Page 65 of Crazy Rich Cajuns

“Because that’s what kept me from bringing you up here earlier when you were totally sober.”

He felt her smile against his skin, but she didn’t say anything.Until they’d been quiet again for a few minutes.

“I don’t have a thing.”

Bennett frowned.“What?”She’d said it very quietly, but he also didn’t understand what she meant.

“I don’t have a thing.Like your foundation and the environment and all the stuff you do.Or like Tori and Maddie and Juliet have.”

Bennett stroked his hand up and down her back.“You do have a thing,” he told her.

“Not really.”

It was just what Teddy had said downstairs.Maybe they’d been talking about it.

“You do,” Bennett insisted.“There’s no one like you, Kennedy.You make people happy.You make them feel supported.You’re like…coming home.You make me take a big deep breath when I see you and let me just…be happy.”

She didn’t say anything to that.

“You…you’re like your grandpa,” he said, feeling the need to go on.“You know how he always sits on that same stool?And he’s always got a grin and a story?He’ll be the first one to give you advice and to tell you you’re being a dumbass, to keep you grounded, but he’ll somehow also make you feel like he thinks you’re awesome and can do anything.He’s dependable, always the same.He’s…a rock,” Bennett said, as he had about Kennedy earlier.“He’s exactly who you think he is and if he tells you something, you know he means it and you can count on it.That’s definitely a thing.Something a lot of people can’t be.”

She still didn’t say anything.He wondered if she’d fallen asleep.

“Ken?”

Finally, she sighed.“I don’t want to be like my grandpa.”

Bennett tried to look down at her but could only see the top of her head.“What?Why not?Thought you loved Leo more than anyone.”

She nodded, her cheek moving against his chest.“I do, of course.But he…frustrates me.He’s a pushover.”

Bennett frowned.“That’s not how I see him.”

“You weren’t there when my grandma broke up with him.”

Oh.Yeah.Bennett had come along after the elder Landrys were already getting back together.They’d been married for years.Then they’d split up but had stayed close friends.Leo had moved out but only as far as the trailer behind the house he’d shared with Ellie.He’d even slept on the couch in that house whenever it rained because the trailer leaked.He’d continued to do things for Ellie around the house and help out at the bar.He sat on the same stool that he now occupied, and always had, throughout their breakup.He’d never really left her.He’d just, apparently, given her the space she’d thought she needed.

“He didn’t want to break up?”Bennett asked.

“No.Definitely not.I mean, he knew that they were fighting a lot and that she thought she was unhappy, so he wanted to break up if that’s what she wanted or what would make them both happy.But he was never going toleaveher.Not really.He was always going to be there for her, no matter what she needed.No matter what she did.Or who she did.”The last few words were more of a mutter.

Bennett tightened his arm around her.“Their breakup was hard on you, I’m guessing.”

“I just…” She paused for several seconds.Then she looked up at him.“I pitied him,” she said.“He just sat there.Right there at that bar.Slept right outside her back door.Was always there.She knew he would always be there.And she got to do whatever she wanted.And I hated seeing that.I hated seeing him just take it.And I hated feeling sorry for him.He’s my favorite person.He’s the most loving person I’ve ever met.He will always put other people first.He will do anything to make people smile.He would doanythingto keep our family safe.But she just took him for granted.And then he was there when she was ready to come back.Just like she knew he would be.”

“Are you more upset that they broke up or that they got back together?”Bennett asked.

She seemed to have to think about that.But finally she said, “Both.But maybe the getting back together.I mean, I like them together.He’s definitely happier with her than without.And my family is happier now that they’re back together.But…it’s like he doesn’t have a thing, either,” she said.“He’s just there.Helping everyone else dotheirthings.Why can’thehave a thing?”

Bennett didn’t know what to say to that.Frankly, she had a point.Leo was the guy who built everyone else up to go off and do their things.The family hadn’t gone too far from him.His grandsons—Josh, Sawyer, Owen, and Mitch—all still worked in Autre in the business that Leo had handed down to them.His son and daughter still lived in Autre, too, though they worked in New Orleans.He was surrounded by people and friends he’d known all his life.

“Maybe he’s doing his thing,” Bennett suggested.“Maybe he likes being that rock.Everyone needs a solid place to start from and to rely on when things go wonky.Maybe he looks at it as him having a hand inallof those things everyone does.Those are all kind of his thing.”

“Did you have that?”she asked.“Were your parents a solid place to start for you to go do all your amazing things?Because they had their own things at the same time.”

Bennett took a deep breath and shook his head.“No.I mean, the path was solid if I wanted to follow what they’d laid out.And I did for a long time.But veering off of that got…rocky.Definitely not like Leo, who lets everyone figure their stuff out and is just there, being supportive no matter what.”

“You veered off your path?”

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