happy for him.

  It was long seconds before he lifted his head and let her settle back on her heels.

  “It’s a big deal,” he confirmed. “And it’s because of you.”

  Juliet blinked up at him. “What?”

  He nodded. “I haven’t been able to face these people, Juliet. I didn’t know how to deal with their enthusiasm for something I hated. I didn’t want to try to fake it with them like I do with strangers. But if you can get back on your bike after a stroke, I can get back on that bayou after Tommy.”

  Juliet took all of that in, her heart expanding as he said it. “Wow,” she told him when he’d stopped. “That’s…amazing.”

  “You’re amazing. You live the life you want to live. Regardless of some physical weakness, some deeply engrained what-if scenarios, and a fear of water. I want to do that, too.”

  Juliet felt a strange combination of pride and love and trepidation.

  This guy was putting her up on a pedestal that she wasn’t so sure she deserved.

  She loved that he admired her. She loved the way he looked at her as if she was amazing and
as if he was…in love with her.

  That was truly how he looked at her. Like he was falling for her. And wow, that did things to her she could hardly put into words.

  But this was dangerous. He was falling for this idea of her that she wanted to be true but that she wasn’t sure was entirely real.

  She’d gotten back on the bike. But the bike wasn’t where she’d had the stroke and almost drowned. She had not gotten over her fear of water.

  “Sawyer, I’m not all that brave. Don’t think that I don’t ever worry or—”

  “Woman, your worrying is one of the sexiest and sweetest things about you,” he said with a grin that stopped her talking.

  God, she loved when he smiled like that. He looked so damned happy.

  “Will you go out on the tour with us?” he asked, running a hand down her arm and linking their fingers. “I would love to show you what the tours are like and have you get to know these people better. I’d also love to have you there in case I…start to overreact to something.”

  Oh, crap. He needed her support.

  Out on the water.

  The water.

  Her gut clenched thinking about it. If she closed her eyes and let her mind go there, she could still feel the water pressing in on her, as if it was trying to push her down, as if it was sucking the air out of her lungs, as if she was wrapped in invisible rope, unable to move and fight. She could remember the moment when she realized that she wasn’t strong enough to get out of it by herself. The fear, the helplessness, then the resignation. Then the relief when she felt her brother’s arms around her.

  Her heart raced and she felt light-headed at the idea of being out on the wild waters of the bayou, out of reach of solid land, nothing keeping her from going under but a lightweight boat propelled by a big fan at the back.

  Then she looked up at the man in front of her.

  Okay, nothing but the boat and Sawyer.

  Sawyer would be there.

  She looked up into his eyes and felt her head nodding. How could she say no? He was a pro. He’d done this a million times. The bayou wasn’t that deep. She’d have a life jacket on. Stella wasn’t afraid.

  And Sawyer was asking her. Sawyer needed her.

  He admired that she’d fought for her bike rides. And she had. She’d done that. She’d gotten on that bike in spite of the risks. That wasn’t nothing.