Charmer (Havenbrook #1)

Chapter 38

CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT

FINN

I woke to an incessant pounding in my head. Though, that was no surprise. For the past—shit, how long had it been?—however many days, I’d woken up the same way. Except as I opened my eyes, becoming more aware of my surroundings, I realized the pounding wasn’t a headache, but rather came in the form of my brother.

“’Bout damn time you woke up.” Drew stopped thumping my forehead and yanked the pillow out from under my head.

I groaned, clutching my aching skull. “The hell, man?”

Since the pillows were gone, he moved on to my feet, hauling them off the couch and letting them drop to the ground.

“Seriously, I’m not in the mood for this, Drew.” My head was killing me, and my mouth felt like I’d swallowed an entire bag of cotton balls. Soaked in roadkill. And then left to marinate for a week in the Mississippi sun.

“No?” he said. “Let me tell you what I’m not in the mood for. I’m not in the mood for my shit-for-brains brother to start demanding things when he’s done fuck all the past three days while moping like a teenager who just got his phone taken away.” He kicked my foot. “Time to get your ass up. Get your shit together and join the land of the living. I’ve covered for your sorry ass, but my patience is gone.”

I was way too hungover for this conversation. Or, actually, maybe I was still a little drunk. I groaned and sat up, propping my elbows on my knees and cradling my pounding head in my hands. “Look, I’m sorry about the bar?—”

“You think this is about the bar?” He snorted out a laugh. “We’ve got it handled. This is about me watching you for the past ten years, you finally gettin’ what you want, only to let one little fight end everything.”

I breathed out a humorless laugh, the image of Willow’s face from the other night blinking in my mind. It was all I’d been able to see every time I closed my eyes. The pain and betrayal so vivid on her features. While nothing I did erased it, the alcohol numbed it a little.

Hence why my mouth tasted like ass and gnomes were using ice picks to pound away at my skull.

“It was more than ‘one little fight,’” I grumbled.

“I don’t care if it was fucking World War III. Absolutely nothin’ is gonna come from you locking your mopey ass away in the apartment, drinkin’ your weight in bourbon.”

I glared up at my brother. “No? What the hell else am I supposed to do? The woman I love just told me to get out of her life. Permanently . I don’t think some flowers and a dozen cupcakes is gonna cut it this time.”

“You’re an idiot.”

I rubbed my eyes, trying to will away the headache raging behind them. “Tell me something I don’t know,” I muttered.

“When you two eventually get married, I hope you know I’m using this story in your toast.”

Marriage ? Willow wouldn’t speak to me—I’d tried that, calling her a dozen times before giving up. Then I’d resorted to texting her—none of which she’d answered. She also probably couldn’t even look at me, though I hadn’t tested that theory. Instead, I’d chosen to stay home and get drunk off my ass. And my jackass brother was talking about marriage? Not fucking likely. Not after I had fucked everything up.

“Now who’s the idiot?”

“Still you.” Drew took a seat on the battered coffee table directly in front of me. “Here’s what you’re gonna do, dumbass. First, you’re gonna take a damn shower because you smell like you live under a bridge. Then you’re gonna do what you’d already planned to—bring that check back to our illustrious mayor.”

“It won’t matter.” I shook my head, pressing my palm hard against my forehead. “None of it’ll matter now.”

“Maybe not. But it might.” He paused, long enough that I finally looked up at him. “Dick doesn’t play by the rules, so maybe you shouldn’t either.” He raised a brow.

I snorted. “Yeah, I definitely see the sheriff helpin’ me out with this little situation I’m in.”

“Who said you needed the sheriff? Way I see it, all you need is a convincing argument on why he should come clean to Willow about all he did back then. You said it yourself—there’s no way he’d have told her the whole story…just enough to pit her against you. So make him.”

I ran a hand through my hair, my mind whirring with possibilities as I finally saw a tiny pinprick of light at the end of a long, dark tunnel. Drew was right. This might not do anything. But maybe, just maybe, it could. And didn’t I owe it to myself and Willow to at least try? To try absolutely everything in my power before giving up?

I squinted at my brother, the harsh light coming in from the front window killing my eyes. “Where was this brilliant advice three days ago? I’ve wasted a lot of time getting…well, wasted. Maybe too much time.”

