He looked over at Ray. “What never changes?”

Ray smiled. “The way you still check out Bryce every morning when we come in here. Even when the two of you were at odds with each other, you used to look at her like you wanted to eat her alive...after making senseless love to her.”

“You’re imagining things.”

“No, I’m not,” Ray said.

Deciding not to argue with Ray, Kaegan shifted his gaze to Sawyer. “And what has changed, Sawyer?”

Sawyer chuckled. “There was a time Bryce didn’t even acknowledge your presence. Now not only does she acknowledge it, you get first dibs. Now when she greets us in the mornings, she puts your name first.”

A smile touched Kaegan’s lips. He had noticed that. Was it because he’d offered her the job as his broker or that he’d backed her at the class-reunion meeting? Either reason didn’t matter because he knew she would be good as his broker, and he agreed with what she’d said about the music. He hadn’t been trying to score brownie points with her.

“Interesting,” Sawyer added.

Kaegan chuckled at his friend. “Jealous?”

“No. In fact, I’m glad to see the two of you are now on friendlier terms. At one point I thought I was going to have to make some arrests. Put you and Bryce in the same cell and have you fight it out, get it out of your system.”

Ray laughed. “A fight isn’t what they need to get out their system, Sawyer.”

At that moment Bryce returned with their muffins and a pot of coffee. She smiled at them. “Anything else, guys?”

“Nope. We’re good,” Kaegan said, smiling back at her.

“I forgot to ask if you spoke with your neighbor to verify those were indeed his footprints,” Sawyer said to Bryce.

She looked over at him. “Yes. He said Butterball got out Saturday night and apologized for the noise. I told him there was no need to apologize, so, Sheriff, the mystery has been solved.” She smiled and then walked off.

“What was that about?” Kaegan asked.

Sawyer grabbed a blueberry muffin out the basket and began buttering it. “Apparently nothing now. Bryce and Vashti were talking on the phone late Saturday night, that same weekend we all helped you net oysters. Bryce heard a sound coming from her backyard. Although she tried assuring Vashti it was probably just her neighbor out looking for his cat, Vashti wanted me to go over to Bryce’s place and check anyway. I did and found footprints in her backyard. Bryce was convinced they were her neighbor’s and said she would check with the man the next day. Evidently she did check and the footprints belonged to him.”

Kaegan didn’t say anything for a minute as Sawyer began talking to Ray about how Ray’s tour-boat business was coming along. When there was a lull in the conversation, Kaegan said, “I’m glad you went to check anyway, Sawyer. My tire got slashed at her place.”