Page 19 of Crazy Rich Cajuns

Kennedy grabbed her purse off the table by the door and pulled the front door open, rolling her suitcase out onto the porch.“Love them.Love everything about them,” she confessed.

“Really?”Juliet seemed puzzled.

Kennedy propped a hand on her hip.“Do you know how many different tastes and combinations and textures you can get before you ever get even close to full with hors d’oeuvres?”Kennedy asked.“Dozens.Tons.You can have crunchy, soft, salty, sweet, exotic, basic, saucy…” She sighed.“And then there are the dips.Oh my God, I could eat dip all night.”

Juliet laughed.“I forget that you’re a cook.You definitely know good food being from here.”

Kennedy straightened and frowned.“Yeah, well, around here, no one would consider that food.It’s too small, doesn’t all have seafood in it, and isn’t covered in cayenne.”

Juliet studied her and Kennedy shifted her weight.Juliet was surprisingly insightful.Kennedy loved how the other woman had brought Sawyer out of his shell over the past couple of weeks, but it made Kennedy jumpy.

“I like them because you get little tastes of lots of different things without getting too full,” she said.

“Or having to commit to one big thing,” Maddie said.

Kennedy lifted an eyebrow.Maddie thought she knew Kennedy.And maybe she did.A little.But Kennedy wasn’t a commitment-phobe.Good lord, she came from a family of people who fell in love hard and fast and definitely forever.Even her grandparents had tried splitting up and it hadn’t stuck.“Well, it’s a lot easier to spit out a small mouthful of something you don’t like than dump an entire plate, you know?”

Maddie laughed.“Got it.”

Kennedy turned to Juliet.“And if you tell my grandma or Cora that I said not all food has to have Cajun spice, I’ll deny it…and I’ll make sure another bat gets caught up in your mosquito netting.”

Juliet’s eyes widened.“You heard about that?”

Kennedy narrowed her eyes.“We all hear about everything eventually.”

“Your secret’s safe with me.”

Maddie laughed.“Enjoy the time you’ve got until Juliet figures out you’re a big softie and stops being afraid of you,” she told Kennedy.

Kennedy stuck her tongue out.Shewasa big softie and she had a suspicion that Juliet already had an inkling.

Kennedy got that from her grandpa.Along with her foul language, her sense of humor, her no-bullshit attitude, and her fear of missing out.Leo always wanted to be in the thick of everything and Kennedy had definitely inherited that.

Which was why she figured that she got her sense of relationships from him.

Leo had a tendency to stick and stick hard to the things and people in his life.From his business to his family, Leo was all in, all the time.Even with the food he ate.He loved huge helpings of the same food he’d been eating for fifty years in the same restaurant from the same barstool.He didn’t sample.He didn’t try different tastes.He didn’t mix things up.He’d never spit anything out because he’d never try anything new.It was always the same thing.He’d found what he loved and he didn’t waver from it.Ever.If he gave you his allegiance, there wasn’t anything that was going to shake it.Even if you tried to push him away and didn’t treat him so good.

Kennedy could just look at her grandmother and see that.She loved Ellie.She did.So much.But she’d hated everything about Ellie and Leo breaking up, and she’dhatedwhen Ellie had dated Trevor—a much younger guy from New Orleans—for a while.Trevor had been great.Had fit right in.Everyone had loved him.Even Leo.Trevor had treated Ellie well.She’d been happy.In fact, she and Leo had both seemed happier when they hadn’t been living together.Jerry, their son and Kennedy’s dad, had explained to Kennedy that Ellie and Leo had met when they were very young and had gotten married within four months of knowing each other.That was par for the course with the Landry family—fall fast and do something over-the-top about it.But it seemed that Ellie and Leo had needed some time apart eventually.

They were back together now and happier than ever, and Kennedy really tried to focus on that.But damn…she just couldn’t quite get past the idea that Leo had never faltered.What if Ellie hadn’t come back to him?He would have sat on that stool at her bar and been her friend and loved her in spite of her going on with her life without him.

Kennedy was very afraid of falling too fast and hard and then not being able to un-stick.

That’s why she liked hors d’oeuvres.You could sample a lot of things and toss the ones you didn’t like without guilt.

And yeah, also the part about them not all having crawfish and cayenne in them.

She loved her Cajun roots and the food and everything else that went along with it, but there was a whole big world out there full of…other stuff.Other food, other tastes, other music, other history and traditions.There was nothing wrong with sampling a little bit of all of that, too.

Just then, a shiny silver BMW pulled up at the curb.Driven by a hot guy with a little stubble, wearing a T-shirt and jeans.And glasses.

Kennedy sighed and looked at the girls.“Is it just me, or does he send very mixed messages?”

“You mean smart and rich along with downhome and country?”Maddie asked.

“Yeah, that.”

“Is it the blue jeans and the BMW?”Juliet asked.

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