Bailey looked at Chase. He was staring at Ellie. “Gator balls?”
“Gator Bells.” Ellie shook her head. “Like Jingle Bells. But with gators. Because it’s the bayou.”
“Gators don’t…jingle…though,” Chase said.
Bailey bit her bottom lip. Dammit. These people were addictive. Nuts. But addictive. Fun. Irreverent. Goofy. Clearly loving. She wanted some of all of that.
“It’s just a gimmick,” Ellie said with a shrug.
“But, I mean, at least make it Rudolph the Red-Nosed Gator, or something,” Chase said. “Then at least it’s an animal and kind of makes some sense to substitute the gator in there.”
Ellie narrowed her eyes.
“Or Grandma Got Run Over By a Gator,” Chase said, as if suddenly inspired. “Now that would totally work.”
Ellie propped her hand on her hip. “I have a shot gun and very good aim that says that would never happen.”
“And a really good gator gumbo recipe,” Leo added.
Ellie nodded.
Chase laughed and pulled Ellie in for a hug. “What was I thinking?”
“But it would be funny if it was run like a murder mystery dinner theater thing. Where the tourists start here and get their first clue, then go out on a bayou tour and gather other clues trying to find where the guilty gator is hiding out. Then when they get to the final destination, there are gator Christmas cookies and green hot chocolate.” Bailey frowned. “I don’t know how you’d make hot chocolate green, though. Maybe just green marshmallows?”
Chase, Ellie, and Leo all turned to face Bailey at once. As they stared at her, she felt her own eyes getting wide, realizing she’d just blurted that idea out. And no one was saying anything.
She felt her cheeks heat. “Sorry. That was silly.”
But Chase gave her a huge grin and then laughed. “That’s amazing.”
“If we make white hot chocolate, we could turn it green with food coloring,” Ellie said.
“I’m totally telling Maddie,” Chase said with a nod.
“Not if I get there first,” Leo said, starting up the ramp.
“And you’re going to take full credit?” Chase called after him.
“Unless she hates it,” Leo said. “Then I’ll tell her it was Bailey.” He gave Bailey a wink and disappeared around the corner of the building.
Ellie shook her head watching him go. “He won’t really,” she told Bailey. “He’ll tell Maddie it’s your idea. That’s a lot of fun.”
“You think so?” Bailey wasn’t sure where the idea had come from. She’d just been picturing an alligator wearing a red Santa hat and the idea had popped into her head.
“So you all head out and decorate the cabin for the general tour,” Ellie said, handing Chase a box and Bailey a bag.
A strand of lights hung out of the top of the surprisingly heavy bag.
“It’s like a sleigh ride up north,” Ellie went on. “Except with an airboat rather than a sleigh. And without the snow. And…okay, it’s really like a swamp boat tour but with Christmas lights.”
Bailey laughed at that.
“That’s really a thing?” Chase asked.
“Of course it’s a thing. It’s great,” Ellie said. “All the cabins out there decorate and we string lights from the cypress trees and every dock plays a different Christmas song and has different treats to hand out.”
“Sounds like trick-or-treating, but with a Christmas theme,” Chase said.
“Except that we do the trick-or-treating at Halloween,” Ellie said.
“You do?” he asked. “Really? People go cabin to cabin trick-or-treating in boats?”
“Of course.” Ellie’s look said that was a really stupid question. “The bayou is perfect for Halloween.”
“The Spanish moss and stuff is kind of creepy,” Chase agreed.
“Not to mention the ghosts,” Ellie added.
Chase laughed. “Right.” Then he looked at Ellie and sobered. “Wait. The ghosts? For real?”
“The bayou is one of the most haunted places there is,” Bailey said. “Everyone knows that.” There were many published stories of murders and disappearances and hauntings in and around the bayou and she’d heard plenty of unpublished ones in her time working up and down the waters from the locals who had been there for most of their lives.
Chase looked at her. “You believe in ghosts?”
“I don’t really have a reason not to,” she said honestly.
“You’re a woman of science.”
She rolled her eyes. “Any scientist who tells you that they can explain everything is too conceited to have true credibility. Humility is a very important part of discovery.” She lifted a brow. “Don’t tell me that you think modern medicine can explain and fix everything that can go wrong with the human body.”
He lifted the mason jar of homemade hangover cure he still held. “Point taken.”
Bailey looked over to find Ellie watching her with a pleased smile.
“I like you,” the older woman said simply.
That felt like a huge compliment. And possibly an invitation to a crawfish boil. Besides their bayou boat tours and their general wackiness, the Landrys were well-known for their crawfish boils. She’d tried twice to come up with a reason to hang around long enough to be invited to one. Of course, they’d all thought she was there to confiscate their favorite otter so the chances of getting that invite had probably been pretty slim anyway. But now…
“Well, sounds like there’s a cabin that needs decorating.” Chase looked at Bailey. “You up for some decorating?”
“You have to do it,” Ellie said, taking him by the arm, turning him, and pushing him toward the boat. “Everyone else is busy and we’re doing the first tour tonight after dark. So get your butts out there.”
Chase looked at Bailey. “You okay to stick around?”
She pretended to be nonchalant. “Sure.” But the idea of sticking around was far too appealing.
“Well, come on then.” Ellie took her arm and nudged her in the direction of the boat, too.
Chase stepped on first, set his box down, then turned to offer her a hand. She took it and just like some stupid romantic movie, she felt tingles trip up her arm.
He looked up, his gaze catching on hers, as if he felt it too at that moment.
She didn’t know what else to do, but she squeezed his fingers quickly. He gave her a smile and then helped her onto the boat.
Of course, she should have been expecting what happened next. She and Chase were touching, after all.
Looking into his eyes instead of where she was stepping, she put her foot too far to the edge of the step and as she shifted her weight forward to get onto the boat, her foot slid and she ended up falling into Chase.
He caught her—also like some stupid romantic movie—but the bag she was holding whacked him in the leg and he winced. She looked down. It didn’t just hold strands of lights. There was also a big, hard plastic, gold-glitter covered star. With very sharp points. One of which was poking into his leg.
Bailey quickly shifted to move the bag away from his leg but that only managed to press her hips into his.