Page 80 of Crazy Rich Cajuns

“Hi.”

Maria’s lips pinched.

“A crawfish boil,” Bennett repeated.“That’s perfect.It’s different and fun and easy.”He looked at Kennedy.“Is it easy?”

She nodded.“Relatively.Very few ingredients and no dishes required.”

Maria’s lips pinched even tighter.

“I’m a great cook,” Kennedy told her.“But the only things I can do quickly, easily, and in that quantity are grits, gumbo, and crawfish.Gumbo will take too long and grits are not really a whole meal.But a pot full of crawfish, corn, potatoes and sausage, along with a few sides and some beer, and you’re set.”

Maria ran a finger over the center of her forehead, as she’d done the first night.“You want me to have a crawfish boil in my backyard for my husband’s retirement from the Senate?”Maria asked.

“You can have it in the front yard if you want,” Bennett said.

Kennedy pinched him.Even she knew when not to be sassy.

“Bennett,” Maria started.

“We’ll take care of everything,” Kennedy heard herself say.Maria looked surprised.But it was the grin Bennett gave her that made Kennedy nod.“If you’ll just turn it over to us, we can definitely throw together a party for fifty in time for the guests to arrive.It will be…bayou chic.”

Maria’s eyebrows shot up.“Bayou chic?”

“Sure,” Kennedy said, already regretting it.“A great combination of you and Preston’s backgrounds and lives.Casual but elegant.”

She had no idea how to pull this off.

“You can do that?”Maria asked.

“Sure.”She really didn’t know.Ellie and Cora could help her with the food via phone, but she was going to have to tap into other resources for the ambiance.But she smiled.She had Maddie and Juliet.They were both city girls.Or at least had been for a while.Maddie’s grandmother in California, where she’d lived for over a decade, had money.Juliet’s dad was a big investor and they even had a yacht.Those girls could surely help her figure out how to decorate so it looked less like Ellie’s place on the bayou and more like a place Maria Baxter would be seen.

But it wouldtastelike Ellie’s place on the bayou.And Kennedy knew from experience that once people started eating, everything else became less important.

“Fine.”Maria lifted her chin.“It’s all in your hands.”She shot her son a look.“I’m trusting you with this decision.”

Kennedy gulped.

She did not think that Maria was referring to his decision to throw a crawfish boil tonight.

Bennett knew very wellhow quickly things could get done if you were willing to pay for it.The Baxter credit cards could absolutely get things done quickly.

But Kennedy Landry could get things done quickly, too.And without interest.

She’d had gotten dressed, pulled her hair up, and parked herself at the breakfast bar in the kitchen with her phone, a pad of paper, a pen, and all of the Baxter’s guests gathered around.

Kennedy’s first, and only, phone call had been to Autre.Of course.As she talked to Ellie, Cora, Juliet, and Maddie on speakerphone from Ellie’s, she made lists and wrote instructions on the notepad, then tore the pieces of paper off and handed them to the people around her.

Kennedy had told them that they needed everyone on deck to help Maria and Preston pull this off, and everyone had been more than willing to help.Bennett had caught his mother off to one side looking misty-eyed and a little awed.He wondered when the last time was that Maria Baxter had asked for help.Did she realize that she did have actual friends, people who wanted her to succeed and be happy?

Bennett’s heart had swelled when he realized that Kennedy was the one showing her that.Because of course she was.She was a Landry.They might know crawfish boils and airboats and the bayou like no one else, but their true specialty was friends and family.

Kennedy and Bennett had gone out to find the right pots for the boil and to choose the crawfish and pick up the needed spices.Duke and Jo had been sent to find the corn and potatoes.Even Duke’s mom and Bennett’s grandmother had been given a task—finding the tablecloths for the tables and enough small hand towels for everyone attending.Then Kennedy instructed them to wet and roll the hand towels and arrange them in a bucket of water with lemon slices.It was, evidently, a classier way for everyone to keep their hands clean than just paper napkins and was, thanks to Juliet saying, “You know, like they do in first class when you fly.”The Landrys didn’t know.So she’d explained it directly to Maria, who definitely knew.

Jo, Sarah, and Tawny were now sitting at the picnic tables filling the mason jars with a mix of water and essential oils—that they’d been sent out to procure earlier—with a floating candle on top.Apparently, they were not only pretty but also worked as a natural bug repellent.Bennett knew that had come from Cora.

His cousins, Steve and Brian, had been in charge of getting two “old-looking” wheelbarrows and “nice-looking” metal buckets.The wheelbarrows were now filled with ice and one held the bottled beer, while the other held bottled root beer and cream soda.The metal buckets were going to be placed on the tables for the crawfish shells and corn cobs.At this moment, Steve and Brian were painting crawfish on the sides of those buckets.Apparently, they hadn’t been “nice looking” enough.At least, according to their wives.

Within a few hours, six big, wooden picnic tables had been delivered to the backyard, crawfish were boiling, beer was chilling, and the entire house smelled like heaven.

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