Page 18 of Crazy Rich Cajuns

Kennedy grinned, too.“Seriously though.It’s like the city boys who go to the dude ranches.He’s got some stupid fascination with all of this.The crawfish boils and the alligator hunts are so different from…” She searched her mind for something she knew about what rich people did, “…playing croquet on the front lawn of their mansion that he gets all excited and into it.”

“Do people actually play croquet anymore?”Maddie asked.

Hell if Kennedy knew.She barely knew what croquet was.“Well, they play something stupid and boring, I’m sure.”

“I get it,” Juliet said.“You’re the Jack and he’s the Rose.”

Maddie and Kennedy both looked at her.

“Titanic?”Juliet asked when they just blinked at her without saying anything.“You’re Jack.The everyday, normal one.Bennett’s Rose, the rich, high-society one.And when Bennett comes down here to the bayou, it’s like when Rose meets Jack on the lower decks for the party and dancing.”

Maddie and Kennedy looked at one another.Then shrugged.

“Yeah, it’s like that,” Kennedy agreed.

Juliet grinned.

“Anyway, he’s enamored with the whole thing,” Kennedy said.“Which is fine.We’re cool.We’re fun.And he and I do have some definite sparks.”

“And what happens after this weekend?”Maddie asked.

Kennedy flipped the top of her suitcase shut and zipped the zipper.Then she tugged it off the bed and let it thunk to the floor.“We’ll have a great time until it burns out and then…” She shrugged.“It will burn out.”She looked at Juliet.“Fortunately, the chance of either of us freezing to death in the water while the other floats on a door are pretty slim down here.”

“You’ll keep…doing this…even after Savannah?”Maddie pressed.

Kennedy shrugged.“Maybe.For a little while.”

Hell, she hadn’t even been able to keep a guy shedidhave things in common with going for more than six months.No way were she and Bennett going to keep this up for longer than that.But in the meantime, it could be fun.

“But he owns part of the business,” Juliet pointed out.“He’llkeepcoming down.”

“After he’s eaten his fill of crawfish and gumbo and gotten liquored up on moonshine and done the airboat thing enough, he’ll get tired of it,” Kennedy said.“That’s not really his thing.It’s just fun because it’s different right now.I’m guessing in a few months we start seeing less and less of him.”

“He’ll still be an owner though,” Juliet pressed.“He’ll be here once in a while, right?”

Kennedy shrugged.“Sure.Probably.”

“It won’t be awkward that you had a fling and then broke up when he shows up from time to time?”

Kennedy laughed as she rolled her suitcase into the hallway.“Oh, honey, this town is full of guys I’ve dated and broken up with and run into at the gas station and bar on a regular basis.Just because you’ve seen each other naked is no reason that you can’t talk about the weather while standing in the grocery store line.”

Thank goodness.Or she’d never be able to go anywhere in Autre outside of her family’s businesses.She hadn’t slept with all of the guys she’d dated over the years.But she’d been hung up on a couple, had a couple pretty hung up on her, dated a couple at the same time—without them knowing that, at least for a month or so—and even had a pregnancy scare with one.She had a history in this town.What could she say?She’d spent twenty-five years here and she liked men.But she also realized that stuff happened.People got together and they broke up and, in a small town, you had to keep living beside each other without a whole lot of drama.When they ran into one another around town, they had to all try to be grown-ups.Some of them were better at that than others, of course.

And speaking of grown-ups…

“Besides,” Kennedy said, hoisting her suitcase up and starting down the stairs with Maddie and Juliet behind her.“A definite perk to having a fling with a mature, well-educated, sophisticated guy like Bennett Baxter is that I’m sure the breakup will also be mature.We’ll agree on all the reasons it won’t work and that it’s best for the business if we get along.He’ll still want to hang out with my family.I’ll still want to tease him.We’ll both still like and respect each other, we’ll just be able to acknowledge that great sex doesn’t mean the whole relationship will work out.”She stopped at the bottom of the steps and looked up.“I definitely want a little taste, but I’m not looking for seven courses here.”

Maddie rolled her eyes.“You’re already thinking about the hors d’oeuvres at the party, aren’t you?”

Kennedy waggled her eyebrows.“Maybe.”

“Hors d’oeuvres?”Juliet asked.

Maddie laughed.“Kennedy loves hors d’oeuvres.I guarantee that the first thing she thought of when Bennett asked her to go to this party was cocktail wieners wrapped in croissant dough.”

Kennedy shook her head.“Not true.”She grinned at Juliet.“Stuffed mushrooms first.Thenmini pigs in a blanket.”

“You’re really into hors d’oeuvres?”Juliet asked.

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