Chapter 2
CHAPTER TWO
“If you’re going to become a drunk, you should at least do it at a bar with a decent clientele.”
Huck swiveled on his barstool to see his sister, Poppy, standing there.
He wasn’t surprised she’d found him. The country bar community in Texas was close-knit, and Poppy had performed at most of them with her ex-boyfriend’s band.
Huck didn’t doubt for a second she’d put the word out about her missing brother and someone at Booby Trap had called her.
No doubt the bartender who, as soon as she got settled on the barstool next to Huck, placed a Shirley Temple down in front of her with four maraschino cherries.
None of the Hennessys were heavy drinkers.
That’s what happens when you spend most of your life watching other people drink and make fools of themselves at your family’s bar.
Huck had seen some crazy drunks in his life.
Drunks who had started full-out brawls over whether Troy Aikman was one of the greatest quarterbacks to ever live.
Drunks who jumped up on tables to strip, recite Bible verses or the Pledge of Allegiance.
Drunks who had taken over the microphone on stage to sing “The Yellow Rose of Texas” or tell the sob story about how life had just punched them in the face.
Huck never thought he’d be one of those pathetic fools.
But after leaving Promise Springs, he’d spent the last few weeks visiting every dive bar in central Texas to drink .
. . and ignore reality. He’d also ignored his siblings’ calls and texts.
But the Hennessy Hooligans, as the folks of Promise Springs called them, had always watched out for each other.
Probably because their parents never had.
“So you want to explain why you took off without a word and worried the hell out of Jaxon and Dawson?” Poppy plucked a cherry out of her drink and popped it into her mouth, yanking off the stem and dropping it to the cocktail napkin.
“I wasn’t worried at all, mind you. If you want to be an inconsiderate asshole like Daddy and take off without explanation, I couldn’t care less. ”
It was a lie. Poppy’s problem had always been that she cared too much. She tried to hide her tender heart under a lot of sass and bluster, but the people who knew her well weren’t fooled for a second.
She took a sip of her Shirley Temple and wrinkled her nose. “Damn, Jess even sucks at nonalcoholic drinks. He used way too much grenadine.”
Huck poured himself another shot of tequila. “You should try straight tequila. It’s hard to screw up.” He went to down it, but she stopped him.
“I didn’t drive all this way to be your drinking buddy, Huckleberry.”
He set down the shot glass. “Then why did you come? Especially if you weren’t worried.”
“Because Jaxon, Tully, and I have our hands full running Honky Tonk Heaven and we need you. Especially now that Dawson is in California with Magnolia helping her pack all her stuff. My guess is that they’ll stay awhile to visit with her daddy.
I’m sure Dawg will want to suck up to him before he asks for her hand. ”
Huck stared at her. “Dawg and Mags are getting married?” Dawson was as much against marriage as Huck.
Poppy sent him the look she always gave him when she thought he was being an idiot.
“You really are clueless about what’s going on around you.
Dawson is head over heels for Magnolia just like Jaxon is head over heels for Tully.
” She shook her head. “Hennessys are dropping like late August peaches from a tree.” She stood. “Now come on. Let’s go home.”
He was more surprised by his sister referring to Promise Springs as their home than he was about his diehard bachelor brother getting married. Magnolia was cool as hell.
“Home?”
She shrugged. “I think we need to face facts. Promise Springs is as close as you and I are going to get to a home. Especially when Dawson and Jaxon have decided to live there.” She dropped a twenty-dollar bill in the tip jar.
When Huck raised his eyebrows, she shrugged.
“Even sucky bartenders need to make a living. And since you don’t look the least bit drunk, he watered down the tequila like I asked. ”
That explained why Huck didn’t feel drunk.
He shot an annoyed look at the bartender before he returned his attention to his sister. “I’m not ready to go back yet, Pops.”
She flopped down on the barstool with an exasperated grunt.
“Okay, what’s going on? I thought you just needed time away from our controlling brothers—Lord knows I do.
But from the hangdog look on your face, it must be more than that.
Is this about Mama’s will? Because we’re not going to let Cadee Stockton take what’s rightfully ours.
I don’t care how much she helped Mama after her stroke.
It was nothing compared to what we had to put up with as kids. ”
Just the mention of Cadee’s name had Huck picking up the shot glass and downing the tequila—watered down or not.