“First, you kind of deserved it. A little payback for walking away from her in the first place. Second, you’re sucking down all our open stock for the bar, and Nola said I better get your ass under control before she comes over and does it her damn self.” He pushed to stand and looked down at me, shaking his head. “She’s scary-feisty, man.”

I wasn’t arguing that. And I was ashamed it’d taken her getting fed up with me before I came to my senses. Jesus, some pile I was. Not only had I been an absolute worthless excuse for a human being, not helping with the finishing touches at the bar, but I’d been drinking through our stock too. Drew was right. It was time to get shit done.

After a shower to help me feel half human again, I had some unfinished business with Mayor Haven to attend to.

It was dusk by the time Dick showed up where I had instructed. Getting him there had been a miracle in and of itself. But I’d had to be strategic about it. I certainly couldn’t show up at the mayor’s office—not with Willow right down the hall, liable to pop in at any moment. Same went for Dick’s home.

Quiet and secluded it was, like some kind of back-alley drug deal. Come to think of it, this location wasn’t all that different from where we’d met all those years ago.

“All right, boy,” Dick said as he heaved himself out of his car. “Best be tellin’ me what this nonsense is about before I make some calls.”

I slid my hand into my pocket, not moving from where I leaned against the side of my truck, like I didn’t have a care in the world. Like my whole future didn’t ride on the outcome of this meeting. “Ah, yes. Calls to the sheriff, isn’t that right? Must be nice to have such a close, personal friend in law enforcement. Allows you to do all kinds of shady shit.”

Dick stepped closer, his eyes narrowed. “You gonna spit it out already?”

Plucking the check from inside my pocket, I pulled it out and pinched it between two fingers, holding it in his direction. “Gotcha a little somethin’.”

“What’s this?” He snatched the check from my fingers and unfolded it. His brows shot up, eyes going wide. “This some kind of joke?”

“’Fraid not, Dick. This is payback.” I smiled. “Quite literally in this sense.”

He barked out a laugh. “If you think this’ll make everything better with Will, you’re even dumber than I gave you credit for.”

“This? No. This isn’t gonna do anything with Willow. We both know that. This just settles the score between you and me. I’d been plannin’ on giving this back to you for some time. Just hadn’t gotten around to it. Wanted to wash my hands of your sins.”

“ My sins? I didn’t do nothin’, boy, except?—”

“Except blackmail a nineteen-year-old kid with nothin’ but a run-down trailer to his name and a momma who was facing a death sentence.” I nodded. “Nothin’ there but good old-fashioned neighborly advice, isn’t that right?”

“Now, you listen here?—”

“Nope.” I pushed off from the truck and took a step in his direction. “I’m done listenin’ to you. Time for you to do some of it.” I reached out and plucked the check from his fingers, folded it up, then stuffed it in the mayor’s shirt pocket. Patted it twice. Possibly slightly harder than necessary. “That might’ve been years ago, but we’ve got a long memory in Havenbrook, don’t we? You proved that on the baseball diamond. Sure would be a shame for all your constituents to learn what you did back then. Especially now that the boy you did it to turned into a man who’s bringin’ value back to your precious town. Bringin’ jobs and revenue to the people who need it most.”

Dick narrowed his eyes so much they were just beady little slits, glaring in my direction. “What’re you tryin’ to say?”

“I’m not tryin’ to say anything. I’m merely suggesting you might wanna be honest with your daughter about the circumstances surrounding my departure. Or those circumstances might become common knowledge for the lovely folks of Havenbrook.”

“How dare you! That’s blackmail!”

I finally smiled for the first time in three days. “I know. Isn’t it great?” I clapped my hand on his shoulder and directed him toward his car.

“You’ve got until next week.” I opened the door for him, pressing hard on his shoulder to guide him inside. With my hands braced on the window frame and hood of the car, I leaned into the space of the opened door. “Now, Dick, I don’t want to ruin your career, but I will. I warned you it wouldn’t be so easy to get rid of me this time. Tellin’ Willow before I had a chance to didn’t make me run away.” I stepped back and shut the door. Through the open window, I said, “It’s only gonna make me fight harder.”

With two hard taps to the roof of Dick’s car, I turned and strode away, feeling lighter than I had in ten long years, even despite the heaviness of my heart weighing me down.