Page 94 of Crazy Rich Cajuns

“Of course not.”Ellie looked at her.“You’re afraid of being me.”

Kennedy had almost been expecting that answer.It still made her take a quick little breath of surprise.

But she let the air out quickly.She’d realized this at some point over the past four days.Being back in Autre after the trip to Savannah had made her feel itchy.She’d felt restless and, yeah, pissed off.Because as she sat in front of the computer, answering the phone, interacting with the people the way she always had, she’d started to feel discontented.And that made her mad.She wanted to just be fine in Autre.She wanted to just be there for everyone else.

But now she knew there was more.She could do more.

She loved Boys of the Bayou.She was proud of it.It was a fabulous company run by people she loved with all her heart.

But she could do more than answer phones.

A fact that she’d been happily ignoring for a while now.A couple of years, if she was honest.

Now she couldn’t ignore it anymore.Now she’d gotten a taste of themore.And now she was unhappy.Mad.

But not at Bennett.Not exactly.Yes, she’d been a little hurt by his surprise that she was going to start working with Charles.But she’d realized what Ellie had just said out loud on her first day back in Autre.Bennett had been surprised by her interest in politics.

But not as surprised asshe’dbeen.

And she was mad at herself.

She didn’t like feeling insecure and restless.She’d liked feeling like she was the Leo of the group.The settled one.The wise one who saw the big picture and could appreciate the simple things in life.The one who was there to help support everyone else.

She wasn’t Leo.Not deep down.

She was Ellie.

“Do you know why I’m scared of being the Ellie?”

Ellie paused, then took a deep breath.She gave the pot another stir and then set the spoon to the side.She turned to face Kennedy.

“Because I upset everything and everyone when I decided to change things up.”

Kennedy nodded.“But that’s not all of it.”

“Okay.”

“Because it didn’t work out.”Kennedy took a deep breath.“You upset everything and everyone.But we…adjusted.Kind of, at least.And then—” She shrugged.“It didn’t work out.You came right back to where you started.It was all for nothing.”

“Oh.”Ellie moved in close.“Honey, is that what you think happened?”

“Isn’t it?”

“No.”Ellie gave her a small smile.“Not at all.”

“You…were with another guy.”

Ellie nodded.“Trevor was…mostly a mistake.But he was a mistake I had to make.I just made it…out of order.”She shook her head.“I didn’t make a lot of mistakes…” She frowned, as if thinking.“I didn’t makeanymistakes before I met Leo.”

Kennedy tried not to laugh, but she couldn’t hold back the soft chuckle.“Seriously?”

Ellie grinned.“Seriously.Mistakes are what happen when you try new stuff and take chances.I didn’t do that before I met Leo.So, I started thinking that maybe I hadn’t lived enough before I settled down.Because I hadn’t done anything big and crazy and hard on my own.So I took those classes in New Orleans and met Trevor and made new friends and—”

“Classes?”Kennedy interrupted.“What classes?”

“I took those business and marketing classes.At the community college.Oh, and the burlesque classes.”

Kennedy shook her head.She’d known about Ellie’s fascination with burlesque and had even gone to one of the clubs in New Orleans with her a couple of times.“You were takingcollegeclasses?”

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