When it did nothing to relieve the huge knot in his stomach, he leaned over the bar and grabbed a bottle of whiskey.
But before he could pour himself a glass, Poppy took the bottle from him.
Her hazel eyes snapped with temper. “Enough, Huck! Tell me what’s going on.”
He wasn’t ready to talk about it, but he knew if he didn’t, Poppy would get louder and more aggressive. If a bouncer put his hands on Poppy, all hell would break loose. He wasn’t as violent as his brothers, but no one touched his sister and got away with it.
He sighed and ran a hand through his hair. “What’s going on is I discovered that Cadee does have a right to contest the will.”
Poppy’s eyes registered confusion. “Just because she took Mama to a couple of doctor’s appointments and scheduled meal drop-offs?”
He had to swallow down the lump that rose to his throat. Even then, his voice sounded tight and airless. “Because she’s the mother of . . . my son.”
Putting the truth to words took its toll and his stomach revolted.
He jumped up and barely made it to the bathroom before he disposed of everything he’d eaten and drunk in the last twenty-four hours.
He was weakly leaning against a wagon wheel-sized toilet paper dispenser when Poppy’s voice seeped in through the crack of the bathroom stall.
“Well, now I get why you ran off on a drinking spree.”
Even that close to death, he couldn’t help smiling. Only Poppy would venture into the men’s bathroom without blinking an eye . . . even when they weren’t alone. When Huck raced in, there had been a guy using one of the urinals. A guy who was obviously still there.
“No need to look so shocked and embarrassed, dude,” Poppy said. “With three brothers, it’s not like I haven’t seen boys peeing before.”
Huck heard the zing of a zipper, followed by the click of retreating boot heels. He figured there was a fifty-fifty chance the guy was headed for the nearest waitress or bouncer.
With a grumbled curse, Huck got to his feet and opened the stall door. Poppy stood in front of the scratched mirror, checking out a pimple on her chin. When she saw his reflection, she turned and threw up her hands.
“He lives!”
He shot her an annoyed look as he moved to a sink to wash his hands. After splashing cold water in his face, he straightened to find her holding out a wad of paper towels.
“You look like shit.”
He took the paper towels and dried his face. “Yeah, well, I feel like shit.”
“Because you’re a daddy? Or because your best friend betrayed you?”
Leave it to his blunt sister to hit the nail on the head. Or nails on the heads. For the last couple weeks, he’d been vacillating between fear and anger. Fear about being a daddy and anger about Cadee keeping it a secret.
Although her not telling him when she first found out was his own damn fault.
After their night together, he had run off and ignored all her calls and texts before finally changing his number.
His desire to cut all ties with her and everyone else in Promise Springs was the reason he hadn’t found out she was pregnant.
Still, he’d been in Promise Springs for months and she’d made no effort to tell him he had a son. Of course, he hadn’t tried to see her either. In fact, he’d been scared to death of running into her. Scared that all the emotions he’d spent years pushing down would come welling right back up.
He’d been right.
The moment she’d opened the door and he looked into those robin-egg eyes, he’d been filled with too many emotions and memories.
“Fuck!” He lifted his fist to slam it into the mirror but stopped when the huge muscle-bound bouncer who had been checking driver’s licenses when Huck had arrived pushed open the door.
Huck wasn’t usually intimidated by many people. But the bouncer would intimidate The Hulk. It wasn’t his height or the tattooed arms bulging out of the leather biker’s vest as much as the scar that ran down one side of his face. It said the man didn’t have a problem with pain.
Dishing it out or receiving it.
His gaze narrowed on Huck. “You gonna make me hurt you?”
Before Huck could answer, Poppy pushed her way between them. She barely came to the guy’s shoulder and his sister wasn’t short. But she was feisty.
“Now don’t get your panties in a twist, Goliath. I’m the one who walked into the wrong—” She cut off when she glanced up at his face. “Oh my God, what happened to you?”
The bouncer blinked before that face got a lot more intimidating. “If you want to have sex with your boyfriend, little girl, you’ll need to find another place to do it.”
“Little girl?”
Huck couldn’t see Poppy’s face, but the tone of her voice said she was more than a little pissed off.
He knew if he didn’t get her out of there, things were about to get ugly.
Without a word, he scooped her up in a fireman’s hold and pushed his way past the bouncer while Poppy struggled to get loose.
“Little girl? I’ll show you little girl, you big hulking oaf!”