Four Weddings and a Swamp Boat Tour - Erin Nicholas Page 0,66
her grandfather had proposed. She should ask about that story.
“Paige?” Mitch nudged her. “Sawyer told you about Maddie and Owen?”
“Oh, yeah.” Paige shook herself and focused. “I asked him how Maddie and Owen met, and he told me they grew up together and had been together until she went to live with her grandparents in California and got back together when she came home after her brother died.”
“He even told you about Tommy dying?”
Paige frowned slightly at the concerned look on Mitch’s face. “Yeah. Why?”
“That’s…” Mitch shook his head. “That’s pretty big. Tommy was Sawyer’s best friend. His death was terrible and really hard on Sawyer in particular.”
That had been easy to read in Sawyer’s face. “That was obvious,” she agreed. “But yes, he told me.”
“Wow.” Mitch gave her a little smile. “It’s a big deal he felt comfortable telling you that.”
Paige felt a little flutter in her chest. “He also told me about how Tori came down here to find Josh when she came back to Louisiana for Mardi Gras last year. I knew about their story mostly—how they met on Mardi Gras and then agreed to find each other again the next year if they were still interested—but I didn’t know she caught a ride on one of your tour buses and came down here to find him when they didn’t reconnect in New Orleans.”
That had sounded so out of character for her friend, and prior to seeing Tori and Josh together, Paige wasn’t sure she would have believed that story, but now she had no trouble imagining Tori doing anything to get to Josh. And vice versa.
Mitch grinned. “Yep, the Boys of the Bayou dock has seen a lot of romance.”
Paige nodded. “Exactly. So, shouldn’t they all be saying their vows on the site where it all began?”
“You mean have the weddings on the dock?”
“Well, I think Josh and Tori should have theirs on the main dock. Juliet and Sawyer should have theirs on the dock they built together. And Maddie and Owen should get married on an airboat in the cove, where Maddie almost shot an alligator for him.”
Mitch just stared at her. Paige bit her lip.
What did she know about all of this? These people weren’t her friends. She’d been in town for a day. One day. What the hell was she doing? She was planning their weddings? The minute they’d started talking about bouquets she should have come up with an excuse and high-tailed it out of Ellie’s. Instead, she’d sat there listening to it all, suggesting the girls should be sharing their big day, putting that idea in their heads. Then she’d been thinking about the weddings all day. She’d asked Sawyer about their love stories, for fuck’s sake.
“Say something,” she finally told Mitch.
“That’s sexy as hell.”
She blinked at him. “What is?”
“You getting involved. Wanting to help the girls. Having these ideas. These romantic ideas.”
She sighed. “They are romantic, aren’t they?”
Dammit.
He grinned. “They are.”
“Well, you came to my town and saved the day.”
“You’re doing this for me? That’s even hotter.”
She laughed. “I don’t know who I’m doing it for. I’m just…” She shrugged. “Doing it.”
His smile softened. “Now that, might be the hottest thing of all.”
She shook her head, but she couldn’t help but notice the flip in her chest in the general vicinity of her heart. “You find weird things sexy.”
He slid an inch closer. “Nah. You get it. You found it sexy when I rewired the town square in Appleby.”
She had. She’d even admitted that to him. “So being helpful is an aphrodisiac?”
“I think it’s the caring about other people.” He lifted a hand to tuck a strand of hair behind her ear.
“But the people in Appleby were strangers to you. And all of these people are strangers to me except Tori. Why do I care that Maddie and Owen should get married on an airboat?” She shook her head, then sighed. “But they really should.”
She could see it clearly in her mind. Even just hearing the story from Sawyer, she could picture how it had all happened, and it seemed that even if that wasn’t the moment they’d fallen in love—or realized they were in love—that moment showed them what being in love meant.
“Well, this is going to sound conceited,” Mitch said. “But me caring about Appleby, and you caring about these weddings, isn’t about who they are to us. It’s about who we are. We see something we can help with, so we do.” He lifted a shoulder as