She nodded, but her eyes were on his face, almost as if she couldn’t look away. “Good, use that accent. But don’t you dare call me chère or honey or baby or anything but Lisa or Ms. Daley or Girl I’m Not Interested In. You know what, don’t call me anything at all. Go away.”

He sighed as she started to walk away again. “Chèr…Lisa, come on. Let me give you a ride. We’re going to the same place.”

She turned on him so fast he almost fell back on his ass. “No. No, we’re not because you’re going to move. I was there first. I call dibs.”

What the hell? “You can’t call dibs on an entire building. I signed a lease. I can’t break it now.”

At least Charlotte Taggart had. He jogged and managed to get in front of her. He’d dug himself a deep hole and now he realized he’d lied. Not interested? Bullshit. She scared him. She reminded him of Josette. Josette, who’d always been too smart for him. Josette, who’d convinced him she could be happy staying in Papillon Bayou.

Josette hadn’t even liked walking into Guidry’s, much less would she have been caught behind a bar. He was being an asshole who was putting punishment on a woman who hadn’t earned it.

“What can I call you? Because Lisa is pretty, but I’m a Cajun and we live to call women pet names. It’s in our natures. And I’m sorry about what I said to you those months back. The truth of the matter is you scare the hell out of me and I reacted poorly. Please forgive me.”

She stared at him. “I scare you?”

Yep. She did then and she did now, too. Even with her face glowing like a damn disco ball and half a strip club buffet still somehow hanging on her, she was the most tempting thing he’d seen in years. “You scare the shit out of me, chè…woman I lied about not being interested in. The trouble is I’ve always known I was going home. That’s why I’ve kept all my relationships light. When you walked up to me that day, well, I knew you weren’t the type to have a one-night stand, and that’s about all I do.”

“Because you don’t want to hurt someone?”

It was good she understood. “That’s right.”